Yesterday, I was in Birmingham, UK, giving a keynote address at the British Equine Veterinary Association Congress (and HRH Princess Anne was in the audience and I didn’t put her to sleep… I’ll take that as a win).

After finishing my talks I was walking back to the conference centre when I heard someone yelling. It’s a big city with lots of noise and interesting characters, so I didn’t think much of it initially. It continued, though, and as I got closer, I could year someone yelling “get him off me!”

I then saw a person on the ground with a pit bull-type dog latched onto his forearm and a someone who was presumably the dog owner trying unsuccessfully to get the dog to disengage.

Perhaps stupidly, I got involved – I grabbed the leash and the dog, to try to help control the dog while the owner continued to try to pry the dog off. After what probably seemed like a lot longer than it actually was, the dog let go.

The dog jumped away and I lost my hold on the leash, so I then had a big dog with a decidedly unfriendly look on his face staring at me from 2 feet away.

• My next thought was “oh, crap.”

Fortunately for me, the owner then grabbed the dog and sprinted away.

A bystander had called the police, but I doubt the dog or owner will be found – they were long gone. The person who was attacked had some pretty deep bite wounds on his forearm and unfortunately had no interest in seeking medical care, talking to the police or even giving his name. Hopefully he ended up getting some care for his wounds somewhere.

That’s a long lead-in to the question “what should you do if you’re bitten by a random dog on the street?”

The approach is somewhat different in Canada versus the UK, because of the difference in rabies prevalence in the two countries. In this incident, I suspect there may have been a token effort to find the dog, since odds are low the police would be able to spot him, and that might have been the end of it. But let’s review the approach that would generally apply in other jurisdictions like Canada.

#1 Get safe.

• If the dog is still around and uncontrolled, get away from it. If there’s a risk to yourself or others, call the local animal control agency (if there is one). If the danger is very high and immediate and there are no other readily available options, call the police – but only if it’s really an emergency.

#2 Do a quick assessment of your injuries.

• It’s important to deal with bite wounds promptly, but they don’t all necessarily require emergency care. Washing wounds thoroughly with soap and running water for 5-10 minutes is an important first step and should be done immediately. For young children, elderly individuals, pregnant women and anyone who is immunocompromised or doesn’t have a functional spleen, it is particularly important to seek medical care as soon as possible (urgent, but no an emergency). This also applies to bites to the face, over joints or other sensitive structures (e.g. pretty much any bite to the hands or feet). If you or someone else is very badly injured, is feeling faint after the attack or if there is a lot of bleeding, you may need to call an ambulance. If in doubt, seek medical care for bite wounds.

#3 Identify the dog and owner, if possible.

• If the owner says at the scene, get their contact information and information about the dog. A picture is a good idea of you can get one. We want to know who’s involved for a couple reasons. From a rabies standpoint, we need to be able to identify the dog to do a proper risk assessment and to do a 10 day observation period in most cases (more on that below).
• (I’d advise against telling the owner what you really think of them or their dog at the time, chasing someone down or doing anything confrontational.)

#4 Report the incident to public health.

• If you seek medical care for a bite wound, the healthcare provider should contact public health automatically (in Ontario, that’s mandated through the Health Protection and Promotion Act), but one way or the other it’s important for public health to assess the risk of rabies exposure from the bite. Rabies in dogs is really rare in Canada, but since rabies is almost invariably fatal, we don’t take chances. Public health can investigate, do a risk assessment, and work with the dog owner (if identified) to ensure the dog is observed for 10 days for any signs of rabies. This helps determine if you will need rabies post-exposure prophylaxis / shots.
  • If the dog was rabid and shedding rabies virus in saliva at the time of the bite, it will show signs of illness within 10 days, and die shortly after. That puts the bite victim at very high risk for rabies and post-exposure prophylaxis should be started asap.
  • If a dog is alive and neurologically normal 10 days after the bite, it could not have transmitted rabies at the time of the bite, so there’s no need for post-exposure prophylaxis.
• If the dog can’t be identified, there’s no way to know for sure whether or not the dog was rabid. As mentioned before, rabies in dogs in Canada is rare, but the risk isn’t zero and there are scenarios where the risk can be higher, so the need for post-exposure prophylaxis still needs to be considered very carefully. That’s why identifying the dog is so critical, as it can help rule out rabies in most cases if the 10 day observation period can be completed..

#5 Consider reporting the incident to municipal animal control or other authorities, depending on the circumstances.

• Some dog bites are more concerning than others. An unprovoked, vicious attack (like the one I witnessed) raises a lot of concern about the dog and the owner, and police and/or animal control (depending on the area) should be involved. If the dog had grabbed the person’s neck or attacked a child, that could have been fatal.
• Other bites might be less concerning based on the circumstances, but it’s good to have some degree of investigation of any bite to assess future bite risks.

Ozzie was bitten by a dog at a Guelph off-leash park a few weeks ago. (I started a post about that but got distracted… maybe I’ll get a chance to finish it off). It wasn’t a severe bite, but there are obvious owner and dog issues when an unprovoked bite occurs at an off-leash park. The owner took off with the dog in that case too. Heather was with Ozzie, but only had a vague description of the dog and owner, so it’s unlikely they would be found, but she reported it nonetheless to make sure it’s documented. If there are other reports of similar incidents with similar descriptions of the dog and owner, that would be a reason to investigate more and maybe warn park visitors.

So, I got to meet British royalty, talk with Birmingham police, and meet some people on the street, along with giving a couple of talks. Overall it was a pretty eventful 48h in the UK.