Anyone ever dealt with Brown Recluse bite

[dalpal]

This isn't my personal horse....

We have a drop dead gorgeous Sir Donnerhall yearling at our barn. I watch him amongst the other yearlings....while the other ones flounder around, typical babies....this one just rocks back, opens up his shoulders and canters. I've seen him canter in place, I've seen him do pirouttes, and several lead changes. I always stop and watch him go, he is breath taking.

Anyway, part of me is very interested in this colt (not sure if the owner will part with him)....but he did have a brown recluse bite last summer and it required him to spend many weeks at the vet clinic.

Because of this...he has significant scarring on the inside hind leg and at times, he looks a bit stiff to me in the rear when he first starts to move (aka getting up)

I'm just curious if anyone has ever dealt with this in a baby.....of course I would do a vet check if I were seriously interested. I was just wondering if they usually have nerve damage or muscle wasting issues like humans do.

[showjumpers66]

Yes, I have dealt with it and it was horrible. Here are the pictures -

www.quantumleapferrets.com/riesenlateralwound1A.jpg

www.quantumleapferrets.com/riesenmedialwound1B.jpg

The second photo is of the bite. The toxins ate through all the tissue (including some bone) from lateral to medial.

[Tiki]

Ahhhh, necrotizing spider bite. Yes, they do SIGNIFICANT tissue damage. Sometimes absolutely devastating. Poor baby.

[florida foxhunter]

To answer the question.......I would assume that scar tissue filled in the holes caused by the bite. That wold effect the flexibility of those tendons, ligaments, etc.......of course, a vet prepurchse would tell you the extent.......so sorry!

[dalpal]

That's what I had assumed. My mother was bitten back in 1985, and she said she still feels tingling in that spot, even today.

[dalpal]

Yes, I have dealt with it and it was horrible. Here are the pictures -

www.quantumleapferrets.com/riesenlateralwound1A.jpg

www.quantumleapferrets.com/riesenmedialwound1B.jpg

The second photo is of the bite. The toxins ate through all the tissue (including some bone) from lateral to medial.

That looks very familiar. How old are those pictures/how was the baby affected?

[showjumpers66]

The photos were taken 24 hours after the bite. It ended up looking worse before it got better. This colt was a yearling when it happened. Amazingly enough, he was never unsound on the leg. He ended up losing all the tissue on his lower leg except for his tendon sheath and tendon. We got lucky. He laid in a lot of bone where the initial bite was.

[EASY RIDER STABLE]

I had 3 of them this winter and went thru hell and back. The little suckers came in with the firewood I brought in. They came to life once in my warm home. One on my hand, one behind my neck and one on my wrist....NASTY NASTY NASTY ! ! I felt like crap and looked even worse.

[dalpal]

The photos were taken 24 hours after the bite. It ended up looking worse before it got better. This colt was a yearling when it happened. Amazingly enough, he was never unsound on the leg. He ended up losing all the tissue on his lower leg except for his tendon sheath and tendon. We got lucky. He laid in a lot of bone where the initial bite was.


So, it isn't necessarily gloom and doom?

[Summerwood]

I have had experience with one bit several times on the back. It was horrible. The vet did say nerves would be affected and he could not feel anything in the rather large area affected (right about where the back of the saddle goes.) There was significant scarring, and portions of his hair came back white. I would think one on the leg would involve LOTS of scar tissue also and therefor potentially a problem. If you are serious about it I would make sure a very knowledgable vet looks at it very carefully.

[tri]

I had a collie that was bitten on the paw. All the tissue fell off down to the skeleton and tendons. It took a long long time to get over it and she was always lame on that foot.

[dalpal]

Ah, thanks guys....after thinking it through.....

I decided to follow some old farrier advice..

"Never buy someone else's problem....create your own" :lol:

[RacetrackReject]

I have been biten twice. Once on the jaw line and once on the hip. I have a small scar on my jaw line, but no other issues and a larger divot, nickel sized maybe, on my hip with no other issues. No nerve damage, no phamton pains, no massive scar tissue, etc. I think it just depends on how bad the bite was. I never even ran fever with mine or felt badly. I would not have even gone to the dr except when I cleaned my face that morning, what i thought was a pimple under the skin on my jaw line, opened up to be a big hole. You can barely see it now except that it doesnt' tan in the summer..lol.

[Donella]

I had to do a paper a few years ago about the BR. Bottom line is that what MOST people think is a BR bite is not. It is one of those things that people (including many doctors) believe is alot more prevelant than it really is....if it's a necrotic wound, it must be a bite from a BR. Not so.
Despite what the media spouts out, there has never been a documented and proven death caused by the BR.

So my question is, do you know forsure that it was a BR bite?

[showjumpers66]

I noticed a small bump with a hole in the center at around 8 am. This was not a scratch or puncture wound. At 6 pm, when I went out to treat the leg again, the tissue started sloughing off in chunks to the bone. It was a 48 hour battle to try to stop the necrosis and save his leg. I have never seen any wound become so necrotic this quickly. The surgical hospital was 100% positive that it was a toxic bite. Brown recluse spiders are very common in our neck of the woods.

[Donella]

Showjumpers, that sounds aweful! I am assuming everything turned out well? How did they treat it ?
I remember reading that this species is very common in your area.

[showjumpers66]

He amazed everyone and is fine now. He has a 1" x 3" hairless scar with a very large "splint" where he laid in bone, but that is it.

He was treated with regional limb perfusion from his knee down. A tourniquet was a placed about his knee. An IV catheter was placed below his knee and antibiotics were infused. The tourniquet was in place for 30 minutes to focus the effectiveness of the antibiotics on the lower leg. The treatment was repeated every few hours for 48 hours. It is not typical to repeat the treatment this often, but they were working under special circumstances.

[dalpal]

I had to do a paper a few years ago about the BR. Bottom line is that what MOST people think is a BR bite is not. It is one of those things that people (including many doctors) believe is alot more prevelant than it really is....if it's a necrotic wound, it must be a bite from a BR. Not so.
Despite what the media spouts out, there has never been a documented and proven death caused by the BR.

So my question is, do you know forsure that it was a BR bite?

Not on the horse...no, I don't. Just going on what the vet clinic dianosis. Youre right, it could have been a snake bite. Although the colt is at my boarding barn, I wasn't completely in the loop when all of this was happening/and he was at the clinic for over a month.

Now, my mother....holy cow. She sat on one in the bathtub. Killed it and put it in a jar (we had NO idea what this was and no internet).....so she kept it just to be safe. This sucker bit her on her thigh. By AM, her entire face was swollen. We took her and the spider to the Dr's office....they identified the spider as a BR. And let me tell you, it was months of HELL for her. She had a hole in her thigh that was about 2 inches deep from all the dead tissue that the Dr. had to cut out. I would pore Peroxide in the wound every night and dress it. It weeped, it pussed...it was gross. She was in alot of pain.
Even to this day (over 20 years later), she says that her leg still gives her problems.

[dalpal]

He amazed everyone and is fine now. He has a 1" x 3" hairless scar with a very large "splint" where he laid in bone, but that is it.

He was treated with regional limb perfusion from his knee down. A tourniquet was a placed about his knee. An IV catheter was placed below his knee and antibiotics were infused. The tourniquet was in place for 30 minutes to focus the effectiveness of the antibiotics on the lower leg. The treatment was repeated every few hours for 48 hours. It is not typical to repeat the treatment this often, but they were working under special circumstances.

I think similar treatment was given to this colt. They kept him at the vet clinic for over a month. When he came home, they were constantly dressing and redressing. I remember hearing that his skin was sloughing off, so he was getting aggressive treatment.

He was such a character when he was first born. He was one of those who just catch your eye.....You would look at him in the pasture and he would return the look and give you a "NIIIIIIIII" as if he was saying..."What are you looking at"

I definitely think I want a Sir Donnerhall for my next horse. I was looking at online sale ads last night, and every single one, had the same gorgeous movement.