How to Clean and Treat a Dog Bite Wound at Home
Dog Attack Victims Are Prone to Puncture Wound Infections from Dogs
Nov 23, 2008
Dog bites are very prone to infection, but proper first aid for a dog bite can help to reduce the chances of infection. Understanding how to give proper first aid to a dog bite victim will also help prevent scarring that can occur as a result of the infection and the tissue damage it causes.
Types of Dog Bite Wounds
There are two basic types of wounds that can result from a dog bite. Puncture wounds result when the dog's teeth penetrate the skin. Puncture wounds are very prone to infection because the dog's teeth essentially inject bacteria into the bite wound. Puncture wounds are also a perfect place for bacteria to multiply - warm, dark, and with little air flow - and compounding the risk for infection is the fact that swelling can cause the dog bite wound to swell shut, making it difficult to clean and disinfect the puncture wound site.
The second type of dog bite wound is a laceration, which occurs when the dog's teeth penetrate and tear the skin. It is this type of dog bite wound that most often requires stitches. Scarring is usually a problem with this type of dog bite, whereas puncture wounds leave small, barely-noticeable scars in most cases.
How to Clean a Dog Bite Wound
Cleaning a dog bite wound immediately after the dog attack occurs is essential to preventing infection. Even if stitches are going to be required, dog bite victims should always try to perform the following steps to clean the wound before heading to the hospital emergency room because in cases where the dog bite victim is not critical, the patient may have to wait for several hours before receiving medical attention. This gives the bacteria time to become established within the wound, dramatically increasing the chance of infection.
- Allow the puncture wound to bleed for a few minutes (providing that the blood flow is not excessive.) This is a very effective way to flush bacteria from the dog bite wound. For lacerations, apply pressure to stop the bleeding at the site of the dog bite.
- Wash the wound with anti-bacterial soap for five full minutes. This is a vital step to combat wound infection.
- Flush the wound for an additional five full minutes, allowing water to run into the dog bite wound.
- Pat the area dry with a paper towel. Avoid towels, as towels tend to harbor large amounts of bacteria.
- Pour a generous amount of Betadine into the dog bite wounds and saturate the skin around the wounds as well. This no-sting antiseptic solution will disinfect the wound sites.
- Wipe up drips with sterile gauze, but leave a one-inch diameter around each wound. Allow the wound and the skin within a one-inch diameter of each dog bite wound to air dry. Do not blow on the skin to dry the Betadine - this contaminates the wound.
- Using a sterile gauze pad, apply a generous amount of antibiotic ointment into each wound.
- Cover the dog bite wounds with a sterile bandage. Rolled gauze works best for limbs, while it's easier to tape down sterile gauze squares on the trunk or thigh.
- Apply ice compresses to the dog bite wounds. This will help to limit the swelling which is responsible for a large amount of the pain that's associated with a dog bite.
Dog bites should always be treated by a physician due to the high risk of infection. The aforementioned washing, disinfecting, dressing and bandaging process will be repeated three times per day until the wounds heal.
In addition, it's important to determine if a dog has received its rabies vaccination. A dog bite victim who cannot verify that the attacking dog was free of rabies may have to undergo a painful series of injections to prevent rabies.
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