Wolf Spider Bite leads to Bacteria & Staph Infection ~ Cellulitis

I was working in the yard last week and had work gloves on all day. I never felt the bite until the following day. I took myself to Urgent Care as my right hand ballooned up to the size of the Hulk. I also had a red streak going up my arm. The doctor saw two circular prick marks 1/4" apart. He wrote on the medical release it was a spider bite. To him it looked like a Wolf Spider as they are similar to a Brown Recluse. Take a look on Google for the bite marks for both. Quite disgusting.

The bite didn't necessarily cause the infection. It was just a possible entry point. The Urgent Care doctor said that my red round 50 cent piece sized skin infection will crust over turn black and die. I looked at some pictures on the web. Not pretty. So no dairy products for me and I cut back on my drinking. I also began soaking the hand in hot saltwater to draw out the venom. I did that on my own.

I just finished 7 days of Hydroxyzine @ 30 25mg tablets, Cephalexin @ 28 500mg tablets and Sulfameth / Trimethoprim @ 14 tablets @ 800 / 160mg. That quite the "bomb". I get sick now and then and have intermittent fevers. But they have to knock this off.

I saw another doctor on Tuesday. She reissued another round of the above less Hydroxyzine yesterday. I only hope this stuff doesn't blow out my kidneys as I have No choice in the matter as this infection can potentially kill you.

On a good note the swelling has gone down 90% and I think the hot salt water soak will save my skin as it hasn't crusted over. My doctor agrees with me and said to keep doing it. The drugs are also now draining my energy. I am surprised that my stomach can take it

I have to give a shout out and recommendation to the Lexington Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina as their Urgent Care Centers and Family Practice locations are loaded with former triage physicians and nurses. They also remain in contact with each other electronically and they are all on the same page.

Thank You.

Lexington Medical Center

a reply to: Waterglass

Good God man.

I am not squeamish about much but spiders are one of the things I cannot deal with.
I went in our shed to pull the lawnmower out last week and one dropped from the rafters onto my arm.
Don’t know what kind it was but it was big, freaked the hell out of me.

Hopefully you get over the effects fast.

a reply to: Waterglass

That sounds like quite the ordeal! I hope you're recovery is complete with this round of med, WG.

We have Black Widows and Hobo/Wolf spiders aplenty her in Idaho, but I've only seen 3/4 in the 48 years I've lived here, though I've met people who've been bitten and it sounds like quite an ordeal to go through!

Creepy-crawly's creep me out.

My wife just got over a recluse spider bite, Lyme infection and some bad symptoms for a few weeks. She’s doing much better

a reply to: Waterglass

Dude! That's nuts! Hope that your infection clears up soon! Bring a can of spider killer out with ya when you have to do something and gloves. And maybe a linnen long sleve shirt! I had a spider bite one time on my thumb. Mu whole thumb was so swollen it was purple! I was a pre teen then. I do not remember medication. But that was 30 some on years ago.

Best wishes that this clears up ASAP!

a reply to: ITSALIVE

Good for her this is bad stuff

a reply to: nugget1

South Carolina where we live is semi topical as we have PalmTrees in our landscape. For all I know the thing was inside my glove as I store them in a bucket in the garage.

At this time we will wash all in hot water and place lids on the bucket forever.

a reply to: Waterglass

A friend of mine got bit on the butt by a brown recluse once.

He got treatment right away so it didn't get bad, but it didn't look like he was having a good time.

a reply to: RazorV66

Thanks. We have all kinds of oversized creepies down here. That would have freaked me also.

a reply to: watchitburn

I cannot believe that in just over 12 hours [overnight] that the infection spread that fast. In four days the red line would have been at my heart.

As a kid I was stung over 20 times by ground bees. The ones that bite. I never got infected. They also got my dog and she did have a reaction. The vets gave her a shot and drugs

I’m not sure about the wolf spider theory. I’ve been bitten by them many times. They sting a little but no after effects. Now Brown Recluse doesn’t hurt when they bite, but rot the skin around the bite. My guess would be a recluse in the glove.

a reply to: Waterglass
I’m glad you seem to be on the mend. Please look up Plantago genus; ovatum, majorus, and lanceolata species. They are quite prolific, nearly as ubiquitous to the American landscape as the dandelion.

This humble plant (leaf) has been used for centuries to draw and drive poisons from snake and other venomous bites. Traditionally we would smash it up with a mortar and pestal, chew it, or rub it until soft and poultice it directly on the bite. Then gather and wash more of the leaves and consume them ( some grams or so). Repeat this process as needed, I usually change the poultice daily and consume the leaves regularly throughout the day.

These leaves may be used to draw splinters or other swellings to a head. Consider it an adjunct to your present protocol. Vastly more effective used sooner.

Consider taking a powerful probiotic in between antibiotics and for some time post treatment.

Thank you for sharing your story, it’s a solid reminder of the harsh realities of a non technological world.

Get better soon!

a reply to: BlueJacket

Thank you as I will look into Plantago genus; ovatum, majorus, and lanceolata species. I am also a beliver in probiotics

originally posted by: Waterglass
a reply to: ITSALIVE

Good for her this is bad stuff

Didn’t realize this was just your pity party. I’ll see myself out then

I always beat out my gloves before putting them on almost everything hear is on the most venomous in North America list

It's just habit growing up hear to be careful shake out everything that's been outside check your shoes or go to the hospital for antivenom

no cloth type gloves leather only scorpions will go right through cloth a wolf spider probably could aswell

a reply to: Waterglass

Back in 2000 one of the damned things bit me at our cabin. Final result, 5 days in hospital on a cipro drip, 3 months in an arm cast, 60 days on oral 1200mg a day cipro. End result: Fluoroquinolone disability, life ruined. Damaged all my organs. It's hard to fathom how much damage a spider bite can do. Kill all spiders without fail. Look up gulf war disease - same thing.

Weird thing is a neighbor at the cabin was bit the same night. VA is trying to tell him it's agent orange from Vietnam. Keep telling him it's the antibiotics.

Damn, hope you feel better!

You will let us know if you start 'sensing' things moments before they happen?

a reply to: Waterglass

Fang marks a quarter inch apart? You sure you weren't hit by a small copperhead? I've never seen spider fangs a quarter inch apart, the biggest fangs on a spider I've ever seen was a funnel web (one that is native to SC) that were about 1/4" long and 3/16" apart. She was a little over 1 inch long on her body and the legs were short fat and stubby and she was purple.

I just measured the copperhead bite marks on my left arm and the scars were about 1/8" round and 5/16" on center apart. The red streak you mentioned sounded like a snake bite.

Regardless, WG, you take care! We ain't as young as we used to be. Also, watch out for the two new invasive hornets we now have. Both are supposed to be ground hornets, one is yellow with black stripes and about 3/4" long. It likes to spray its victims with venom before attacking. The other is mostly black with a yellow face about 1-1/8" long and has thin yellow "brougham" stripes on its thorax. My granddaughter had one jammed into her headlight and not knowing what it was, I doubled a red grease rag and pulled it from between the headlight and fender. She was not a happy camper and even through the doubled grease rag she stung my right thumb. Just barely, but I knew I had been stung. It felt like a DC voltage hit the tip of my thumb of about 80VDC. The skin the venom hit rotted away about 2-3 days later and new skin replaced it thank goodness. I still can't find on the internet what kind of hornet it is.

Hope you get well real soon! Lexington is great. My uncle believed highly in the place!

Overdose (not really possibly) with Vit C....Im an aussie...spider bites and tick bites are treated with huge amounts of Vit C

I have been bit by spiders quite a few times. The brown recluse bite made the weirdest spot on my leg where it bit, I had to go to the doctors and he gave me a powerful and expensive antibiotic and it went away. My neighbor also got bit around the same time but he had a much worse problem because the doctor gave a cheaper antibiotic which did not work as good, he wound up with a hole in his leg after it healed, it got into his muscle and ate it away.

Got bit by a tiny little spider on the finger and my finger got swollen up like a club. Got bit by a harvester spider too, they aren't supposed to be able to bite, but I was tearing out it's leg and it swung over and hit my finger. My dad said it was my fault for torturing an innocent and harmless creature...He was right too, It was my payback for doing something cruel.

I also got bit other times by spiders, but I do not know what kind they were but I worked construction and in basements and attics a lot, so I guess I was at high risk. I take the spiders in the house outside and let them go out there and tell them to stay out so I do not have to kill them...the wife is paranoid of my friends.

I know wolf spiders can bite, but they usually do not bother me, they are all over around here. I don't kill them, they are good at keeping the bugs down. I also have the great granddaughter catching frogs when I mow with the riding mower, she hauls them off to the side. I did the same thing with my granddaughter, but she is now gone so I have to train her kids to help. There are a real lot of little toads this year, usually there are toads, green tree frogs, tan tree frogs, and tree frogs that look like pine bark on their backs. Usually there are similar amounts of all of them, but this year there is a real big increase in toads....good, we got lots of those little flying ants around here that they can keep under control.

I got bit by a dragonfly one time years ago, I was watching it on my hand and it grabbed a chunk of my skin....talk about deep and bleed like crazy, no infection though. Kind of leary of dragon flies, but they kill a real lot of flying insects in a day, so I do not kill them.

We had lots of wolf spiders on the wall between our house and garage, I watched them one evening, the moths come there because of the outside light and they jump at them and the moth goes down almost every time. It is about a three to four foot jump and they hit the moth almost every time...pretty impressive to be able to judge where that moth will be when it is flying by. They are smart. We have all kinds of spiders at our house, but most are harmless unless you get them mad at you.

Your wound sounds more like the brown recluse than a wolf spider, but I suppose that wolf spiders can have bacteria in their mouths too...they crawl all over dead stuff outside.