- The 71-year-old from Spain only had to go to the hospital after seven days of complaints
- He struggled to breathe and doctors discovered he was in septic shock
A man narrowly escaped death after catching pneumonia from his pet Chihuahua.
Doctors believe the 71-year-old, from the Canary Islands, may have contracted a rare insect from being licked by his dog.
He spent three weeks in hospital and was given an oxygen mask to help him breathe.
The man, who was not identified, also developed sepsis: the body’s violent internal response to an infection that can be fatal.
Before seeking help, the man had also had diarrhea and a high fever for days.
Doctors believe the 71-year-old, from the Canary Islands, may have contracted a rare insect from being licked by his pet Chihuahua. He spent three weeks in hospital and was given an oxygen mask to help him breathe
Yet he did not seek help for a week, according to doctors at Hospital Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, La Gomera.
At that time he was short of breath and coughing up yellow phlegm.
The man, a former smoker who led an active lifestyle but had type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and lung disease, told doctors he had not been scratched or bitten by his dog.
Medics rushed him for a chest X-ray, which showed a “dense opacity” on his right lung.
Opacity (blurred gray areas on the scans) can often indicate fluid in the airspace, a thickening of the airspace walls, thickening of lung tissue, or damage to blood vessels.
Doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia complicated by septic shock, and he was urgently given an oxygen mask to help regulate his breathing, in addition to antibiotics injected daily.
Follow-up blood tests revealed that he had contracted Pasteurella multocida, a common bacteria found in a dog’s mouth.
Doctors said pneumonia is “rarely caused” by the insect, although it most commonly causes soft tissue infections after bites and scratches from dogs and cats.
However, the man told doctors that he had not been scratched or bitten by his dog.
Although the team that treated him did not explicitly say he had contracted Pasteurella multocida from a lick, they did suggest so.
Doctors warned that sharing a bed with a dog, kissing it and letting it lick you was ‘risk behaviour’.
The man recovered ‘well’ six months after his discharge.
His story was published in the magazine Respiratory medicine case reports.
Although anyone can get pneumonia, infants and the elderly are most at risk of being seriously affected.
About a third of cases come from a virus, such as flu or Covid, that enters the lungs.
However, the majority of severe cases of pneumonia are caused by bacteria and are likely to have serious consequences for people who suffer from other diseases and therefore have a weakened immune system.