[Ansteorra] OT: Help if you can

[Galen of Ockham, OP]

>> Your cat may have been bitten by a spider. You need to take her to the Vet as soon as possible. The bite sounds like a spider bite and the Kingdom of Ansteorra ( no insult) has very nasty insects that crawl around our fair lands.
>>     
I usually don't jump in on these discussions, but I need to here.
Despite what most people have been told, *spider bites are essentially a
MYTH!* Mundanely I'm an Air Force flight surgeon (MD, MPH with 3 board
certifications) and almost 20 years of wilderness and environmental
medicine experience, including extensively looking into the issue of
spider bites. Now, I realize that almost everyone has known someone who
has been told by a doc that they have a spider bite, and I was taught
that spider bites were common when I was in my initial residency. But,
more research has shown that in actuality spider bites are very rare and
it is even more rare that they cause any clinical problems. Most of what
gets called spider bites (even by the pros) are actually skin
infections, and in recent years are usually MRSA (methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus, a drug-resistant form of a common bacteria that
has become very prevalent recently).
The horror stories of brown reculse bites are very overblown, with bites
being very rare and the nasty tissue destruction that makes it into
textbooks even more rare. The only North American spider of real medical
importance is the Black Widow.
This information has been collaborated with wilderness medicine experts
(such as Auerbach of Auerbach's Textbook of Wilderness Medicine), docs
who have studied spiders extensively (mostly Randy Reynolds, also an
USAF flight surgeon who goes by the nickname of 'Spider Doc'), and an
arachnologist (Rick Vetter of the University of California, Riverside
[UCR]). I highly recommend the UCR spider website at
http://spiders.ucr.edu/brs.html for good articles and links to peer
reviewed literature on the topic.

To answer your immediate question, an infection is likely and your pet
should be evaluated by a veterinarian. But, I can tell you with 99+%
certainty that it is NOT a spider bite (even if that's what the vet
tells you).
-- 
Magister Galenus Ockhamnesis
Friar Galen of Ockham, OP
A Study in Natural Philosophy: http://medievalscience.org
Chirurgeon's Point: http://chirurgeon.org <http://chirurgeon.org/>


<http://chirurgeon.org/>