Brown Recluse Spider Bite

[CindyKansas]

Yesterday 16 year old DD complained of 2 bug bites on her left hand wrist. I looked at them and put cortisone on them and didn't think much about it, I thought she probably got bit by something on Saturday when she had been out walking. She got up this morning and they were worse and bigger. I told her that I would call the doctor and try to get her in and that when she got to school have the school nurse look at the arm. I did get a hold of the Doctor's office a little after 8 and they told me that the nurse would call me back. After I hung up the phone it rang and it was the school nurse and she told me that she thought it was a brown recluse spider bite and that I needed to get DD to the doctor. Told her I was waiting for them to call me back. So I called the doctor's office back and asked if I should take DD to the ER, they had me bring her in and of course they don't know for sure that it's a spider bite, but it looks really suspicious. I was told that there is nothing that really can be done. He did give her an antihistamine for the swelling and told her to take Advil for the pain and to come back Thursday.
So, DD is freaking out, since her friends are telling her all of these horror stories about people they know that have been bitten. So my question is "Who out there has been bitten by a brown recluse spider and what did you experience?"

I asked the doctor how common spider bites were and he told us that around here 90% of the homes have brown recluse spiders and that it didn't matter how clean or organized your home was. DD did go to a friends house Saturday night to watch a movie. The friends room is in the basement and I understand that it's not a finished basement. This is mystery that will probably never be solved. I HATE SPIDERS! I WOULD RATHER HAVE A MOUSE IN MY HOUSE THAN A SPIDER!

 

[OK!]

My ex-boyfriend's dad was bitten by a brown recluse on his thumb toward the end of the summer and the end result was gross. The best description I can come up with is that his thumb looked like the end of a hot dog that's been overcooked--you know, where it swells so much it bursts? Sorry for being so hideously graphic, and I don't know if the reason his got so bad is because he let it go for too long before seeing a doc (which may well have been the case); hopefully your daughter won't have to go through anything near that bad!

 

[cynsaun]

Ok, the thing is it may have been a spider bite, but it may not have been a brown recluse. When a person has a reaction to a spider bite, it's usually a secondary reaction, not a reaction to poision in a bite.

That said, a brown recluse spider bite has a certain look to it, black in the center. The bite will grow, and could eventually grow to the size of her hand and up her arm. If it was a brown recluse, they would have put her on an antibiotic, so I am thinking they aren't thinking it is that sort of spider bite.

Keep an eye on it, as cellulitis can set in, and if not treated can be deadly. If the bite gets hard and had a bumpy look to it, those may be signs of cellulitis.

I know this because I had a brown recluse spider bite a few months ago, I went into shock and was one step away from being admitted to the hospital.

 

[ahutton]

I had a nasty spider bite on my index finger in the area of the joint closest to the nail. It was very swollen, hot to the touch and the skin in the center of the bit turned a nasty silvery color. The area around it (within an inch or so) was bright red and itchy. My nail never fell off or anything, but it got a line in it that eventually grew out. I was put on antibiotics and a steroid pack.

For the next 5 or so years every time I had a virus my finger would swell, the outer layers of skin would blister and peel and the area around it was red and itchy. Fewer layers as the years passed, but it was a great way to know if I was getting an infection of some type or if it was a virus. They never said for sure what kind of spider it was but I would prefer not to meet another!

 

[Disneydimwit]

Good luck to your daughter and hope it heals soon!

 

[jcemom]

My DS was bitten by a brown recluse spider a couple of summers ago. I had never even heard of them before that. The bite was behind his ear, mostly hidden by his ear and his hair and so I didn't notice it right away. When I saw it and took him to the doctor it was black and about the size of a quarter. The doctor had to clean it as part of the spider was embedded in DS's skin. They called in every doctor and nurse working in the offices as all but one had never seen that type of bite before. It was just awful. They put him on antibiotics and scheduled a follow-up visit to be sure it was healing. The doctor told us that a brown recluse spider bite can be very serious. If not treated it will continue to grow as the tissue dies.

 

[WorldlyWise]

Ask the doc about steroids. I have always heard them prescribed for spider bites.

 

[autumnblue]

How horrible... I do hope your daughter recovers quickly!


Autumn

 

[FroggyinArk]

definately watch for the black dor in the center, it can take a day or 2 to show up, also watch for redness extending away from the bite,, have been bitten several times by various spiders, ytwice by brown recluses i have a scar hte size of a nickle on my neck from one that got me, dw has a scar the size of a quarter on her hip from a bite in her youth, around herre drs often prescribe ichtamol (sp) ointment and a light bandage, but not always. htese bite s can be very dangerous. a friend of mine who i used to w ork around often, almost lost his hand and did lose 80 % of the range of motion in it after a recluse bit him on the back of his hand while he was changing out a faucet under a kuitchen sink.

 

[floridafam]

You have every right to be concerned. Those bites can be very dangerous. It's a good thing she was not a young child as they usually don't do as well.

Do everything your Dr. tells you to do and watch for cellulitis (as above poster suggested.)

 

[TTFN]

My daughter was bitten by what was probably a brown recluse last year in her dorm room. She went to the campus doc, who said it was a bite. (Duh). When I talked to her she was starting to get a hole in the center so I told her to go back. Different doctor told her it had advanced as far as it was probably going to, and he was right. She was very uncomfortable for a few weeks as the hole healed from the inside out (you don't want the top layer to heal first). She now has a belly button sized scar on her wrist that turns interesting colors when she's cold, and a much bigger fear of spiders.

 

[phamton]

The majority of borwn recluse bites heal without severe scarring. You might want to read this webpage. Dr. Anderson was one of only a handful of practicing clinicians in the U.S. whose specialty was brown recluse spider bites, so his opinion is authoritative. He was a university physician specializing in dermatology, in particular on the effects of brown recluse spider bites from Missouri, which is in the heart of the range of the brown recluse, where they are very abundant.

It may put your mind at ease.

Here are just some quotes from the article:

". several deaths from loxoscelism were reported in medical journals, but none of the reports is convincing. We are not aware of any verifiable deaths caused by the bite of the North American brown recluse spider."




"Almost all brown recluse spider bites heal nicely in two to three months without medical treatment at all. Also the long-term medical outcome is excellent without treatment."

"Most recluse bites referred to us arrive already on high-dose antibiotics. We have never encountered an infected bite, even in unmedicated patients. Antibiotics are unnecessary, and may lend to a false sense of security or even induce errors in the proper diagnosis of cellulitis. It is best not to use antibiotics except for the credible diagnosis of infection, as against loxoscelism."




"Coagulopathy in adults from an ordinary spider bite is almost never seen."




"With no physician's care at all, most recluse spider bites show an excellent outcome."




"Healing may be slow, but all lesions heal and mostly with a minimum of scarring. Surgery can offer little or nothing more. No medications are required to treat brown recluse spider bites."