Victorian mum Renee was in shock when she saw her young son Hudson’s blood all over his face.
Hudson had been bitten by the family dog in a “shock attack” after he tried to pet the dog while it sniffed out a yoghurt pouch.
The bite left Hudson with puncture wounds just under his left eye and in the middle of his forehead, and a large graze wound that tore skin on the bridge of his nose.
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Renee told Kidspot there was “blood everywhere” in the aftermath of the bite.
“We had the dog inside, and Hudson and my other son had given him a couple of yoghurt treats,” she said.
“My middle child was eating a yoghurt pouch about 30 minutes earlier, and we thought it was in the bin but it was actually under a blanket.
“(The dog) sniffed it out, and as we grabbed his collar, Hudson patted him on the head at the same time. He lunged at Hudson and snapped, then ran outside because he knew he was in trouble.
“We called an ambulance because there was so much blood, his face was covered. They arrived after about 30 minutes and cleaned him, checked him over, and sent us to hospital.”
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“The injury was so close to his eye”
Hudson was triaged “almost immediately”, and spent four hours in hospital before being sent back to his Ballarat home with instructions to go to the Austin Hospital in Melbourne the next day for cosmetic surgery.
Renee said her son was lucky to not lose an eye in the attack.
“The injury was so close to his eye with both the puncture wound and the graze,” she said.
“It was a 40kg dog, if he’d latched it would have been a heck of a lot worse.
“Hudson needed three stitches in his eye injury, four stitches in the bridge of his nose, and two stitches in his forehead, and some glue to keep them all together.
“His surgery lasted about an hour, but he spent three hours in recovery because it was over his nap time.
“They called me and told me they couldn’t get him to wake up, but as soon as the nurse asked him if he wanted an icy pole, he sprung right up.”
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“He would have taken it home if he could”
Renee said Hudson was very calm both before and during his surgery thanks in part to a Supertee he was given at the hospital.
A supertee is a specially designed piece of clothing with flaps that allow children to undergo important medical treatments without needing to get undressed.
Hudson was given a Supertee mimicking Captain Marvel’s uniform, but Renee said he called himself ‘Batman’.
“Everything is Batman at the moment,” she said. “The T-Shirt calmed him down, and he was showing the nurses his muscles, and they were all on board with it.
“They had four nurses and the anaesthetist ready to pin him down if he couldn’t handle the mask, but he was just really calm.
“He came out of surgery and kept wearing it, and he would have taken it home if he could.
“Kids can be so scared in that situation, but the T-Shirt with the superhero really just calmed him down.”
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“It was an isolated incident”
Renee is sharing her son’s story to make other parents aware that no matter how much they trust their dogs, they have the ability to ‘snap’ at any moment.
“It was an isolated incident that shocked us; never in a million years did we think he’d do that,” she said.
“He’d grown up with Hudson, and they were the best of friends. If they were playing outside he’d watch over him, and he’d run to the window if he was crying.
“A lot of people wonder what the kid did to provoke the dog, but our kids were so gentle with him. All my son did was try to pat him.”
RELATED: ‘He locked himself in the bathroom while the dog attacked his mum’
“There's no trauma yet”
Thankfully, Renee said Hudson’s experience had not dampened his love for dogs.
“There were a couple of dogs at a market the other day, and we were a little worried about how he’d react, but he was great,” she said.
“He’s definitely more cautious now, but he still points them out and gets excited. He still loves them.
“He’s aware of what happened with our dog, he knew he gave him an owie, but there’s no trauma yet which is really good.”
Originally published as ‘Our boy was bitten by our dog, and it could happen to anyone'
