Despite the generally accepted belief that a dog is a friend of a person, cases of a hundred dogs having bitten a person are far from uncommon. This problem is especially relevant in spring and autumn - the off-season periods affect the psyche of all mammals, including humans, to the same extent, but large predators become especially dangerous, and in urban conditions they are dogs. Every day, hundreds of people with injuries from dog bites of varying degrees of difficulty turn to emergency rooms. Such a situation, for natural reasons, leaves a person in bewilderment and panic, and he can not always navigate if he was bitten by a dog what to do and what to do in no case.
The panic and even the shock of a man bitten by a dog are understandable: this is a natural reaction to a predator attack. Very often, after this, a person feels a breakdown - this is also a natural reaction of the body to experienced stress and, possibly, the mobilization of all physical capabilities to repulse the attack, and therefore, having come home, immediately goes to bed. This can not be done in any case - you need to act, and moreover, urgently. The opposite situation is that the bitten man has disordered motor activity - this is also a reaction to stress, but in this case, at least you can give him a sedative and help take the right action.
So, if someone is bitten by a dog, what to do next? Firstly, you need to immediately seek medical help, since such bites are fraught with all sorts of consequences. First you need to assess his condition: if the wounds are shallow and do not interfere with movement, this does not mean that everything is in order, and you still have to go to the emergency room - this is where first aid is provided to bitten animals. If the condition is serious, or the wounds are deep, and the bleeding is intense, then you need to immediately call an ambulance, otherwise everything can end very badly. It is well known that the sooner first aid is provided for various injuries, the faster and more fully it will be possible to minimize their consequences, and if there is intense bleeding, then help should be provided in the next few minutes. In case of arterial bleeding (bright red blood comes out of the wound under pressure, and the jet pulsates), you should try to squeeze the damaged artery with your fingers above the site of injury, that is closer to the heart, before the ambulance arrives. In this case, even the compression of the directly damaged vessel with your fingers right in the wound will be a justified measure, especially if the bleeding is very heavy, because the count goes literally for seconds.
If the condition allows, you need to rinse the wounds from the saliva of animals as soon as possible - in case the dog is infected, this can reduce the risk of infection. As you know, in addition to rabies, dogs are carriers of other diseases, and in their mouth live bacteria alien to the human body that can cause prolonged inflammatory processes. It is necessary to learn for cases when a dog has bitten what to do with the wound itself; nothing needs to be done - just rinse, treat only the skin around it and apply a recent bandage so that dirt does not get into it during self-transportation - let it be better for a specialist to do it. Of course, in urgent cases you need to act on the situation, but if the condition is not serious, then it is better to rely on the experience of doctors.
After examination, specialists will have to do a series of vaccinations. In particular, this is a well-known rabies vaccination, or rabies vaccination. Rabies prophylaxis in Russia is free for all, and propaganda of rabies vaccines is also quite effective: every child answers the question "If a dog has bitten what to do?" without hesitation he will answer: "Vaccination against rabies!" It must be said here that the information about this vaccine, which is owned by most of us, is very outdated: for a long time nobody has been given a terrible forty injections into the stomach right away, and for three months 5-6 doses of the modern drug have been administered, which causes much less cases of individual intolerance than it was with the previous generation vaccine. Vaccination against rabies should be carried out in any case, even if it is your dog, the only exception is the availability of a certificate from the dog about rabies vaccination, from which no more than a year has passed, but this is very rare. If you neglect rabies vaccination and do not do it within a week after a bite, then if a disease occurs, a fatal outcome is guaranteed. Given the fact that cases of rabies in wild and domestic animals and even humans are becoming more frequent, it’s not worth the risk.
Also, most likely, you will have to get a tetanus vaccination. These vaccinations are given at the emergency room free of charge to all victims.
If a dog has bitten a person, what to do with it? It is clear that this animal most likely has mental problems and poses a danger to society, especially if it attacked a child - usually dogs are indulgent to children, and if a child was bitten by a dog as an adult, then there is absolutely nothing for people to do. Of course, there are various cases, and each situation should be carefully studied, but the following things remain unconditional: if the dog attacked the child, if the dog attacked first, if the dog caused very serious injuries, and even more so if they led to death - her need to be isolated from society. Of course, there are times when the animal was defending itself or protecting something and did not calculate its strength - but they are very different from those when it intended to kill it. Killer dogs are usually subject to destruction.