What causes pain in arm after a dog bite?
Patient: I am a vet tech at a small animal hospital. I was scratched during a dog nail trim a week ago. It has almost fully healed but now I m getting sever pain in my arm from the elbow to my hand, on the bottom side (sensitive ski. Area) is there any concern from the scratch or is this something totally different? No swelling and no rash. Doctor: Hi Thank you for contacting us. I will to address your concerns to the best of my ability. The single most important thing to rule out here is an infection. Antibiotics are prescribed for bite wounds to prevent infection in certain situations. For example, if:1.You have been bitten by a cat. All cat bites are usually treated with antibiotics, as they are much more likely to get infected than dog bites.2.The bite wound is on an arm or leg - especially a hand. These sites are particularly prone to nasty infections that can cause severe damage after a dog or cat bite.3.The wound is large, deep or punctured. A puncture wound may not look large but may go deep into the tissues.4.Your injury needed an operation to clean it out, or repair the damage.5.Your resistance to infection is low. For example, if you are on chemotherapy; have no working spleen; have diabetes; have an immune system problem such as AIDS.6.You have an artificial heart valve (and sometimes, if you have an artificial joint).Antibiotics will also be prescribed if your wound has already become infected. It might be infected if:It is getting more painful rather than improving as time goes by.It has become red or swollen.It is oozing.Sometimes the doctor's exam will discover some red lines in the skin of the arm - this is known as lymphangitis - this also needs antibiotics.Best to get this checked by your doctor as soon as possible. I hope this helps. Please message me back if you have any further questions.Best wishes and I hope you get better soon.Adrian Rawlinson MD