# Anybody have experience with spider bites?



## swmarc (May 27, 2008)

Last week I noticed a white dot on the back of my leg and assumed it was an ingrown hair so I popped it. Two days later on Saturday it had grown to the size of a quarter and was encircled with a red ring about the size of a dollar. It has continued to get worse (now the size of a 50cent piece) and today is oozing and has a black center. The doctor has given me a shot of antibiotics as well as a prescription of more antibiotics. If it doesn't start to show improvement within 24hrs I have been instructed to head to the er for intravenous drug treatment. Obviously Im currently unable to ride but I'm more worried about the infection continuing to spread. 

Anyone else have any experience with infected bug bites? How long do they take to heal?


----------



## the-one1 (Aug 2, 2008)

Ask Peter Parker.


----------



## electrik (Oct 22, 2009)

Be oso diligent with the antibiotics. IIRC, one should never pop it. If the rash looks like a bullseye around the bite then it maybe lyme from a tick and _not_ a spider bite.


----------



## swmarc (May 27, 2008)

Update: 
The area is no longer painful and my fever is gone but the wound/ulcer looks terrible and the redness continues to grow, albeit extremely slow compared to what is was over the weekend. My doctor recommended giving it another 24hrs to see if the new antibiotic would start to reduce redness before heading to ER. If your doctor recommends you head to the ER, will they admit you when you get there or will you have to go through the emergency department procedures?


----------



## electrik (Oct 22, 2009)

swmarc said:


> Update:
> The area is no longer painful and my fever is gone but the wound/ulcer looks terrible and the redness continues to grow, albeit extremely slow compared to what is was over the weekend. My doctor recommended giving it another 24hrs to see if the new antibiotic would start to reduce redness before heading to ER. If your doctor recommends you head to the ER, will they admit you when you get there or will you have to go through the emergency department procedures?


If it doesn't improve, you will be going there for an emergency treatment, this is not like being admitted to the hospital. You will be under the care of the ER physician. Don't worry about that though, keep an eye on the wound, maybe even measure it to make sure it is actually slowing down or stopping.


----------



## woahey (Sep 1, 2010)

swmarc said:


> Update:
> The area is no longer painful and my fever is gone but the wound/ulcer looks terrible and the redness continues to grow, albeit extremely slow compared to what is was over the weekend. My doctor recommended giving it another 24hrs to see if the new antibiotic would start to reduce redness before heading to ER. If your doctor recommends you head to the ER, will they admit you when you get there or will you have to go through the emergency department procedures?


This sounds like a bite that I had when I first moved to AZ. I waited until half my leg was red (too broke for a Dr at the time). I also had a small hole where the bite occured. When I went to the ER they cleaned it out, pushed some IV antibiotics and gave me a script for antibiotics for the next 10 days before sending me home. Luckily for me, the doc said it'd cure the clap if I had it too...

Mine turned out to be a recluse bite. It took about a month for the wound to close itself up. It hasn't bothered me since, but I do still have some fresh looking scar tissue there.


----------



## swmarc (May 27, 2008)

Update2:

Went to the doctor again today and he is pleased with the progress. A lot of the redness is gone but I still have a big open sore in my leg. I was given a shot of rocephin and holy crap did that hurt it felt like my whole leg was on fire for about an hour. Below are two pictures from three days after I noticed bite and one of today.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us


----------



## electrik (Oct 22, 2009)

:thumbsup:

Looks good... personally i'll always shake out (or turn inside out) clothing that has been on the floor and keep your bed sheet and bed from touching the ground/wall.


----------



## woahey (Sep 1, 2010)

That looks just like what I had. It'll take some time to completely heal, but I doubt you'll know its there in a couple weeks.


----------



## qkenuf4u (Jan 24, 2009)

if its a RELUSE bite youre very lucky they have figured out a way to fix/treat that bite...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

being in AZ its a real fear of mine to be bitten by one of those nasty little bastards... :nono:


----------



## electrik (Oct 22, 2009)

qkenuf4u said:


> if its a RELUSE bite youre very lucky they have figured out a way to fix/treat that bite...
> 
> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi
> 
> being in AZ its a real fear of mine to be bitten by one of those nasty little bastards... :nono:


It could have been, but there are a few north american spiders which carry nasty bacteria that can cause an infection like that.

I should add, usually it is NOT a spider but a skin MRSA infection. Particularly suspicious if you never saw the spider..


----------



## swmarc (May 27, 2008)

I'm sure I will never know what bit me or if it was staph or mrsa.

The doctor brought up many possibilities including a possible hobo spider bite, and he was fairly confident in crossing off mrsa by how quickly it reacted to the antibiotics. I'm just glad it is starting to heal.


----------



## woahey (Sep 1, 2010)

electrik said:


> It could have been, but there are a few north american spiders which carry nasty bacteria that can cause an infection like that.
> 
> I should add, usually it is NOT a spider but a skin MRSA infection. Particularly suspicious if you never saw the spider..


Technically speaking, we don't have Brown Recluse here in AZ, they're AZ Brown Spiders that have many similar characteristics to the Recluse, but not quite the same.


----------

