Dogs are predators that attack with strong sharp teeth that can deliver up to 450 pounds of pressure per square inch. When the strong jaws of the dog have locked on its victim, the needle sharp teeth can literally tear the flesh away. Depending on the body part bitten, the dog bite can cause lifelong injuries that will limit the victims mobility. A serious dog bite can even kill a person. The dogs strong teeth will deliver deep puncture wound that would inject bacteria resulting to infections and the development of viral diseases. One of the life threatening consequences of dog bite is rabies.
It would be very hard to prevent dog bites because dogs are the most common animal companions of man. Dog bites that are most common in children are often caused by the familys own dog. What do you do to treat a dog bite?
First aid must be administered on dog bite wounds to prevent infection but treatment must not be started until the dog is removed to prevent further attacks. Dog bites can create two types of wounds – deep puncture wounds and lacerations. Infection commonly occurs in deep puncture wounds as the teeth inject bacteria to the wound. Dog bites can result to serious skin lacerations.
Profuse bleeding is not common in puncture wounds thus further bleeding must be allowed for a few minutes so that that bacteria injected by the dogs teeth will be removed from the wound. Skin lacerations bleed profusely. Bleeding has to be stemmed by applying direct pressure on the wound. To prevent infection, wounds resulting from dog bites must be thoroughly cleaned.
Dog bites can cause skin lacerations that need to be sutured but before taking the victim to a medical facility the bite wound must be cleaned thoroughly as bacteria allowed to stay inside the skin for several hours will have an opportunity to cause infection. The risk of infection can be minimized by washing the bite wound with an antibacterial soap for about five minutes. Generously apply antibiotic ointment on the bite wound and then cover with sterile gauze. A dog bite victim will be in pain. By applying ice compress, the swelling that causes most of the pain will be reduced.
Dog bite victims will always be concerned with rabies more so if the dogs immunization status is not verified. f the dog bite is caused by a stray dog it is imperative for the victim to be immunized against the rabies virus .
