Getting bitten by a dog can be painful and traumatic. Even a minor bite could lead to disfigurement, depending on where it is located. You may need to get stitches, rabies shots, medication for infections and much more.
These infections, notably, are one of the biggest risks that you face. They are very common with dog bites, and they can make it so that your condition gets dramatically worse following the bite. You may not even think that it is too detrimental to your health when it happens, but you could later find yourself needing extensive medical care that puts you in significant debt.
The trouble with puncture wounds
The issue, in a lot of cases, is that dog bites tend to create puncture wounds. By their very nature, these types of wounds act as a sort of closed system. Bacteria and other debris can be trapped below the level of the bite since the tooth punctured so far down into the tissue. This is vastly different than a surface bite, which is much easier to clean.
Puncture wounds often do not bleed as much, either, so they don’t appear to be as bad. People may know that they’re in pain, but they won’t think they’ve been severely injured. It’s only when they start to develop a fever and see other signs of infection that they realize they need to go to the hospital.
If something like this happens to you, you may want to look into your rights to seek financial compensation from the dog’s owner or the party who was responsible for the bite.