Rugby player issues warning after he’s hospitalised with dog poo inside wound
Published
| Last updated
A rugby player has issued a warning after a dog poo left him hospitalised.
Neil Baxter was playing for Mistley RUFC in Essex when his legs were grazed by another player's studs.
This, of course, is nothing out of the ordinary for rugby players; however, the wound later started to feel hot and swell.
The dad-of-two ended up going to the hospital after the match last year and swabs revealed that the infection was caused by animal faeces.
Neil has been left with an eight inch (20 cm) scar and has no feeling in his lower leg following the infection, which destroyed 25 percent of the muscle in his calf and took it 'right down to the bone'.
"My biggest worry if that this will happen to one of the hundreds of children who play there," he told the BBC.
"As a club we are now much more aware when we get grazes and we use alcohol gels.
"We've also put in extra dog poo bins around the pitch but we need dog owners to play their part and clear up after their pets."
Charlotte Howell, chair of Mistley parish council, said that dog poo problems were on the rise since the pandemic, which saw numbers of dogs in the area increase significantly.
She said: "Selfish people who don't pick up after their dogs are very much in the minority but we are increasingly finding dog mess on the pitches.
"Neil ending up in hospital just shows you how serious this problem can be.
"Furze Hill is a lovely open space, with the two rugby pitches and a football pitch surrounded by beautiful woods, and a car park, so it has become a destination dog walking area.
"We have very clear signage in place but we are appealing to dog owners to do the right thing - either keep dogs off the pitches or clean up diligently."
Last year, a woman was hospitalised for three days after her dog pooed on her face while she slept.
Amanda Gommo, from Bristol, was enjoying one of those proper good afternoon naps - you know, the ones where you're out for the count and your mouth is wide open - and her chihuahua, Belle, decided to join her.
But as she was snoozing, little Belle came down with the squirts and a violent burst of diarrhoea stirred Amanda from her slumber - in the worst possible way.
"I was having my afternoon nap with Belle, like I always do, when I suddenly felt something squirt in my mouth," the mum-of-three recalled.
"I rushed to the bathroom and my son was in the shower, so before I washed it out I had time to take a quick snap.
"It was disgusting, and I was hurling violently for hours after - I just couldn't get the taste out of my mouth."
Damn that sounds grim - though at least she had time to capture that all-important dog-s**t-on-face selfie.
Amanda's daughter took Belle to the vet, and the pup was diagnosed with a nasty stomach bug and put on antibiotics.
However, this was not the end of the grim ordeal for Amanda - in fact, it was far from it.
Later that day, she started displaying the same symptoms as Belle, so she called 111 and an ambulance was sent to her
home.
Paramedics prescribed her painkillers for her stomach cramps and instructed her to drink lots of water to flush out any potential infection.
But after their visit, her symptoms became progressively worse, and 48 hours later, Amanda's cramps had spread all over her body.
Amanda's mum then rang 999 who dispatched another ambulance, and this time she was transported to Bristol Royal Infirmary and immediately hooked up to a drip.
There, doctors diagnosed Amanda with a gastrointestinal infection that had been passed through Belle's faeces into her mouth days earlier.
She was kept under observation for three days while they rehydrated her with the electrolytes and glucose.
