I have gotten pretty good at diagnosing dog breed from the hair in patients’ wounds. I diagnosed Labrador in the first, and terrier in the second. This third one stumped me but it turns out it wasn’t my fault because she has a dog and a cat. Third patient has recurrent diabetic foot ulcers and wears a nasty old house shoe full of dog hair rather than his diabetic shoe because the diabetic shoe is too hard to get on.
I’m also including the photos from a previous post of a Type 1 diabetic with both a renal and pancreas transplant who had this DFU and a bandage covered in dog hair. Her DNA assay showed bacteria found in the gingival pockets of dogs, but it’s a fair question whether the rest of the bacteria was more harmful to the dog than the dog was to her.

The point is that I pull hair out of nearly every wound of patients who have a dog or a cat inside the home. And what’s interesting is when I point this out, they respond by defending their pet (“Oh, don’t blame Rodger, he’s such a good dog,”) rather than, “Gee, I guess I should try not to get dog/cat hair in my wound.”

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