Mystery spider bite...

[bugmankeith]

My sister is going away to college in North Carolina. She just found out she got bit by a spider after going to the doctor, and now has red blotches and pustules on her foot, it itches badly.

What kinds of spiders could cause this reaction? She never saw the spider that bit her.

 

[cacoseraph]

frog that doctor!

how did he determine spider bite? what blood tests? what hystology? biopsy?

or did the scumbag see a red bump and say "spider bite"?


fact is that there are no spiders in USA with those symptoms so there is *something* wrong with your sis that that dumbass isn't addressing


jesus fragglerock.


it sounds like *maybe* some kind of bite... but like, lots of them... ants or something

does she have any idea when the symptoms started?

has she done anything out of the normal in the last er... month or so?


i would say it sounds like an infection. which would be easy to check for. she will probably have elevated white blood cell counts.


what treatments has this dicktor suggested? what prognosis?

 

[bugmankeith]

She just started college a week ago, and they went on a camp out in the woods by a lake and the next day she noticed red,itchy blotches on one foot only. She saw no ants she would have freaked out if she saw them and never walked barefoot then. She thought it was poison ivy but after she saw the doctor and gave cream for it, it didnt clear up, and she got small pustules now. The doctor said she was showing signs of an allergic reaction to a spider bite, but nothing serious.

I dont know how it was determined either she has a bite?

She hasnt gotten the medicine yet she is waiting 2 days for the money, I have no idea what kind of medicine it is yet?

 

[spydrhunter1]

frog that doctor!

how did he determine spider bite? what blood tests? what hystology? biopsy?

or did the scumbag see a red bump and say "spider bite"?


fact is that there are no spiders in USA with those symptoms so there is *something* wrong with your sis that that dumbass isn't addressing

I'm constantly fighting with doctors over alleged spider bites. My favorite are the doctors who keep diagnosing recluse bites and I can't convince them that the recluse has NEVER been found in our state. My response as Public Health Entomologist..show me the spider before declaring your diagnosis.

 

[Widowman10]

I'm constantly fighting with doctors over alleged spider bites. My favorite are the doctors who keep diagnosing recluse bites and I can't convince them that the recluse has NEVER been found in our state. My response as Public Health Entomologist..show me the spider before declaring your diagnosis.

gotta love some of them doctors
can't live with em, can't live without em!

 

[bugmankeith]

If some people are allergic to bee stings why not spider bites, it seems possible to me. And like bee stings, some get minor reactions, others, more life threatning reactions.

 

[Widowman10]

If some people are allergic to bee stings why not spider bites, it seems possible to me. And like bee stings, some get minor reactions, others, more life threatning reactions.

true i guess... but i've never heard of someone dying from an allergy of a simple spider bite like you do from simple bee stings. doctors do seem to classify lots of little red itchy bump thingys as spider bites though...

 

[JesseD]

How long did you wait for the poison ivy to go away? I've had poison ivy three times and each time it took more than 10 days for it to start clearing up with the cream the doctor gave (some kind of cortisone) and an antihistamine of some kind. Make sure before your sister starts taking some kind medicine she isn't suppose to. Believe me I freaked the first time I had poison ivy because it took more than 2 days to finally show up and it was on my neck. Yay! Hmmm along with this post I'd like to recount a little story that happened to my girlfriend and I this summer while canoeing. We had borrowed this canoe from a friend of mine at Lake Memphremagog. We didn't bother cleaning the canoe out or checking for any big Dolomedes hiding in it. We both noticed spiders crawling on us while we paddle around the lake. An hour into the ride my girlfriend starts saying her foot is as itchy as hell and she has a bite. Hmmmm strange I guess she got bit by something... 15 minutes after my foot started to become itchy and when we got back to shore I began scratching my foot with a rock just to satisfy it. My foot began to burn mildly afterwards for about an hour, but my girlfriend's foot blew up like a balloon and she couldn't even walk on it. My friend who is in med school was there with us and we told her she was probably bit by a spider. All my med-school friend could say is that she should take Benadryl and wait it out. There are no dangerous spiders in Quebec, but fishing spiders can give a pretty painful bite. In all it seems she got some kind of allergic reaction to a possible spider bite.

 

[Vfox]

I've seen people getting poison ivy WITH pustules, redness, swelling, and itching. Unless she saw the spider, it's probably not a spider, and if it was a spider, she probably injured it badly to cause a bite. I can't even tell you how many times I've been bitten by random spiders around my house, and every time it was because I placed my hand or foot directly on them without knowing it. I've never been bitten by a spider I didn't accidently endanger.

 

[Rain_Flower]

It could just be stinging nettle. I don't know if you guys have that stuff over there but it's really common. Wherever you touch it it gets covered in little red bumps and itches/stings like nuts. it usually goes away after a day or so though.

 

[bugmankeith]

We live in NY, but she is going to college in North Carolina. We found the news what happened because she called us. I dont live in North Carolina I have no idea what spiders are there.

Could be a water spider if they have them, there was a shallow lake she was swimming in.

 

[Nick12007]

As far as allergic reactions go, they do not produce pustules. Pustules are produced largely by neutrophils, which are part of the cellular response to infections, while mast cells are generally in charge of localized inflammation and, therefore, allergy symptoms. I have to say that pustules sound very much like an infection or poison ivy/sumac/oak, not so much a spider bite. If anyone else was in contact with poison ivy on the trip it may have been in the area, and from there it's only a matter of transferring the oil from one place to another where her foot may have also touched it.
As far as medically significant spiders of North Carolina, the most common in my experience are black widows, which would leave more of an effect than a few measly pustules
Anyway, I do hope she gets better, but I personally would not get any spider bite medication unless I myself had been sure to see a spider cause the bite, which it sounds like she didn't since you said she "found out" from the doctor that it was a spider bite.
Also, see if you can find out what medication was prescribed, because it may be that the doctor knew what treatment was needed but couldn't think of an explanation and rather than saying "I don't know" he used the scapegoat/spider as an answer.
Let us know what happens!

--Nick L.

 

[pitbulllady]

Chiggers, or redbugs, are VERY common in North Carolina, and DO produce itchy red bumps or pustules that can be very persisitent, and VERY itchy. I don't know of any spider that produces such a symptom. Allergic reactions to spider bites are actually extremely rare, due to the composition of spider venoms. Comparing allergic reactions to insect stings, like bee stings, to a spider bite is worse than comparing apples and oranges, since the venom of stinging insects is totally different from that of any spider. Allergic reactions to insect stings tend to be highly systemic, affecting the entire body's system, and are therefore life-threatening. If someone were allergic to a bee sting, for example, they'd have a whole lot more than red itchy bumps to worry about.

There are also many plants that produce the reaction you described, besides just Poison Oak. Poison Sumac is common in NC, as are Stinging Nettles, and even many grasses can cause skin irritation.

I'm with all the others who are very leery of doctors who proclaim every unknown skin irritation/inflammation/sore/pustule/whatever as a "spider bite", without anyone ever having seen a spider. That's comparable to the doctors of the old days prescribing blood-letting for every ailment that they couldn't figure out, often bleeding patients to death in an attempt to cure them. You'd think that by now, medicine would have progressed beyond that, but I guess not.

pitbulllady

 

[bugmankeith]

Update.

I asked my sister how many holes the doctor said were in her foot, if it was a bite you would see fang marks than I guess. The doctor found 3 small holes on her foot, if you connect them they form a "V".

No other person on the trip had anything, because the doctor on campus said no student or professor had been in the office since school started up to now with these symptoms or something similar, only my sister.

She will be perscribed a cream and pills to treat it, but she still hasnt gotten them yet, financial issues.

Mabye she can get a picture of it with her cellphone and send me the picture?

 

[Vfox]

The doctor found 3 small holes on her foot, if you connect them they form a "V".

That's one hell of an odd spider bite then, I still don't think it was one though. I would assume she got hit by some ants, that would account for the missing 4th fang mark. Also ants seem to cause a worse reaction in most people than spider bites. Ironically, I was stung by an ant yesterday, and the sting mark ended up looking like a zit on my neck, similar to what you're describing, just one though. A little puffy, a little red, and a white area of "puss", which is just dead white blood cells trying to combat the toxin.

 

[bugmankeith]

Could that spider mabye have broken its 4th fang before she was bit, which is why only 3 holes instead of 4?

 

[Widowman10]

Could that spider mabye have broken its 4th fang before she was bit, which is why only 3 holes instead of 4?

4? i've never heard of a spider with 4 fangs! i'm pretty sure there are no spiders with 4 fangs...

 

[Vfox]

4? i've never heard of a spider with 4 fangs! i'm pretty sure there are no spiders with 4 fangs...

4 fangs = two bites = :razz:

 

[Widowman10]

4 fangs = two bites = :razz:

riiiight... maybe, but i doubt it who knows...

 

[pitbulllady]

Could that spider mabye have broken its 4th fang before she was bit, which is why only 3 holes instead of 4?

Dude, WHY are you so insistent that this is a spider bite, when already lots of people who are very knowledgeable about spiders have told you that it's very, very unlikely that it is? I honestly can't tell if you're being sarcastic in that statement of yours above, or if you really believe that spiders have four fangs. I'm kinda hoping for the former, since it's difficult for me to comprehend someone being on Arachnoboards this long and not knowing how many fangs a spider has, or knowing that the vast number of "spider bites" diagnosed by doctors are nothing of the sort. I'm starting to feel like you're just "messin" with us, to see what kind of reactions you'll get. No offense if I seem way off the mark, but seriously, a spider with FOUR fangs??

pitbulllady