A healthy man was licked by his dog. He was dead within weeks. [View all]

[Zorro]

A 63-year-old German man showed up in the hospital with a burning sensation in his left leg and muscle pain in both. His flulike symptoms were severe, with labored breathing for three days. He had petechiae, or rounds spots on the skin that look like rashes as a result of bleeding capillaries, which made his legs look discolored.

The patient’s heartbeat was stable, doctors said, even though he was running a temperature of 102. His labored breathing caused an inadequate supply of oxygen to his tissue. His failing kidneys were not producing urine, researchers wrote.

But doctors had no idea what was wrong with him. He had not recently been in the hospital. They suspected some kind of bacteria, but he didn’t have any open wounds and he didn’t have meningitis.

It wasn’t until his fourth day in the hospital that a blood test revealed the man had a type of bacteria found in the saliva of healthy dogs and cats. It’s a kind of bacteria that’s usually only transmitted to humans if they are bitten.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/11/26/healthy-man-was-licked-by-his-dog-he-was-dead-within-weeks/