Dog Eats Man's Toe and Saves His Life 207
Have you ever been so drunk that you passed out and your dog ate your toe? I haven't either, but luckily for Michigander Jerry Douthett, he has. It turns out Jerry has type 2 diabetes and a wound on his toe had becoming dangerously infected. After a night of drinking Jerry passed out in his chair and the family dog Kiko decided to do a little doggy doctoring. From the article: "'The toe was gone,' said Douthett. 'He ate it. I mean, he must have eaten it, because we couldn't find it anywhere else in the house. I look down, there's blood all over, and my toe is gone.' [Douthett's wife] Rosee, 40, rushed her husband to the hospital where she's a gerontology nurse — Spectrum Health's Blodgett Campus. Kiko had gnawed to a point below the nail-line. When tests revealed an infection to the bone, doctors amputated what was left of the toe."
wow (Score:2)
Hungry dog saves man's life by eating a toe.
Wow.
Re:wow (Score:5, Funny)
Coming up next, on Sick, Sad World!
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Nah-na-nah-na-nah!
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Thank you!
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Don't be shy, Daria. Show me your boobs.
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Man! That's just BEGGING to be cut off at the ankles.
Re:wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Hungry dog saves man's life by eating a toe.
Wow.
No, not really. How much do you have to drink to pass out so badly that you don't feel your dog eating your toe?? I mean there could be several more plausible explanations than the one he came up with after waking up from his drunken stupor. At that kind of alcohol abuse, you can bet that the man has no idea what happened before he passed out. Besides, the man is a retard - he was urged to check for diabetes, but resisted "fearing the diagnosis" while his brother died of diabetes complications earlier! And he had this sliver in his toe and tried to remove it with a knife cutting away skin. Then when it got worse and started to both swell and SMELL, his solution was to use loose sandals instead of going to the doctor. Major fail. Oh, and his wife is a certified nurse.
Re:wow (Score:5, Insightful)
How much do you have to drink to pass out so badly that you don't feel your dog eating your toe?
How much diabetic neuropathy (nerve damage caused by diabetes) do you need before you can have a severe bone infection without noticing it? It's entirely possible that his toes are completely numb, especially after a night of drinking (which further screws with your blood sugar).
Besides that, his wife brought him home (you'd think she would have noticed if he were bleeding profusely) and the only blood in the house was on the bed where he was sleeping. I've got to say, their theory doesn't sound as far fetched to me as so many others seem to think it is.
As for the being too afraid to go to the doctor because you're worried you might be seriously ill... yeah that's retarded. "If I don't put a label on what my bodies doing them I'm not really sick." Yep, brilliant logic.
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Re:wow (Score:5, Insightful)
How much do you have to drink to pass out so badly that you don't feel your dog eating your toe??
Maybe not much if the toe is rotting and the nerves are damaged by diabetes and infection.
Besides, the man is a retard - he was urged to check for diabetes, but resisted "fearing the diagnosis" while his brother died of diabetes complications earlier!
It's really easy to point to someone acting out of fear and say "That's irrational: that's stupid." All of us have procrastinated out of fear on smaller things than "You could die." It's a universal human failing, and very common when it comes to scary medical things. Yes he should have done many things different, but we don't know the full story.
Let's reserve terms like "retard" for people who aren't behaving irrationally out of fear for their lives.
Re:wow (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't forget that few people have decent health insurance, so it is understandable why some people would put it off, because of fear that it would result in complete loss of coverage, as well as bankruptcy, loss of job. In this economy, one bad injury or illness can get a person's family on the streets.
This may be one reason why he put it off so long. Regardless, it is tragic.
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Re:wow (Score:5, Insightful)
In a hostile environment, hiding illness or injury is a common strategy to avoid predation. In this case, the jackals would be health insurance companies.
When we prioritize providing decent healthcare over welfare for rich bankers, blowing up brown people and looking under people's clothes in the airport, we'll see less of this sort of thing.
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I reserve the term "retard" for anyone who isn't me.
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Remember you said that if you're ever scared out of your mind about a medical issue and make sure you see a doctor before the cancer cells undergo metastasis / the STD causes permanent damage / your kid's fever kills him / the infection requires amputation.
Re:wow (Score:5, Funny)
I can just see that conversation...
Husband: "Holy cow, where's my toe? What happened?!"
Wife: "I finally lopped off that death-threat."
Husband: "What? That... that don't even make SENSE!"
Wife: "Yep, I've just been waiting for you to pass out drunk so I could take care of it. Smell was gettin' too bad."
Husband: "But... that ain't even possible! You can't just cut off my toe! Why are you lying?"
Wife: "*sigh* Okay, you're right, you're right. It was the dog. The dog actually bit it off and ate it. It completely ignored the rancid smell of rotting flesh, and ate your toe."
Husband: "Oh! Well that makes sense, that dog always was loyal! Good boy! Have some more Jack Daniels, boy!"
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Major Fail? When I was a youngster we would refer to this as "thinning the herd".
Re:wow (Score:5, Informative)
The reason he didn't feel his dog eating his toe is not just that he was drunk, but because diabetes causes peripheral neuropathy. When you have severe untreated diabetes, you often can't feel pain in your extremities, and untreated sores become gangrenous. So his being drunk was the least of his problems, his bigger problem was that his toe was decomposing and he couldn't feel it.
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The reason he didn't feel his dog eating his toe is not just that he was drunk, but because diabetes causes peripheral neuropathy. When you have severe untreated diabetes, you often can't feel pain in your extremities, and untreated sores become gangrenous. So his being drunk was the least of his problems, his bigger problem was that his toe was decomposing and he couldn't feel it.
Yeah, but he could SMELL and see it - that might have been a clue that something's not right...
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Yup the guy is a loser to begin with. you dont drink like that when you have Diabetes. you also dont ignore injuries when you have that disease either.
It's just a good example of how redneck we still are here in michigan....
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No, not really. How much do you have to drink to pass out so badly that you don't feel your dog eating your toe??
A lot [wikipedia.org]. Link related.
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Luck has nothing to do with it. They bought the dog to do their income taxes.
I understand they've got special breeds for that now, like the wire-haired deduction hound and the tax haven terrier.
Re:wow (Score:5, Funny)
An acquaintance of mine once fell into bed dead drunk, and his pet rabbit chewed the ends of his fingers (it's nae ordinary bunny!). Next day he checked into rehab, which probably saved him from drinking himself to death.
OK, not quite the same, but what do you expect from a rabbit, an intervention?
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Nope, but since rabbits were carnivores before being vegans, I'm not surprised. It seems bunnies still have a bit of the old blood lust in 'em.
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Let them have their moment. This is basically the only time that "dog bites man" will be news.
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Nowhere in the article does it state that the dog was hungry.
I don't mean to imply anything, but dogs are used to detect other medical conditions [epilepsy.com].
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True, but either way.
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Certainly, there is wow in that story.
For me:
1. THE DUDE DIDN'T WAKE UP! Seriously, how drunk do you have to be to sleep through your toe being eaten? Truly, 4 sheets to the wind.
2. Half the toe is gone, blood is everywhere - how long did he spend looking for it?
I think it's interesting that he says he wears shoes to bed now.
I hope he wears a mask, gloves and a codpiece or the dog might just get something more important next time.
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Diabetic Neuropathy. Look it up. It's entirely possible he had no feeling or almost no feeling in his toes to begin with, before adding drunk to the mix. Not a complication I have to deal with though, at least not yet (I'll get more jumpy about not feeling my feet when I can't discern the texture of the linoleum clearly anymore). I've been pretty lucky so far, my only complication has been swelling that doesn't respond to lasix.
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"Superman eats man's toe, saves house".
Sounds Like Maggot Treatment (Score:5, Interesting)
By no means a pleasant option but an interesting way to remove infection.
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*Flush the wound repeatedly with sterile water or fresh urine to remove the maggots.
Might I just be the one to say "EWWWWWWWWWWW!"
Re:Sounds Like Maggot Treatment (Score:5, Informative)
Human urine is quite sterile, believe it or not.
And, for some reason, this is my second post about urine today. What the hell?
Re:Sounds Like Maggot Treatment (Score:5, Funny)
Yet, I stand by my belief that it's better to be pissed off than pissed on.
Re:Sounds Like Maggot Treatment (Score:5, Funny)
Here on Urine Talk today we have frequent caller Gorzek...
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Human urine is quite sterile, believe it or not.
Pedant says: It's either sterile or it's not.
Piss is sterile ... but it is a very fertile breeding ground for all kinds of little bugs, so it doesn't stay sterile very long outside of the bladder.
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http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quite#Adverb [wiktionary.org]
Has usage 1. gone out of use in North America or something? It's quite normal here, if slightly old-fashioned.
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Yes, it's very unique in that regard.
...
(if uncertain, please mentally append a wink to that sentence.)
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Shit is another matter entirely. ;)
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No, he said "no shit". :)
I can't say I've ever heard of using fecal matter to clean a wound, but I've sure heard of avoiding fecal matter in wounds. Well, that and any contact with fecal matter in general. :) .... unless you're tubgirl. {shivers}
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Oh I know all this. Still disgusting.
The part about maggots doesn't bother me.
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true enough
Re:Sounds Like Maggot Treatment (Score:5, Informative)
This is still done in hospitals, particularly for bad burns. The Green Bottle Fly is most often used, as the maggots will only eat dead flesh, and do not excrete waste. Only after they pupate and metamorphose into flies do they excrete, thus the larvae are essentially sterile.
The pharmacy at the local hospital grows such larvae in sterile environments just for such use. In the field you won't have all those advantages, but it's absolutely an option.
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I just went to wikipedia and read all about it.
The really scary thing about maggots, that their infestation may lead to myiasis.
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Sounds like I might not want to know, but what is "ordinary debridement?" Just cutting it off with a sterile knife?
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No, they use a special sterile metal brush basically.
Pics or it didn't happen! (Score:2)
Not safe for lunch. [youtube.com]
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If you don't have modern medicine, it is extremely important to treat an infection as soon as possible because any infection has potential to become life-threatening if i
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...to keep them from escaping
Once they get a taste for humans...
Re:Sounds Like Maggot Treatment (Score:4, Interesting)
gerentology nurse? (Score:4, Insightful)
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There are some shitty nurses out there.
Re:gerentology nurse? (Score:4, Insightful)
There are some shitty nurses out there.
There are shitty husbands out there too. Honestly my wife never knows about my minor medical issues, if she did I'd never hear the end of it. Now I say shitty husbands because deception is a terrible way to deal with problems and I'd probably be better off if nothing was hidden.
Whats more this guy has diabetes, anyone with diabetes knows to take special care with any kind of wound or infection. He didn't take care of himself, how is that his wife's fault?
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I'm not blaming the wife for anything. I'm just surprised she never noticed the signs or smell the infection. Something that bad had to have smelled, right?
He also passed out drunk, I'm sure that EVERYTHING smelled.
Re:gerentology nurse? (Score:4, Informative)
From the article, he had been hiding it from his wife for a while. After she saw it, she suspected diabetes, but he had resisted seeing a doctor due to the fear of a diagnosis. Lots of stupid stuff on his part. Not so many on the wife's.
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I'm just wondering how it could have gotten so bad with a nurse in the house?
Maybe she was trying to let him die to collect the insurance money. Never be worth more dead than you are alive.
Moron (Score:4, Funny)
Diabetic and drinking like a fish. Smooth move, retard.
.
Re:Moron (Score:4, Insightful)
We were standing in line at the Starbucks one morning behind a woman with a diabetic wrist-band thingie and she ordered a Vente Mocha Frappuccino.
But then again, I've seen people so fat that they had to ride those little scooter/shopping cart things and it looked like they were buying one of everything in the frozen dessert case.
If you want to see why the US is headed toward total collapse, go look at the pictures on the "People of Wal-Mart" site.
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Collapse? It's just natural selection in action.
Re:Moron (Score:5, Funny)
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Actually, it is the opposite of Natural Selection, since society pays for their health care.
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I've seen that site. It is indeed scary.
I live in the Southeastern US. On a recent trip to Walt Disney World there was a family whose members were literally too large to fit through the turnstiles. To top it off, they complained loudly that the entrances were too small. The children, who appeared to be around 10 or 11 years old, were also obese. I estimate that they weighed about 100 kilos each (220lbs or so). Hey, how other adults live their lives is their own business, and for the most part, how they ra
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Perhaps, or perhaps it is just genetic. Perhaps that is less likely, but you really can't know for sure. I don't see how ordinary kids could reach those kinds of weights otherwise, unless you strapped them down to a table and pumped food into their digestive systems 24x7.
Re:Moron (Score:5, Funny)
Some time ago I saw a person who looked to be about 35-40 years old riding around in a Little Rascal motorized scooter.
She had a cigarette between her lips, a bottle of soda in a beverage holder, and a couple of donuts on a tray that was right under the steering yoke. I'd say she probably weighed in at 350, minimum.
I kind of admired her for it... Lots of people *say* "fuck it all" but she was really doing something about it!
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Seriously. I used to think the character Krystal from Squidbillies (Early's main "squeeze" and tormentor) was an exaggeration.
However, if you walk through any Wal-Mart in America today, you will see several Krystals, as well as her bigger, scarier, and less mobile sister.
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If you want to see why the US is headed toward total collapse, go look at the pictures on the "People of Wal-Mart" site.
Because people are different? That's a strength.
Oh, you mean a site dedicated to the ridicule of people who are different by folks riddled with OCD? Yeah, that's a concern.
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Brother, the People of Wal-Mart are a different species.
Some make Jabba the Hutt look like Angelina Jolie.
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Going to the hospital for the toe resulted in him being diagnosed with diabetes, at which point he stopped drinking.
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I've never understood the whole bit about being afraid to go to the doctor to get a dianosis. It's not like you don't actually get the disease until the doctor tells you.
It's similar to girls who won't step on the scale for fear of seeing her weight. It ain't changing, scale or no.
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I've never understood the whole bit about being afraid to go to the doctor to get a dianosis. It's not like you don't actually get the disease until the doctor tells you.
Hoping you can afford health insurance before it gets too serious and knowing "pre-existing" conditions are never covered?
It's regular every day life for about 1/3rd of the population.
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In the US, it probably has something to do with diagnoses going on the medical record which all the health insurance companies can see.
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"If you ask him, he will likely say he suffers from the disease* called alcoholism,"
Great model, which fits the fact drunks are self-pitying pieces of shit.
What am I reading again? (Score:2, Insightful)
The dog... (Score:2)
Re:The dog... (Score:4, Funny)
That's what the cat said.
Good thing... (Score:5, Funny)
...he didn't have the clap.
It is technically possible (Score:3, Informative)
This is what a foot looks like in a diabetic patient (warning - gross) [podiatrytoday.com].
This is a moderate case. This can occur to the ankles.
Wait (Score:2)
If a person is diabetic doesn't the doctor advise them not to drink heavily or even drink at all.
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Lucky guy (Score:2)
Really. Good dog, too. Someone give that dog a medal.
He showed them! (Score:2)
.
Cat eats boyfriend's penis- saves owner from AIDS (Score:2)
No further elaboration needed...
Wow... (Score:2)
I sure hope the dog didn't get sick.
How is this news? (Score:2)
This is a clear case of "dog bites man" and therefore, by definition, not news. Let me know when a diabetic dog's life is saved by his heroic master eating one of his toes.
yeah (Score:2)
Man wakes up without toe. man has dog. clearly the dog ate it.
More proof that you should have to take a test in logical thinking before your allowed to drink alcohol, drive, vote, edit slahdot, or use a hand gun.
Actually quite plausible (Score:2)
lol toe eating dogs (Score:2)
"I can haz toeburger?"
Why was a diabetic going out drinking? (Score:2)
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If it was necrotic, he would have lost all feeling in the tissue. Same deal with destructive frostbite.
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Seriously, RTFA : "He believes Douthett didn't immediately awaken partly because of nerve damage caused by diabetes".
Re:How drunk do you need to be... (Score:4, Insightful)
I've watched dogs eat, and they aren't exactly polite nor careful. That dog was probably yanking and biting. He would have noticed something if he wasn't out cold from the booze.
The dog didn't save him. He just smelled like rotting meat, which for some reason dogs like. We've all read reports where the owner died and the pets had no other source of food, so they went for the large but slightly rotting corpse.
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This might partly have something to do with the diabetes and how alcohol affects you. I had a diabetic roommate once who drank like a fish, and when he did, the alcohol seemed to push him into the "falling down, blacked out, stupid" phase much quicker than anyone I know. He once got so drunk he broke into a bunch of cars in our apartment parking lot looking for something he lost. No memory of that the next day. Another time he decided it'd be a good idea to not take his insulin and then drink. Paramedi
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Well, it might not have hurt that badly if his diabetes was so advanced that all the nerves going into his toe were dead. It sounds like his toe was basically rotting off his body without him being aware of it, so I'm guessing that the nerves were all dead. Dog just ate it all because it was rotten/dead meat to him. Guy didn't realize because all the nerves were dead.
Re:How drunk do you need to be... (Score:4, Funny)
Just a bit past the point where you blow chunks.
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They say if you eat a mans toe you gain his strength.
Wasn't that for stealing/cutting his hair? I'd say; Give a dog a toe and you feed him for a day. Teach a dog to hunt for toes and you feed him for a lifetime.
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o you have a dog that just decided it enjoys gnawing on human extremities while they are not moving. Good dog!
Bet it didn't smell like "my person" but more like "a parasite attacking my person".