[pct-l] Animal Attacks

[Georgi Heitman]

Donna sez...'there is a great deal of doubt that the bite....was from a
brown recluse.  Apparently brown recluses are not native to CA'

I've heard that too, tho some sort of bite (two tiny, close together 'fang'
marks) virtually destroyed a knuckle on one of Dennie's index fingers.  And
in Eastern Contra Costa Co. in the S.F. bay area, the hottest  part of that
part of the state, I know personally of two people who were absolutely laid
low after receiving a bite as they worked on their gardens or in the brush
around their homes.  Both cases involved some sort of a flesh destroying
mechanism, one man was hospitalized, had skin graphs and was out of work for
months.
HST, a hiker came in here a couple of years ago with what looked like a
spider bite and a nasty one.  Dennie, a neighbor who is a nurse and I all
concurred and with some pushing and pulling, he was finally persuaded to go
to our local hospital's ER.  He was told that 'no, it's not a brown recluse,
but we're sure glad you came to see us, because it's worse, and you're about
24 hours too late'.  After a heavy dose of antibiotics he was sent back to
us...was sick as a dog for about a day and a half...high fever, vomiting,
some other bad stuff....from a flesh-eating staph infection.  Staph is
present on everyone's body.  Basically, from what I understand, Donna's
right again, it's a boil...what causes a boil to go septic in that
particular way (flesh-eating) instead of just being a nuisance is something
I don't quite get, but the doctor in ER said something about any scratch or
nick in the skin can go septic just exactly like our hiker's did.  That
doesn't really sound like a boil  but then, I really don't know how a boil
starts to begin with.  What I do get is that keeping abrasions clean seems
paramount if one is to avoid such infections.  I also think I've read that
this particular strain of staph is one that's becoming more resistant to
antibiotics, which don't sound good to me.  Our hiker left here with heavy
doses to be taken orally for I know not how long...but if I recall reports
back correctly, he spent quite a lot of his trip across our notoriously hot
Hat Creek Rim ducking behind bushes...probably should have stayed in bed
another day...he was maybe more than 24 hours too late to have avoided the
symptoms associated with this infection.  Still, all in all, he was a lucky
young man.  He might have chosen to ignore the wound until it got really
bad...such staph infections can become life-threatening.
Spider bite?   Staph infection?  Who knows for sure?  BUT...cleanliness in a
must where wounds are concerned...that would include blisters and poison
oak, I would think.
Take care, all of you,  arrive here healthy!
FireFly
Old Station, CA