It was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. My grandson, Edd, was bringing the dogs in from the kennels where they had spent the day. Cutter, a four-year-old male, was favoring his left front paw and it was slightly swollen. An inspection of the paw and leg didn’t give us any indication as to the problem so; we assumed that he had sprained it slightly being his usual exuberant self in the kennel. He ate a good dinner and appeared fine that evening. By Sunday morning the swelling had increased in the paw and another inspection showed what appeared to be a small puncture wound between the toes. We did some Epsom salt soaks, kept him crated and thought that would do the trick. The swelling only got worse. By Monday morning the paw was about 3 times its size and the wound is now the size of a half-dollar. Needless to say, Cutter is off to the vets. Joan McKinney, DVM (Micanopy Animal Hospital) took X-rays which were negative and did a blood test, which showed an elevated white cell count. Cutter had a slight fever. Dr. McKinney started him on 2 types of antibiotics and 2 different pain medications. Some kind of a bite or a puncture that got severely infected was what we thought. Keep him crated, keep the wound clean and give him the medications, the vet tells us. The wound continues to enlarge by the day.

It is now Thanksgiving evening and another dog comes down with similar symptoms. First thing Friday morning back to the vet’s office we go. This time with 2 dogs. Cutter’s wound has become a nasty large ulcer spreading up the side of his paw. The other dog, we call her ‘T’, has one small lesion between two toes along with some swelling. Dr. McKinney investigates the condition of both dogs, does a major amount of research and after a process of elimination pronounces that both dogs have been bitten by Brown Recluse Spiders. T never did swell as much as Cutter but she did run a temperature of 105 for the better part of a day. IV fluids and IV antibiotics eventually brought the temperature down. We started both dogs on wet to dry bandaging along with their oral medications. Cutter will probably need to have his toe amputated as he lost the tendon there. All the skin and muscle from his ankle down to within a half-inch of his toe and about two inches wide are gone. T fared a bit better, her ulcer is about the size of a silver dollar and isn’t nearly as deep, she will probably heal up with just a bit of a scar. We’ll never know if she did so well because we got her treatment sooner or because she just didn’t get as big a dose of the venom.

A good cleaning of the outside kennels didn’t reveal any spiders. It was only when Edd took the doghouses apart to clean them that he found the nasty things. It was a week before we felt comfortable putting dogs back in those kennels.

There is no specific antidote for Brown Recluse bites. The necrosis caused by these bites is horrendous. I am sharing this with you because it is one of those preventable things that, had we been more vigilant in pest control and cleaning the doghouses, should not have happened. Maybe, just maybe, your dog won’t need to go through this for you to learn the lesson we paid dearly for.

Nellie Walter


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Nellie Walter
Pendragon's Keepe Kennel
(352) 546-2435
Penkeepe@hughes.net

Back several years ago I had the same thing happen to two of my dogs. One a male bitten on the botom of the back foot and swelled all the way to his hip. He was started on antibiotics immediately and still his foot had a hole all the way through it from the bite. I used hydro therapy on that foot for 15 minutes twice a day for three weeks before it started filling in good and it would occasionally fester for another two years after that. The female was bitten on the elbow and by then I had done some research and some asking around. My cousin had been bitten three times that year by brown recluse and by the third time the Dr. had told him as soon as you see the black spot in the center squeeze it out and leave the hole open, apply topical antibiotic cream at least three times a day. With this in mind I squeezed the black spot out of the middle of the elbow which was swollen but not to the extreme of the male dogs, and then applied the topical as well as oral meds to the dog. By the next day the swelling was near gone and she was fine. I continued her oral and topical meds for the full ten days and she never had another issue from it. I always thought it was because I caught hers earlier but who knows. Just be thankful that only one of them had it bad and be aware that this will most likely flair up on occasion for a very long time. It has been 5 years since my sister was bitten at work by a brown recluse and she still has skin irritation in that area from time to time. Those little spiders are no joke.

Diane

Diane,
Thank you for the insight as to the long term affects of this.
To date, Cutter's muscle is regrowing nicely. We still have the whole outside of his little toe exposed down to the bone, but the flesh is looking better and growing rapidly. T's foot has just about a quarter size of exposed flesh on the back and is healing rapidly as well.
I certainly hope that these notes help somebody else with their dogs someday.

Thank you,
DeDe Bruno