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.”

Dr. Fife is a world renowned wound care physician dedicated to improving patient outcomes through quality driven care. Please visit my blog at CarolineFifeMD.com and my Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/carolinefifemd/videos
Dr Fife, I am an Orthopedic Technician that does diabetic wound care. I see patients with dog hair in their wounds, dressings, offloader shoes and boots. A lot of the time its coated on their velcro straps making the straps useless. Yesterday a patient challenged me to find a study or any research that states dog / pet hair in general is bad for wounds. He was being serious. Any insights or suggestions on where I could look?