Possible spider bite

I've lived in my home for 18 years. There are brown recluse sightings. Never been bit by one. Neither has anyone else here. Last week I noticed a small whitehead on my arm. I thought what a weird place for a zit. I picked at it. It swelled up afterward. Now it is open and oozing. The doctor said it looked like a bite to him. Never felt it or saw a spider when this started. Anyway, he put me on antibiotics and I have an appointment for hyperbaric oxygen treatment tomorrow.

A little worried because I know brown recluses are dangerous. They can leave nasty wounds. I worked with a man who had to use a cain to walk for months after he was bit in the leg. The doctor said this will take a long time to recover from.

a reply to: Blueracer

Even if it was a brown recluse, you should be okay.

A friend of mine was bit on the ass by one about 12 years ago and he's fine.

I think the danger is more if you let it go untreated.

brown recluse

are nasty little buggers. The poison migrates throughout muscle tissue without dilution and makes a nasty wound far away from the original bite site.

Probably one of the most poisonous creatures for it's size on the planet.

originally posted by: CharlesT

brown recluse

are nasty little buggers. The poison migrates throughout muscle tissue without dilution and makes a nasty wound far away from the original bite site.

Probably one of the most poisonous creatures for it's size on the planet.

Most brown bites remain localized and do not spread to other areas.

Box jelly is worst.

a reply to: Blueracer

Sounds like a spider bite to me. The worst ones are usually painless at first. It's the toxins that cause the damage.

Stay on top of it medically and you should be alright. The worst cases are when people ignore them expecting them to just go away.

On a side note, I was putting in a sprinkler system in these people's house one time. I had to tap a water man down in the crawl space. The crawl space was just that, only big enough to "crawl" (on your back) through. The hatch into the crawlspace was clear on the other side of the house from where I needed to run all the copper pipe. I was about halfway through, when I looked up into the floor joists (about 8" above my nose) and saw a great big nest of brown recluse spiders!!!

Of course my first reaction was to turn over and get up to run. After I could open my eyes again from crying like a little girl after bashing my head on the floor joists, I did the world's fastest low-crawl on the planet!! Probably looked like one of those crazy iguanas humpin' it out of that crawlspace! Time to get the wasp killer and a torch! I was happy when that job was over.

a reply to: Muninn

Box Jelly is certainly the most painful, but is it the worst?

I thought pound for pound the blue ringed octopus was the most poisonous.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Muninn

Box Jelly is certainly the most painful, but is it the worst?

I thought pound for pound the blue ringed octopus was the most poisonous.

The blue comes in 4th.

Box jelly
King cobra
Marbled cone snail
Blue ringed
.
.

a reply to: Muninn

Huh, learn something every day I guess.

Really kind of surprised to see the king cobra that high on the list. I thought it was a lot further down.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I always thought the banded sea snake was more toxic too but I think they include how many deaths are caused by said animal.

a reply to: Blueracer

I camp in a place that has tons of brown recluse spiders.

I've never been bite myself (surprisingly) But I have seen people in real life that were.

If that bite turns brown and then black as it grows larger to become a good sized rotten flesh hole then yes it is a brown recluse bite.


Now two things can happen. ether your body fights it off the way my friends body did. You will get that pain full hole for a while and then heal. My friend was bite on his back and at it's worse the radius of the circle shaped wound was about an inch.

Or it will eat away at your arm until it causes permanent nerve damage and you need to go to the hospital.

Death is unlikely but much pain is to be expected no mater what happens.

IF it's a brown recluse bite.

From your description I don't think it is. Especially because it's been a week already and that is about the time a recluse bite will start to really hurt and turn dark brown/black. Has it done that or is it still a white/ red oozy bump?


Go see a doctor if your worried enough to post about it.

a reply to: watchitburn

Only because it was on his ass.

The brown recluse venom rots flesh away. So if it is on your butt not a big deal but if it's on say your hand. You could lose movement because of nerve damage.

My friend that was bite on his back was ok as well but only because he is a fat ass. lol

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

www.cnet.com...

List of most venomous animals on earth.

#26 brown recluse
#1 Box jellyfish

originally posted by: Muninn
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I always thought the banded sea snake was more toxic too but I think they include how many deaths are caused by said animal.

That's what I thought to.

a reply to: Blueracer

I lived in quarters on Fort Campbell where we actually had to have exterminators come in and do an extensive spraying for brown recluses because they were everywhere--we were officially infested. They removed all of the outlet covers and light fixtures, spraying into the walls and all over the home, both inside and out. The problem is, it was an attached unit with one apartment above us and two others on the other side. There was no way that they were going to eradicate them without treating the other apartments, too...which they didn't.

That said, for many, many people (and by some accounts, most people), the reaction to the BC bite is rather mild and doesn't cause any major or lasting issues. Of course, some do experience soft-tissue necrosis and major problem, so they are definitely a spider not worth playing with as a soft, cuddly pet.

And don't let they hype fool you, they aren't as dangerous and scary as people make them out to be, but like many things, if the issue goes untreated, it can blossom into something terrible.

My favorite part of living in the house was the day that I was lying in bed and I watch a BC crawl across my chest...yes, I was under the covers, but I bet one of his friends were, too.

Also, they inject venom, not poison...poison is something that you ingest, venom is something injected into by something else (as in spider and snake bites). Generally speaking.

For your reading pleasure: Why You Need Not Fear the Poor, Misunderstood Brown Recluse Spider

"People react differently to bites," Bills said. According to The Integrated Pest Management Program at UC Berkeley, 90 percent of bites heal without medical attention or scarring. Reactions to a brown recluse bite vary depending on the amount of venom injected and the individual’s sensitivity levels, reports The Ohio State University. Some people may experience a delayed reaction, others an immediate reaction, and others no reaction at all. Many brown recluse bites leave a small red mark that heals quickly, and the vast majority of bites do not leave scars.

For those with higher sensitivity levels, a small white blister appears at the bite site soon after the bite. The tissue may become hard. Lesions are dry, blue-gray or blue-white patches with ragged edges surrounded by redness. This color pattern has yielded the nickname "red, white and blue," and, in severe reactions, the bite site can develop a "volcano lesion," according to The Ohio State University. The damaged tissue becomes gangrenous and leaves an open wound that can be as large as a human hand. It can take eight weeks or longer for full recovery, and scars may result.

a reply to: scraedtosleep

You're being too black/white about this. Some people only get a small bump and it goes away, and others loose sizeable chunks of muscle.

Most people who are bitten by a brown recluse don't even know it and the bite heals with no necrosis or scarring at all.

a reply to: Blueracer
I got bit three times that I know of from spiders. One was probably a brown recluse, that one gave me some major problems, the area around the bite looked like it was dying. I got a really good antibiotic from the doctor and it got better over the next week or so. I still have a little scar in the area but not really that bad. The circle was the size of a large egg.

My neighbor was not so lucky, he wound up with a big depression in his leg, they did not give him an expensive antibiotic at first, same office, different doctor. I found out from him that his wound was probably from the Recluse and I was there three days before and they told him I most likely had the same thing after he had went back in another four days because it was getting way worse..

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I'm surprised at that too. I was under the impression the Taipan and Eastern Brown snakes were the most venomous snakes with the Cobra down the list a bit.

I'll check up on that.

Of course another nasty is the flamin "Funnel Web" spider.

I was bitten on the back of the neck by a "White Tippped" spider some years ago. Might be similar to your "Brown Recluse". The wound festered and I was thinking to myself this could be bad. (Flesh eating bacteria). For me though I was lucky. It healed after 6 weeks but returns every now and then after about 12 months. Just an itchy bleeding sore where I was bitten.

Kind regards,

bally

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Muninn

Huh, learn something every day I guess.

Really kind of surprised to see the king cobra that high on the list. I thought it was a lot further down.

The Most Venomous Snakes In The World

Rank Snake Region Subcutaneous injection LD50 (Saline)
1 Inland taipan Australia 0.025 mg/kg
2 Dubois' seasnake Coral Sea, Arafura Sea, Timor Sea and Indian Ocean 0.044 mg/kg
3 Eastern brown snake Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia 0.053 mg/kg
4 Yellow bellied sea snake Tropical oceanic waters 0.067 mg/kg

Just for info. Recently there was a death on a fishing vessel in the Northern Territory waters from a Dubois' seasnake

Kind regards,

bally

A year ago I got a couple of black fuzzy patches of skin on my leg that just slid off on the morning. They healed up, then days later I had a giant blister with black fuzziness on the underside of what used to be epidermis. Didn't know what it was but keeping anything looking black on my body didn't seem a good idea, so I peeled it off. Skin was white fluffy underneath, so I figured it would just need a regular sticky bandage to help heal. Didn't work out that way. The white fluffy bits became yellow, my lower leg became swollen, exudate tubes formed through my skin and other holes opened up with exudate leaking out. It's taken a year for this to heal - I had pneumonia at the same time. I had what felt like silver threads creep up my leg towards and around my heart.

My wife was trying on summer clothes in preparation for a trip and was apparently bitten on the stomach by a Brown Recluse. The bite looked like a pimple. We left for a two week trip to Jamaica the next day. A couple of days later it looked red and swollen. The Doctor in Ocho Rios looked up the info on the internet and treated her with antibiotics and steroids. She was healed up in a few weeks, but it did leave a small scar.
Early treatment seems to help a lot.