Eeew something bit my dog!

Biff, unless you left out details that it was a bigger bite than it sounds, I would say with almost complete certainty that it was a spider. It would be far more common that it was a black widow, however, based on the description and the way it got infected, I'd monitor it. It could have been a brown recluse which will cause ongoing pain and scarring if you don't treat it. Just keep an eye on it to make sure that they infection clears and that it is starting to scab. Poor PP! Either way, neither is life threatening unless she was allergic which by this time you would already be well aware of so don't worry!

Thanks Justin! I'm doubting it's a brown recluse, because I'm pretty familiar with the necrosis associated with those bites (and it progresses quickly). Her bite area looks healthy -- the flesh is pink and the blood is dark. We shaved her and Christian injected antiseptic into and under the wound with a syringe and we'll keep that up as long as we have to.

Glad she's fine....I know it's rough when our furry family members get sick. Hey, I've done my fair share of home-first aid, but it was on our cat. I forget what happened, but our cat got injured, or something, and we did our own first aid, following online suggestions. Man, I forget what his injury was. It wasn't serious, though, and didn't need stitches. Just needed cleaning. Ok, now it's going to drive me nuts trying to remember what happened.

Anyway, glad she's fine

Eeeek, good to hear she is feeling better Biff. While reading your story, my first thought was a bat as well.

Hey Biff, two can play at the "sending harassing letters" game, if you run into this neighbor problem again, we'll flood the guy's mailbox daily, from all over the country!


Hopefully, Petunia's bite is a place she can't reach it, I hate the "funnel headed dog" look.

Take care of your baby,
C

why does your neighbor hate dogs?

Wow, that's scary. I hope there are no problems down the road.

That was at my old house. My new house is far far away from that guy! She can't reach her back. She's too fat

I don't know. He's crazy. He has 'no trespassing' signs up all around his house, and he erected a chain link fence around his property with razorwire across the top! And the whole fence is covered in tarps so you can't see in, and he even has tarps stretching across the top so you can't see his yard from an aerial photo. He doesn't work; he stays at home all day (and he's in his 30s). This leads me to believe that he is just a plain and simple psychopath.

Yeah it doesn't sound like a BR based on this ^ description. It's almost certainly a black widow and she'll be fine. They really aren't as deadly as people make them out to be. It is just a really painful bite, but they are only toxic enough to kill if you are allergic or SUPER small. My mini-dachsund has been bit twice (I saw the offender the second time to verify that it was definitely a BW) and though there are still two pin-hole scars on him he recovered just fine both times. Ironically, he is allergic to bee stings and nearly died after getting stung by a bee once. PP's wound sounds healthy and she'll be just fine. Sorry for the scare though! It's terrible when the unexpected happens to our furry little friends.

Fortunately for us, we really don't have bats that bite here. There are tons of bats in this region but they are mostly fruit bats and they are all the small variety. You can search hard and find a larger species that dwells in some of our extensive system of caverns but you will never see them in the city. There is always the possibility of a rabid bat biting someone or a dog, but I have never heard of it happening in the city. We have a lot of dangerous critters here in the desert but like I said, for the most part, bats are not on that list.