You're off to the park with your niece or nephew and there's a sweet little dog... or maybe it's not so sweet... walking by. Your niece or nephew runs to say hello and pat the dog. Sounds like fun, right? Well what happens if the dog isn't as friendly as we'd like to think. What happens if the dog bites?

Of course, prevention is the key in protecting children against dog bites.  Children should be supervised when playing with dogs and should never approach an unfamiliar dog, disturb a dog while it's sleeping, eating or caring for its puppies.  Children also should not run from or scream at a dog.  Of course, dog owners should follow leash laws and train their dogs.... but approximately seventy percent of all dog bites occur on the dog owner’s property and very often it is the family’s pet.

If there is a dog bite incident, children are frequently bitten on the face.  With a severe dog bite, parents and aunts should request a plastic surgeon to minimize scarring and infection.  The area is anesthetized (numbed) with local anesthesia or in severe cases, general anesthesia. Then the wound is cleaned and repaired frequently with a layered repair.  The laceration may be closed with absorbable (dissolving) sutures, non-absorbable (ones that need to be removed), staples or dermabond (“glue”).  On the face, stitches stay 4-7 days.

Even with appropriate emergency treatment, scar revisions may be necessary at a later date - usually 6-12 months minimum after an injury.

Ok - no one wants their niece or nephew to get bitten by a dog. What could be worse? How about venom. A snakebite presents the possibility of envenomation (poison) in addition to bite injury. So if you're hiking this summer and your niece or nephew gets bitten by a snake, you should go to the emergency room immediately.  If the type of snake is unknown, emergency treatment proceeds with observation and local wound care. Bites inflicted by rattlesnakes may result in tissue damage that requires wide debridement. Skin grafting or reconstruction with skin flaps may be needed after primary healing of the wound site.

As much as we don't want to believe these incidents will happen to our precious nieces and nephews, it's always best to be prepared.