This story is about Mona, My cat. I found Mona pregnant in May 17th 2004. I had her spayed and the kittens aborted..about 2 weeks after I found her....the night I got her back from the operation at about 10:30 Pm I noticed a welt on her ear, and her ear being very red. I checked on her again at about midnight and the redness had began to spread...I figured I would call the vet in teh am as they had probally pricked her ear for blood? Even though that isnt a common practice. They said they had not when I called at 8 am, also the very tip of her ear had started t look very "dried out" looking...like it was VERY irritated and red, and curling in on itself. That night I had allready done some research on BRS and their bites, but couldnt find any pics of bites on extrimities like an ear..only meaty parts, or fingers...and then only one of an animal and it was of the back of a small dog. When I got to the vet with her the spot that looked like where the actuall bite may have been had turned into a blister and ruptured allready (its only been one day since symptoms started). And the tip of the ear that was curling was now turning black. Just teh very outer tip edge. The vet had never seen anything like it, and when I metioned the BRS she said she guessed it could be possible. (Even though we arent even close to an area that is percieved to be thier territory we have heard of several stories, one of a close friends daughter who was hospitalized for over 2 months) Over the next week her ear progressed even worse. First the "blister" looking spot became a lesion with the classic purple and red look, then a "V" shaped red area went down her ear towards the base, as the outer edges progressivly turned blacker and blacker (Necrosis) The middle of her ear proceeded to become almost redish clear (if that makes sence) like a membrane? Before it slowly turned black. It took about 2 weeks for the infection to quit spreading, and for it to kill her ear. It ended up killing about 3/4th of her ear in a large "V" shape. After the infection quit spreading it took another week or 2 for the ear to fall off. The vets didnt want to cut the ear as tehy felt it would just cause her more pain than to jsut let the body deal with it. The black part of her ear was cold and hard...very very hard, and she had no feeling in it at all. I will send pics as well showing her going through the stages.
If you would please post them and her story on your site so that people can find it as a reference for pets being bitten? Of course we never foudn the spider that we know of..in fact I "MAY" have it right here with me...and will be taking it to the local university for identification on Monday..but as far as we know she was bitten before I found her..we surely hope it isnt in our home!!! She did have one other spot on the nape of her neck that grew to the size of a quarter and the top layer of skin became the same hard, black cold dead stuff that took forever to come off...we think that was a spot as well....
