A woman has had a most devastating experience after a dog innocently licked her face leaving her in a really bad shape.
File photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
The woman, a 70-year-old, contracted blood poisoning after her dog licked her face.
She was admitted to the emergency room with seizures and organ failure when she contracted the blood poisoning after her Italian greyhound licked her face while she was playing with it.
According to NY Daily News, the saliva transferred from the pooch smooch resulted in blood poisonings in the unique case confirmed in the BMJ Case Reports medical journal.
Sepsis derives from the bacteria, Capnocytophaga canimorsus, and is normally transferred through dog bites.
According to the National Institute of Health if sepsis develops into septic shock there is a potential mortality rate of 50%.
“The prevalence of contracting sepsis from a dog lick is rare,” said Dr. Scott Simon, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at the Animal Hospital of Chelsea. “However it’s important that owners don’t intentionally exchange saliva with their dogs especially if they are undergoing chemo therapy, have AIDS, are pregnant or are elderly.”
According to Dr. Simon, your dog is more likely to give you ringworm, scabies or parasites.
After four days of intravenous antibiotics and months of thyroid hormone replacement and outpatient treatment the woman has been symptom free for about a year.