Dog chews diabetic owner’s toe off
June 24, 2011
Theresa Boyle
HEALTH REPORTER
A case study in a podiatry journal highlights why diabetic patients with open wounds should take caution when sleeping with their pets. A U.S. woman with numbness in her feet and a slightly infected toe, both symptoms of diabetes, had part of the digit chewed off during the night by her dog.
Despite surgery, the wound did not heal and the woman eventually had to have her leg amputated.
“This case illustrates the perils of pet ownership in diabetic patients who have numbness in their hands or feet caused by neuropathy,” said co-author Lee C. Rogers, associate director of the Amputation Prevention Center at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in California.
His study was published in this month’s issue of the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association.
Up to 70 per cent of diabetics have neuropathy or nerve damage. Diabetics are also prone to suffering from blood flow, particularly to their extremities, making it more difficult for sores to heal. This is why foot care is so important for diabetics.
The 48-year-old woman in question didn’t feel any pain and slept through the traumatic experience in which her 2-year-old Jack Russell terrier chewed off part of her big toe.
“Pets have a tendency to lick wounds, and that simple lick can turn into a bite, if there is no response from the owner,” Rogers said.
“There have also been reports of dogs’ saliva infecting diabetic patients with the antibiotic-resistant superbug MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), which can be deadly,” he added.
The case highlights the need for diabetic patients with neuropathy to avoid having their feet or wounds exposed when sleeping with pets, the journal article stated.
The woman only realized part of her toe was missing when she awoke in the morning and found blood in her bed and on the floor. She realized the dog must have chewed it off because it had blood on its muzzle.
Doctors amputated part of her toe, and later, the lower portion of her leg because she developed other infections and neuropathic ulcerations, or skins lesions common to diabetics with neuropathy.
“People with diabetes and neuropathy must take special precautions to protect their feet from infections to avoid amputations and other complications,” Rogers said.
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