Dog Bite

We have had a bit of excitement this evening.

Eler Beth was riding her bike around the neighborhood, and stopped in front of a house two streets over to speak to a friend who was riding by.  A dog came from the back yard of the house she was in front of and stood watching her for a minute.  She looked at the dog and was thinking what a pretty dog it was when it suddenly rushed out and bit her on the back of her calf.  It then ran back into its back yard.  She called for help, and the lady and man of the house came out and got her.  They took her inside and the lady checked out the bite. 

Meanwhile, back at the farm ....

The phone rings.  I don't recognize the name on the caller ID.  I answer, and hear my daughter's voice.  "Um, Mom, I just got bit by a dog, and I need you to come get me.  I'm at *street address*."  She sounded so calm!!

I threw on shoes, grabbed my purse and keys and flew.  She walked out smiling, along with the man who was holding his baby son.  She lifted her pants leg and showed me a bite on her leg that was much better than it could have been, but still bad enough.  The man said that his dog (a Doberman) is up-to-date on her shots, and that they keep it penned in the (fenced-in) back yard, and he didn't know how she got out.  He and the lady were so very nice and just devastated that it happened.  He told me he was putting the dog down.  I told him I hated to hear that, but he said that the dog is fine with family, but if anyone else is over it is aggressive.  It had gotten out before and he'd been afraid that if she got out again she'd bite someone.  Now that she had, he was going to have to put her down.

Well, we got in the car (getting her bike in my back seat, as well, by the way), and on the drive to the house that's when my baby broke down and cried.  She said, "It was so scary!  And it hurt so much!"

I took her straight to the bathroom and scrubbed the wound and looked at it closely.  It is right where the curve of the calf muscle begins.  There is a small area, smaller than a dime, where the skin was torn off, and I can see the flesh, but it doesn't actually look like a puncture there anywhere.  Above it is a scrape that didn't even bleed.  After scrubbing it and rinsing it I watched it for a minute, and it continued to bleed a bit, but just more of a seeping out of blood. 

I called the 24/7 nurse line that our insurance provides.  I answered all of the nurse's questions and gave her a description of the wound.  She said if I know for sure or can find out within six hours that the dog is up-to-date on its shots, then she told me to call Eler Beth's pediatrician in the morning, and she told me how to care for it in the meantime.  However, if I don't know for sure about the shots, then within six hours I would need to get her to an urgent care center, just to be on the safe side.

While I was talking to her Thomas came in from work, so he drove back over there to talk to the dog owners, and they were able to show us proof that the dog had had its shots.  While he was gone I  had my little breakdown!

I called our sheriff's office to see if it was a state law that any animal bite had to be reported.  She asked me what happened, and I told her, and she said that it was really up to me.   If the dog owners were being cooperative and they usually keep the dog confined, then it was entirely up to me.  Well, I know they keep the dog confined.  Eler Beth knows every dog in the neighborhood, and she said that this one is always in its back yard.  That's why she was watching it so closely when it came into the front yard.  And both the man and the woman were practically in tears.  If for some reason I did want to file a report I can do it tomorrow.   Anyone's dog can get out now and then, no matter how careful you are.  Anything can happen, and you just have to take as many precautions as you can.

Well, anyway, Eler Beth is doing fine (and so am I).  We'll keep neosporon on the wound, and put some ice on it for a while for swelling.  There is a particular infection that the CDC warns about when it comes to dog or cat bites which usually presents itself within hours, the nurse told me, and she said the doctor may prescribe an antibiotic just to be on the safe side even if there is no sign of infection.  I guess we'll see.