misdiagnosis of a bite??

[Widowman10]

i know someone currently in the hospital with a "diagnosed" :wall: brown recluse bite. the only problem is that i live in CO and i KNOW there are no recluses for hundreds of miles. she did not do any traveling recently, and the bite does not look recluse-like. does not appear to be a widow either. after two days, it is a red area about the size of a quarter with what looks like a mountain on it. anybody got any thoughts or questions to help ID this?

 

[Stefan2209]

anybody got any thoughts or questions to help ID this?

Hi,

Tegenaria agrestis?

Maybe something entirely different and just a secondary infection...

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[KUJordan]

as long as they treat it like any other "infectious sore" it should be alright (aka- NO antivenom!!!). my mom was in Brighton, CO about 5 years ago and got bit/stung by something in the night and she had to go to the hospital because the bite got so bad and it swelled up to about the size of a baseball on her hip. they diagnosed it as a black widow bite, which i think is just bogus. unless a bite follows the true published symptoms of a recluse or Latrodectus bite, it is very UNSAFE to diagnose and treat it specifically as such.

And yeah, depending on where you are in Colorado, I'm pretty sure there would be about a 0% chance of it being a recluse bite...

 

[Widowman10]

Hi,

Tegenaria agrestis?

Maybe something entirely different and just a secondary infection...

Greetings,

Stefan

don't think so, seeing as how we don't have those here in CO either... wish we did though thanks for trying to help! any other thoughts beside that??

 

[Taceas]

Yellow Sac Spider?

 

[Venom]

Loxo bites do not develop into mounds of any kind. The basic rule of thumb for distinguishing between recluse and yellow sac spider bites is loxo bites go down ( sink into pits/ depressions ) while sac bites go up ( swell into blisters, bumps ). A loxo bite will not remain swollen in an upward direction except for around the rim of the depression and in the general area of the bite.

That said, there could still be loxosceles in Colorado, as isolated populations have been established here and there around the country, usually indoors, in urban environments. ( They are reports of them in the Flint and Lansing areas of Michigan, including at least one severe bite that I am aware of ). She would not need to have traveled lately, as the recluses have already done that part.

Still, from your description: quarter-sized, in a mountain shape, I would be strongly inclined towards a yellow sac spider bite. Can you provide a picture?

 

[Widowman10]

Loxo bites do not develop into mounds of any kind. The basic rule of thumb for distinguishing between recluse and yellow sac spider bites is loxo bites go down ( sink into pits/ depressions ) while sac bites go up ( swell into blisters, bumps ). A loxo bite will not remain swollen in an upward direction except for around the rim of the depression and in the general area of the bite.

That said, there could still be loxosceles in Colorado, as isolated populations have been established here and there around the country, usually indoors, in urban environments. ( They are reports of them in the Flint and Lansing areas of Michigan, including at least one severe bite that I am aware of ). She would not need to have traveled lately, as the recluses have already done that part.

Still, from your description: quarter-sized, in a mountain shape, I would be strongly inclined towards a yellow sac spider bite. Can you provide a picture?

maybe the yellow sac could be it. it would have to be a localized population though, as we don't have them around here naturally. just like the reluses. no pic tho venom, sorry:wall: i wish... um, i'll check to make sure they don't give her ANY antivenin. thanks again for the help everyone. oh, and good to hear from you again, venom

 

[buthus]

"Best" treatment from what I understand is a drug called Avlosulfon (marketed as Dapsone) but only if taken within a day or so after the bite. Be interesting to see if they are having success using it against yellow sacs and hobos.
I have read that nitro patches applied to the bite area has shown promising results.

 

[kurisute_hasu]

It still could be a reclsuse bite...the spider could have hitchhicked its way on over to CO. In a box put into a UPS truck traveling across state lines? Improbable but not impossible. I'm just hoping several years of med school wasn't a waste of money....

 

[Stylopidae]

Chances are, it's probably not a brown recluse bite. Doctors are not arachnologists. L. reclusa bites are often misdiagnosed...it's probably a necrotic infection of some type.