A dog bite is very painful and dangerous and this can instill a fear of animals in a person. Looking at a dog bite, it may look harmless, however, this may lead to rabies or some sort of serious infection. And eventually, this may further lead to death in the worst cases. In most cases, quick first-aid can be done at home, however, to prevent an unfortunate incident to happen, it is best to get it looked at by a doctor. And it is very important if you get bitten by an unknown or unfamiliar dog.
Dog Bite Treatments
If the bite that you got from a dog is deep, and you can’t stop the bleeding or you see some signs of infection like redness, warmth, pus, or swelling, immediately go to see the doctor. Such infections are harmful and need proper supervision and proper treatment with antibiotics.
However, if the bite is not that severe, here is what you can do at home to treat the injury.
- Place a clean cloth or towel over the injury to stop the bleeding, if any.
- Make sure that the injured area is in an elevated position.
- Wash the bite carefully using soap & water.
- Don’t keep the wound open and apply a sterile bandage.
- Not just on the first day, but apply antibiotic ointment every day to prevent further infection.
Dog Bite & Law
Now that wound is taken care of, you need to check the dog bite laws that are applicable as per your local jurisdiction. Doing this research on laws as per your area is very important so that a proper check can be kept on such future mishaps. In such cases, the following conditions apply.
- Proof of history of rabies vaccination is checked of the dog that has bitten you.
- In some cases, the quarantine period is to be undergone. This period is determined based on the history of rabies vaccination.
- Again on the same aspects, it is checked if the dog needs to be counted in the ‘dangerous dogs’ category. Also, future measures are checked on how much dogs can be handled, to avoid the occurrence of a similar situation.
- In some cases where there’s a serious injury or a fatality, laws may require euthanization of a dog, and criminal charges are faced by the owner of the dog.
To know more regarding the same, get in touch with our dog bite lawyer in Austin at The Law Office of Matthew Shrum, and with our extensive experience in the domain, our personal injury law firm in Austin will guide you on how you can take things forward.