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Bite wounds are a common cause of trauma in dogs and typically result from altercations with other dogs, cats and wildlife. Bite wounds are puncture wounds and while they may appear small they can spell big trouble for your dog. Their deceptive nature lies in the fact that while the external wound can be small, the same wound can be deep, extending through the skin and into the subcutaneous tissues and muscles. There is a high risk of infection with bite wounds because of the numerous bacteria that are normally harbored in an animal’s mouth. Because the surface wound is usually small it tends to heal fast, trapping the bacteria in the deep wound. This creates an ideal environment for some bacteria to grow and result in an abscess.

Cat bites are the most likely to cause abscesses because their teeth are long and needle thin. They introduce bacteria deep into the wound and the tiny puncture wound closes up usually within a day or two. Dog bites are usually shallower and the external wounds are typically bigger than a cat bite thus the rate of abscessation is lower but still possible.

There are steps you can take if your dog is bitten that can dramatically decrease the risk of complications:

How to Control Dog Bleeding From Bite Wound

Control any bleeding by applying a clean towel or washcloth to the wound and apply firm pressure. Dog bites tend to bleed more than cat bites and it also depends where the bite wound is located. Wounds in the highly vascular ear and nose tend to bleed a lot while legs and trunk may not bleed much.

Have a Vet Evaluate Dog Bite Wound

Seek immediate veterinary attention to evaluate the wound.Your vet will look to see how deep it is, judge how much dead space is involved and make recommendations for treatment. Dead space is created when the skin is pulled away from the underlying subcutaneous tissue creating a pocket of air between the skin and the underlying tissue. If the space is large, bacteria tend to grow creating an abscess. Typically one of two things will happen, your vet will clean the wound and prescribe antibiotics or if the wound is deep it may need a surgical drain.

How to Clean a Superficial Dog Wound

If the wound is superficial, start the cleaning process by applying a small amount of KY jelly (or other water-based lubricant) into the wound and clipping the fur around the wound — the KY jelly will keep the clipped fur out of the wound and you can wipe it off with a washcloth after clipping. Clipping the fur makes it easy to clean the wound and prevents bacteria on the fur from contaminating the wound. Once the fur is clipped, clean the wound thoroughly with a chlorhexidene or betadine solution.

Home Care for Dog Wound

Home care involves cleaning the wound gently with hydrogen peroxide moistened gauze three or four times a day and then applying a small amount of a triple antibiotic ointment such as Neosporin to the wound. It is important to monitor the wound for the three signs of infection which are: excessive redness, swelling or purulent discharge. If you notice any signs of infection then a re-check with your veterinarian is needed.

Continued Home Care for Dog Wound

Continue the oral antibiotics as directed by your veterinarian. It is important to restrict exercise as a dogs skin is very motile; if she is too active she may keep reopening the wound delaying healing and increasing the risk of abscessation.

If Vet Installs a Drain

If your veterinarian needs to install a drain, home care is similar. Keep the area around the drain clear of discharge by swabbing the area with hydrogen peroxide or a topical cleaning solution as needed. After a few days (usually three to four days), the discharge stops and the drain is ready to be removed by your regular veterinarian. The wound is then cleaned as above until fully healed.

With timely veterinary treatment and good nursing care at home most bite wounds will heal with little complications.

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If it hasn’t happened to you yet, the first thing to remember if it does is to stay calm and quiet. Yelling or otherwise panicking will just make it worse because it will fuel the aggression between the dogs. But do try to get the biting dog off of the other dog as quickly as possible.

Also resist the temptation to immediately show your dog affection after being bitten. Your dog needs you to be a calm, assertive leader in that moment, probably more than any other. By staying quiet during the incident and calm afterwards, you can avoid reinforcing any traumatic associations your dog might make with the bite.

Remember: dogs live in the moment, so once the bite is over it should be over, unless you hang on to the past and relive the trauma, which your dog will sense.

But what happens if your dog has been in a fight and been injured or bitten, and then starts to show fear or aggression toward other dogs all the time? Here are some steps to take.

Check Your Own Energy First

When your dog displays fear or aggression toward another dog, what’s your state of mind? Are you reliving the bite and afraid that your dog will be bitten again? If this is the case, then you’re the one reminding your dog, “Something bad happened, and it might happen again right now.”

Look at your energy and body language. Are you tense? Nervous? Moving stiffly or trembling? Breathing unevenly? If you’re on the walk, all of these signals will go right down the leash and alert your dog, and she will react accordingly.

If it seems that your dog is becoming fearful or aggressive because of your energy, then learn to achieve a calm, assertive state first, then see if this changes your dog’s behavior. If it does, then congratulations — you’ve helped your dog get over negative associations with having been bitten. But what do you do if your dog’s behavior doesn’t change?

Check Your Dog’s Behavior

The next step in rehabilitation depends on how your dog is reacting to other dogs. She may be timid or nervous and try to avoid other dogs; she may be fearful but show aggression toward other dogs, or she may show aggression and no fear.

If Your Dog is Timid and Showing Avoidance…

If your dog tries to avoid other dogs, or starts showing signs of fear like shaking or going low to the ground, then the best route to rehabilitation is socialization with other dogs. Expose your dog to other dogs in controlled settings, like with friends’ or neighbor’s dogs, or take her (on-leash) to the small/timid dog area of the dog park, if available.

Don’t try to force him to socialize with other dogs, but don’t let him try to hide behind you, either. The goal here is to get him used to being around other dogs without feeling the need to panic or run.

You can also help a fearful dog by boosting her self-esteem with things like running obstacle courses, giving her a job to do, or teaching her new tricks. By taking your dog to a group training class in obedience, agility, socialization, or Treibball, you can combine self-esteem building with socialization.

If Your Dog is Fearful But Showing Aggression…

Fear aggression can be difficult to deal with, but not impossible. You can tell the difference between it and non-fearful aggression by watching your dog’s body language before it lunges. If the dog seems submissive and in retreat but then abruptly lashes out, then the source of his aggression is fear, especially if he seems to give a warning nip and then back away.

In these cases, your dog needs you to be a calm, assertive, and confident Pack Leader more than any other, fulfilling the primary function of providing protection and direction. You can also use socialization, although initially in a much more controlled manner. Dogs with fearful aggression can respond well to pack walks because their instinct to move forward with the pack will help override their fear.

If Your Dog Has Become Aggressive…

Dogs become aggressive when they’re frustrated, and they become frustrated if you don’t provide them with clear rules, boundaries, and limitations.

You can help to reduce their aggressive tendencies on the walk by making it a ritual through which the dog earns the right to go outside. Before you put the leash on, she has to sit calmly; she can’t go out the open door until you’ve gone out and then invited her; and she has to stay next to or just behind you.

You can also help limit aggression by knowing when and how to correct it — with a short sideways tug of the leash at just the moment the dog starts to show any sign of it. This can take practice to get the timing right. If you’re having trouble with the correction, your dog still shows aggression that you can’t control, or the dog is large or a power breed, then consulting a professional trainer is probably the best approach for both of you.

No one wants to see their dog get bitten, but it’s up to us as Pack Leaders to do the right thing, not only when it happens but after the fact, to rehabilitate our dogs and restore balance.

Have you had to rehabilitate a dog that had been bitten? Tell us your story in the comments below!

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This First Aid Guide was developed by the veterinary staff at Dr. Sherry Weaver’s Animal Hospital of Towne Lake in Woodstock, GA.

Always use caution when approaching or handling an animal that is injured by bite wounds or another serious trauma. Dogs that are not normally aggressive may bite out of self-protective instincts if they are in pain. Use a muzzle if needed.

Flush the wound well with warm water, and try to clip fur from any wounds. It is important to note that bite wounds are a combination of penetrating and crushing damage. A small hole can mask severe tearing of tissues and bleeding hidden beneath the skin. Gently wrap any skin tears with bandaging material, and apply direct pressure to sites that display active bleeding.

Home first aid for bite wounds should be considered only as a first response. Evaluation by a veterinarian is very important for proper assessment and recovery. Bite wounds usually become infected, so it is very important to have a veterinarian assess any bite wound. Even superficial bite wounds have the potential to become seriously infected. Oral antibiotics may be needed. Surgery may be necessary to repair damage inflicted beneath the skin.

Always seek veterinary care following first-aid attempts. Your veterinarian is the best source of information for your pet’s specific needs. This information is provided for general reference and informational purposes only and should not be construed to be formal professional advice or the formation of a consultant-client relationship.

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Like the majority of our dogs, Cali, the lovable chocolate Labrador owned by Connie and Mike Schmitt, loves playing outside in the backyard. This just happened to be the Schmitt family pup’s favorite pastime, until recently that is. In July of last year, a typical trip to the backyard brought Cali face-to-face with a venomous snake. It was an experience that would change both her life and the lives of her owners forever.

“Cali loves to frolic around our property and chase lizards and squirrels,” says her owner, Connie Schmitt, who spoke to Cesar’s Way about the day of her pup’s tragic accident. “One summer evening, she had been out with the boys and, when my husband got home, the kids left her outside to say ‘Hi’ to their dad. Fifteen minutes later, my husband looked out the window and saw her lying on the grass as if she had passed out.”

The Schmitts immediately rushed outside to find Cali immobilized. “She looked at us as if pleading with us to help her,” says Connie who adds that Cali was unable to get up and appeared paralyzed. Her owners knew something was wrong.

“We first thought that she may have gotten into a poisonous plant, but the thought of a snake bite hit us and we found the bite wound on her neck.” The family rushed Cali to the hospital, where their suspected diagnosis was confirmed by the vet. “The vet that treated her at the emergency clinic knew right away that it was a snake bite. It was determined that she had been bitten by an eastern diamondback rattlesnake,” explains Connie.

Upon her diagnosis, Cali’s veterinarian told her owners that she had a 50/50 chance of making it through the night. “As you can imagine, we broke down right then and there. Before we got her there, we just assumed that some antivenin fluids and some TLC would have her all better by the morning. We were not prepared to hear that she may not survive at all,” states Connie.

The dog was given two vials of antivenin, as well as some plasma, fluids, and additional medications. The Schmitts were sent home and told to wait for the outcome the next morning. Fortunately, the family got the call in the morning that Cali had pulled through. This was a victory for the Schmitts, but the first of many hurdles Cali would have to jump through in order to recover.

“Because the Veterinary Emergency Clinic only operates during non-business hours, we had to pick her up the following morning and take her to her regular vet. They were not equipped to treat snakebites there so we took her to the University of Florida Small Animal Hospital, where the vets there later told us this was the worst snake bite case they’ve ever treated there.” Connie exclaims.

Upon receiving Cali, the Florida Small Animal Hospital vets immediately transferred her to their Intensive Care Unit, where she remained for a total of two weeks. During that time, she was given 24 vials of antivenin, had several blood transfusions, and underwent three surgeries (two of these were considered major). She was also given several epinephrine treatments due to allergic reactions that she developed to the antivenin. After a grueling treatment process, Cali was eventually released from the hospital and sent home with her family, who received a hospital bill of $20,000.

Connie and her family are grateful that their dog survived the ordeal. “We are thrilled to say that she has miraculously made a full recovery. It took her several months after she was released, but she is back to her old self and has recovered 100% and without permanent damage from the bite.”

In order to educate dog owners about the hazards of snakebites, Connie started a Facebook page called “Please Help Our Cali,” where the family posted updates on the status of their dog and took donations from fellow animal lovers. After Cali recovered, the family created an additional page called Help for Cali’s Pals to share the stories of animals in distress that had stories similar to Cali’s.

The Schmitts are in the process of starting a non-profit called “Cali’s Pal’s” and are currently fostering dogs in need. Connie also has plans to make Cali a therapy dog to help people in need. “Cali recently passed the AKC Canine Good Citizen test, and will be starting her own training next week as well. We hope to participate in community service events, like school reading programs, special needs kids’ programs, Special Olympics, etc, once they’re trained and become official therapy dogs,” she explains.

How to prevent your dog from getting bitten by a snake

Venomous snakes span across the entire United States and, according to a recent report on PetMD, have been spotted in every state except for Alaska and Hawaii. Among the types of snakes with toxic bites commonly found are eastern coral snakes, dusky pygmy rattlesnakes, eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, copperheads, and water moccasins, also called cottonmouths.

While some veterinary offices offer rattlesnake vaccinations, your best line of defense in keeping your dog safe from snakebite is prevention. Cali’s vets advised Connie and her family to refrain from letting their dog roam around unsupervised and to watch where their dog was exploring, especially in areas where poisonous snakes are common.

“The vets also mentioned that some breeds, like labs, are very curious and seem to be attracted to anything that moves — lizards, squirrels, bugs, etc,” says Connie, who explains that she was told to keep an extra watchful eye on Cali, as she falls into this category. Connie adds that following Cali’s injury, many owners of dogs who had suffered snakebites contacted her through the Facebook page. “We have heard from several other cases of snakebites and one was in their fenced-in yard, so even fences can’t completely keep snakes away. You just can’t be too careful, especially in areas where the snake population is high.”

Other snake-avoiding tips

• Keep your dog on a leash in areas where snakes may reside — woods, marshes, grasslands, and near bodies of water. While in these areas especially, it’s crucial to keep an eye on your dog at all times. Don’t allow her to dig through dirt or riffle through leaves where snakes may be hiding.
• When hiking and exploring outside, stick to paved trails where the visibility is better.
• Avoid hiking or walking through snake-infested areas at night. Many types of snakes, including varieties of rattlesnakes, tend to be more active once the sun has set.
• If your dog becomes startled by something, back away until you know what exactly he has encountered. If you hear a warning “hiss” or “rattling” sound, slowly retreat from the area as this could be a rattlesnake’s way of telling you to back off.

If your dog is bitten

If you suspect that your dog has been bitten by a snake — whether you know if it’s poisonous or not — you should immediately take her into a veterinary clinic. In the event that your vet is unavailable, head to the nearest emergency clinic. The quicker your dog gets treated, the better its chances of survival.

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