A coroner has warned pet owners to beware of the deadly risks of an animal’s lick — after a 49 year-old father-of-two was killed by an infection he caught from his dog’s saliva.
Craig Jones, from Dublin, was found purple-coloured and cold by his wife a short while after his pet beagle licked an open wound on his leg in December 2022.
He was rushed to hospital where medics treated him for sepsis, a life-threatening immune system reaction to an infection.
However, he didn’t respond to treatment and, after suffering six cardiac arrests, he died the following day of sepsis-related organ failure.
Further tests revealed the likely infection that prompted the deadly reaction was one commonly found in the mouths of dogs.
Mr Jones suffered severe psoriasis, a long-lasting skin condition, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy skin cells.
This can cause scaly patches as well as open cuts and sores on the skin.
A corner warned people about letting pets lick their skin after a man, described as ‘fit as a fiddle’, died following an affection lap from his pet beagle. Stock image
It is suspected that the lethal pathogen entered Mr Jones’ bloodstream after his ‘affectionate’ dog’s tongue came into contact with an open psoriasis wound.
Consultant microbiologist at Connolly Hospital, Dr Eoghan O’Neill, told the inquest that the culprit bug — details of which were not revealed in local reports — infects humans on ‘extremely rare’ occasions — occurring in around 1 per million people.
But when this happens, it can be extremely dangerous, he added.
‘It’s a very progressive bug which has a 33 per cent mortality rate once it enters the bloodstream,’ he said.
Capnocytophaga canimorsus is one bacteria that’s known to be carried by animals and fatal in humans.
While normally transmitted by dog bites, it can be spread by a lick on an open wound.
The inquest also heard that Mr Jones was especially vulnerable to infections due to his psoriasis medication, which works by surpressing the immune system.
Sepsis is life-threatening but if caught early it is treatable. Children with sepsis can have breathing difficulties, fits, be lethargic, have a rash that does not fade when you put a glass to it and babies can struggle to feed
He also had his spleen, an organ which helps remove pathogens in the blood, removed when was 24.
Mr Jones’s family told the court that, despite these ailments, Mr Jones was ‘fit as a fiddle’ and ran 10km everyday.
Coroner Cróna Gallagher concluded that Mr Jones had died from sepsis resulting from an infection that was probably transmitted by a family pet.
She urged the public to ‘observe good hygiene’ around pets, particularly if they have cuts or broken skin.
In 2016, British medics reported the tale of a 70-year-old woman who contracted Capnocytophaga canimorsus from her Italian greyhound and ended up with multiple organ failure.
Like Mr Jones, she developed deadly sepsis but survived after antibiotic treatment proved successful.
Her case is one of only a dozen or so reported in the UK.
One 2014 study from Japan found Capnocytophaga canimorsus was present in 69 percent of dogs and 54 percent of cats tested.
Most healthy people infected with the bacteria are likely to make a full recovery with antibiotics, but it is considered dangerous for patients with compromised immune systems.
Symptoms, which are generally flu-like, usually appear within one to eight days, peaking on the second day.
