Bug bite help!

Rend

A friend of mine has been afflicted with a bug bite the likes of which neither of us can quite identify.

The wound is:

-A small legion on her leg, which is red, and does not have white in the center.
-A red area around it slightly larger than a quarter.
-Relatively flat, not coming very far outward
-Giving her shooting pains in her leg when she walks
-Itching relatively badly

The bite was noticed some time this morning, and we're of moderate certainty that it is new from last night. The cats just got fleas, and we have begun their methodical extermination via the furniture spray and flea shampoo, so we thought initially it was a flea bite, but the other flea bites (there are several) are not a bad, not nearly so, and don't hurt, or itch, as much. Also, a couple spiders have been known to nest in or around our bed-area, but we usually hunt them down too as soon as they bite us in the night. (Hey, we're cool with sharing space, but they darn well better leave us alone, eh?)

So I submit this to you, oh H/A of Penny Arcade, what is our assailant, and how dangerous is it probably? We were going to go to minute clinic, but they closed about an hour ago, when we realized it was a bit different from the flea bites. Should we seek immediate ER attention, or pass it off as a flea bite and go on with our lives?

VisionOfClarity

I tend to be more cautious. Since you have no idea what kind of bug bit her I'd go to the ER. Even if it's not a poisonous insect she could be allergic to the bite.

2868

this sounds like a spider bite. Most spiders possess some venom so it will irritate like this, but an adult human need only really worry about the widows and recluses. Jumping spiders and hobo spiders have a bite similar to this and tend to get into sleeping spaces. My girlfriend recently had the same symptoms from a jumping spider.

Always consult a physician if you are uncertain or uneasy, but chances are it will pass. If it does not begin to get better in a days time then go to the clinic.

Begin to worry if you see tendril like lines that emanate from the bite outside of a quarter circumference. A fever develops anywhere other than the location of the bite, or there is numbness in extremities near the bite.

Apply a warm compress to the bite, and calamine or anti-itch cream.

bowen

Yeah it definitely sounds like a spider bite. You said it might've happened in the bed area, where do you live? This will help narrow down the type of spider most likely to be the culprit.

Go the ER if you're uneasy at all with this.

Rend

Update! Went to the ER because she said she was getting sick, chills, and dizzy. Turns out it was a staph infection or some such, an infection that looks almost exactly like a bite of some sort, and may even have been caused by a bite (bacteria need some sort of hole to get under the skin), but the problem was with that, most likely.

bowen

Rend wrote: »

Update! Went to the ER because she said she was getting sick, chills, and dizzy. Turns out it was a staph infection or some such, an infection that looks almost exactly like a bite of some sort, and may even have been caused by a bite (bacteria need some sort of hole to get under the skin), but the problem was with that, most likely.

Ahh, yeah, MRSA has the unsettling ability to look like a bug bite, spider bites most specifically.

2868

oh man staph infections are the worst. I had one on the inside of my nose. ACK. i'd rather have delivered a butt baby. I'm glad she got it looked at.

VisionOfClarity

Rend wrote: »

Update! Went to the ER because she said she was getting sick, chills, and dizzy. Turns out it was a staph infection or some such, an infection that looks almost exactly like a bite of some sort, and may even have been caused by a bite (bacteria need some sort of hole to get under the skin), but the problem was with that, most likely.

This is why I always go to the doctor. Last time I thought I had a cold it turned out I had mono.