Animal & human bites — wound care advice
How to care for your bite wound, and what to watch for once you are home.
You have a bite wound. Bites can become infected, so yours has been cleaned and checked. Here is how to care for it and what to watch for over the next few days.
Your care details
To be completed by the team before you leave.
These need an ambulance.
- You feel confused or dizzy, your heart is racing, or you are breathing fast
- Pain far worse than the wound looks, or the skin turns dark or purple
- A high temperature with shivering and feeling very unwell
- Bleeding that will not stop with 10 minutes of firm pressure
- Trouble breathing, or swelling of the face, lips or throat
Come back to the ED or contact the service named above the same day.
- Spreading redness, swelling, warmth or pus around the wound
- Increasing pain, or a red streak spreading away from the wound
- A fever, or you feel generally unwell
- Numbness, or you cannot move the bitten part normally
- A bite over a hand, finger, joint, face or genitals that is becoming more painful or swollen
- You are on chemotherapy, take steroids or immune-suppressing medicines, have diabetes, or have no spleen
Hands and fingers: bites here become infected more often and can involve the tendon sheaths or a joint. Any increase in pain, swelling or difficulty moving the finger needs same-day assessment by a hand service, not a routine appointment. Face and genitals: these usually need specialist review for both infection and cosmetic reasons. If your immune system is weakened — chemotherapy, steroids, diabetes, no spleen — infection can develop faster and you should seek help earlier. Tetanus, rabies and blood-borne viruses: the team will have checked whether you need a tetanus booster, and for bites abroad or from a bat, whether you need rabies treatment. For a human bite that broke the skin, ask whether blood tests or treatment for hepatitis or HIV were considered. If the bite came from another person, or you do not feel safe, tell the team — support is available and the conversation is confidential.
Caring for the bite
- Keep the wound clean and dry, and keep any dressing on as advised.
- Take the full course of any antibiotics, even once it looks better.
- Raise the bitten area when you can, to reduce swelling.
- Take paracetamol or ibuprofen for pain if you can take them.
- Keep any follow-up or wound-check appointment you are given.
Other things we may have checked
Your tetanus protection may need a booster — the team will tell you if so. For some animal bites, especially ones that happened abroad, the risk of rabies is assessed. For human bites, we may also discuss the small risk of blood-borne viruses with you. If any of this applies to you, the team will explain what happens next.