WEST BEND, Wis. (WHDH) — A man in Wisconsin ended up losing both of his legs after getting licked by a dog.
Greg Manteufel, 48, landed in the emergency room after believing he had the flu.
“It hit him with a vengeance,” his wife, Dawn, told WITI. “Bruising all over him. Looked like someone beat him up with a baseball bat.”
Blood tests revealed that Manteufel had an infection caused by the bacteria capnocytophaga, which can come from the saliva of dogs.
It caused Manteufel’s blood pressure to drop and the circulation in his limbs to decrease rapidly.
“Sometimes it decreases so much that the arms and legs just die,” Dr. Silvia Munoz-Price told WITI.
Doctors were forced to amputate Manteufel’s legs in order to keep him alive.
His wife says he’s been around dogs all his life, adding that they can’t wrap their heads around what happened.
The chances of contracting this bacteria from a dog are very slim, with more than 99 percent of dog owners never having this issue, according to Munoz-Price.
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