Bitten by Another Dog: Wounds, Antibiotics, and Waiting Too Long
In Australian vet records of 1,713 dog-on-dog bites, most dogs arrived more than a day after the injury, and nearly half had deep wounds.
Written by thecanineledger
If your dog has been bitten by another dog, call your vet the same day, even if the wound looks small. Go now if the wound is bleeding heavily, is on the chest, belly or neck, or your dog is weak, struggling to breathe or in a lot of pain.
Our note: This advice is ours. The study gives no owner advice.
In Australian vet records from 1998 to 2018, 1,713 dog-on-dog bite injuries were reviewed. Where the time of injury was recorded, 55.9% of dogs arrived at the vet more than 24 hours after the bite (Kalnins et al., Antibiotics 2022). Nearly half the wounds, 46.6%, were deep injuries graded four out of five.
While a bite can look like a couple of small holes, it can hide damage underneath. That is why vets grade bites by what lies under the skin.
→ Dog First Aid: Choking, Bleeding, Burns and Collapse
1. The study
The dogs. Researchers reviewed records from VetCompass Australia, a database of vet records from practices across Australia. They studied 1,713 bite events in 1,655 dogs.
The aim. The study was mainly about antibiotic use. It also recorded wound severity, timing and outcomes.
Funding. A government research scholarship and university bequest funds supported the work. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
2. How bad the wounds were
The researchers graded each wound from one to five:
| Grade | What it means | Share of bites |
|---|---|---|
| 1 and 2 | Surface wounds, partial or full thickness of the skin | 25.8% |
| 3 | Full-thickness puncture, dog otherwise well | 26.7% |
| 4 | Deep puncture or tear with damage underneath, an abscess, or a sick dog | 46.6% |
| 5 | The most severe | 0.9% |
Surgery. 40.8% of grade four wounds needed surgery. No grade one or two wounds did.
Our note: The paper’s definition of grade five isn’t in the text we extracted.
3. Waiting before seeing a vet
| Time from bite to vet | Share of dogs (where recorded) |
|---|---|
| Within 1 hour | 6% |
| 1 to 8 hours | 16.8% |
| 8 to 24 hours | 21.0% |
| More than 24 hours | 55.9% |
The authors found a strong link between the time to presentation and wound severity. The paper doesn’t say whether waiting made wounds worse, or whether owners noticed some wounds only once they became infected.
Our note: The study doesn’t show that seeing a vet quickly after a bite reduces infection or complications.
4. Antibiotics
Most dogs got them. 86.6% of bite events received antibiotics by mouth or injection. Where none were given, the vet usually judged them unnecessary, and most of these were grade one wounds.
A concern for vets. The authors found many prescriptions were for antibiotics considered important to protect against resistance, and some doses were too low. A lab test to choose the right antibiotic was recorded in only one case. The authors found that “Differences in individual veterinarian prescribing habits were stronger than the clinic culture”.
Follow-up. Only 14.1% of dogs had a recorded recheck. Among those, 6.5% had complications consistent with possible infection.
→ “Finish the Course”: Antibiotics for Dogs · → Antibiotic-Resistant Skin Infections (MRSP)
5. What the study can’t tell you
Missing follow-up. 84.7% of dogs were lost to follow-up, so infection rates are uncertain.
Grading from notes. Wound grades came from how vets described wounds, which may have led to misclassification.
Figures that differ. The abstract says 86.1% received antibiotics; the results say 86.6%. One surgery figure is printed as “1224/1173”, which can’t be right. The complication counts by grade don’t add up to the total.
Our note: We give no advice on antibiotics for bites beyond seeing a vet.
6. What we could not verify
| Commonly said | What we found |
|---|---|
| “A small bite will heal on its own” | Not shown. Many wounds were deeper than grade two. |
| “Every dog bite needs antibiotics” | Not settled. Vets judged some unnecessary, and the study wasn’t designed to test it. |
| “You can wait and see” | Not tested. Most dogs arrived after a day. The study didn’t test whether waiting changed outcomes. |
Sources
- Kalnins NJ, Croton C, Haworth M, Gibson J, Purcell SL, Stewart AJ. A VetCompass Australia study of antimicrobial use in dog-to-dog bite wounds (1998–2018). Antibiotics (Basel) 2022: VetCompass Australia records, 1,713 bite events. Government scholarship and university bequest funding
Always confirm with your vet before acting on anything on this page.