Brown Recluse Spider Bites..

[DaughteroftheKing]

My sister is having a problem with getting tons of spider bites!

She has had 3 in the last 2 months, 2 of those in the last 3 days!

She knows when she has one because she starts feeling nauseous, and she goes to the Drs & he says "yep thats what it is" & gives her some abx and she eventually feels better.

Also, the nurse I work with had a sister who also constantly got bit by these spiders!

My question (not medical advice.. I know :) ) is that it seems that only certain people get bit .. is there something that the spiders can smell or sense? Why do no other members of my family get bit??

It just seems really odd that none of us have even seen one yet my sister who lives with us has gotten bit numerous times!

Also, if its a spider bite, why would a Dr prescribe an antibiotic,wouldnt it be like an anti venom or something & why does antibiotics work?

Thanks for the help!!

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

I'm rather suprised that the MD hasn't cultured those "spider bites" for MRSA.

A lot of times skin lesions such as you describe are attributed to spider bites, even when they are associated with nausea, fever and other symptoms of systemic illness. But when they keep recurring, and/or there's more than one, it should make the prescriber suspicious that there's something else afoot (no pun intended), and clue them to investigate further.

Sometimes, of course, a spider bite is just that, and I know from having been bitten by a brown recluse on the top of my left foot over 30 years ago that they can be exceedingly nasty. First, my entire leg swelled to twice its normal size, then I developed cellulitis, and finally red streaks began to appear. That's when a co-worker literally dragged me to the company doctor, who gave me a shot of PCN and several weeks' worth of antibiotics and warned me that I'd missed septicemia by a squeak. So it's no joke when a person is bitten by a brown recluse; also, some people do seem to attract certain bugs---spiders love to make a meal of me as well, but mosquitoes and fleas don't even touch me while they practically eat my sister alive. I think it has something to do with the smells we give off.

Still, in this particular case, I'd be wanting the MD to culture the wound and make sure it really is 'just' a spider bite........

[DaughteroftheKing]

Ohhh my goodness!! My sister is such a dummy!!

She reads this & shes like oh yeah!!! We look up symptoms of MRSA & she has allll of them every time she gets a "spider bite" & she has some other sores under her arms as well.. & her Dr in fact did want to culture the wound for MRSA last time she went in earlier this week.. So shes gonna go to urgent care after work today because she cant miss work tomorrow..

[ArizonaMark]

I work in a detention facility. We have a virtual epidemic of so-called "spider bites". The practitioners have seemed to have decided not to argue the point with the inmates. I suppose it gives them a little more comfort to think they were 'bitten' by something rather than having been infected by someone, LOL...

Nonetheless, antibiotics, I & D, wound care, and they are on their way. By the time we would get the cultures back, most have gone along their merry way...

Scary that I see this each and every day...

Mark :sofahider

[Hoozdo, ADN]

I actually was bitten by a brown recluse spider and these definitely do not go away with ABX. I was lucky because I was bitten on the butt - so I had lots of fat to absorb the venom. I went to the ER because I could barely walk. They were debating whether to surgicallly remove the chunk out with the bite, but decided not to.

The thing festered for at least one year! The tissue would swell, necrotize, fall off, and then start the cycle all over again. A most unpleasant experience!

[Muswell]

I, too, was bitten by what I believe to be a brown recluse spider one night while I slept. I recall feeling some itching on my neck, vaguely remember scratching it while only half awake, assumed it was yet one more mosquito. When I awoke in the morning, there was a small 'bite' area on my collarbone that was somewhat painful/itchy and red. But by the time I awoke the next morning I could not believe my eyes. I had a huge area of cellulitis extending outward from the location of the bite some 4 or 5 inches in all directions. I immediately went to my doctor's office where I was treated over some 3 or 4 months with a succession of antibiotics. I do not recall now the specific antibiotics he prescribed but none of them completely cleared up the bite wound area, though the cellulitis subsided with about 48 hours or so of starting to take them. The bite area was just as described by others in this forum...a lesion with a raised edge, the exterior of which was somewhat reddened but the interior was a white ridge. Finally, the wound did heal, after much reopening and drainage but I still have a scar there. Since it has been several months since this happened, nearly a year actually, and I have had no further problems with it, hopefully the rather unpleasant and scary incident won't ever be repeated.