Animal Bite: Examination

A comprehensive clinical examination is the basis for selecting further diagnostic steps:

• General physical examination – including blood pressure, pulse, body weight, body height; further:
  • Inspection (viewing).
    • Skin
    • Surrounding tissue
    • adjacent bone/joints
      • Bite wound, of different species:
        • Dog: laceration-squeeze wound
        • Cat: deep, puncture wounds
        • Horse: contusion wound
        • Snake: two pinhead-sized puncture wounds]
      • Signs of infection:
        • Signs of infection usually appear only after 6 to 8 (-24) hours. Typical signs of infection are redness (lat. rubor), swelling (lat. tumor), hyperthermia (lat. calor) and pain (lat. dolor) in the area of the bite wound.
        • Lymphangitis (red stripe in the skin); Cave (Attention!): Risk of systemic spread.
        • Sepsis (blood poisoning): fever with chills, tachycardia (heartbeat too fast: > 100 beats per minute), tachypnea (accelerated breathing) and severe impairment of general condition (see below sepsis).
  • Palpation
    • Surrounding tissue
    • Adjacent bones/joints and examination of function.

Further notes

• Photo documentation of the injury (if possible) and assessment of the damage under local/local anesthesia (or general anesthesia). Debridement can be performed at the same time (see below “Surgical therapy“).