Looking at the eye at high magnification, the doctors noticed the tiny spider hairs, which looked like white spots (arrows)

livescience – A creepy case of a man who got tarantula hairs stuck in his eye has doctors advising people to wear eye protection when handling the eight-legged pets.

In February 2009, a 29-year-ancient man visited the St. James’s University Hospital in Leeds, England, after enduring three weeks of a red, watery and light-sensitive eye. A dose of antibiotics for what was presumed to be conjunctivitis didn’t clear the symptoms.

Doctors at the hospital examined the eye under high-magnification lenses and spotted hair-like projections sticking into the cornea of the right eye.

“When we looked at this guy’s cornea, the clear window covering the eye, we saw these small whitish spots and a small black hairy-like thing at the center of each,” St. James’s Zia Carrim told LiveScience. There were about a dozen hairs protruding from the cornea, a couple of which had gone all the way through the eye’s thin covering.

The doctors let the patient know of the hairy findings.

Ah-ha — the patient immediately recalled an incident right before he started having eye troubles in which he was cleaning the glass tank of his pet, a Chilean Rose tarantula (Grammostola rosea). While focused on cleaning a stubborn stain, he sensed movement in the terrarium and so turned his head. That’s when the tarantula flicked a “mist of hairs” that hit him in the eyes and face.

Perhaps his pet got frightened. To ward off potential predators, this arachnid will rub its hind legs against the abdomen to dislodge hairs into the air. Called urticating hairs, the structures have multiple barbs that help them puncture through ocular and other tissues.

Once in the patient’s cornea, the hairs caused an inflammatory reaction called ophthalmia nodosa — a broad diagnosis covering the response of the eye to insect or vegetable material.

The doctors said the hairs were too small to be removed even with tiny forceps. Instead, they treated the eye with topical steroids, which largely cleared up the symptoms. As of August, the patient reported mild discomfort and intermittent floaters, the researchers announced Dec. 31.

The hairs are still stuck in his cornea, and the doctors aren’t sure whether they’ll ever go away.

“This case highlights the importance of a collaborative approach between doctor and patient in providing excellent clinical care,” Carrim and his colleagues wrote in this week’s edition of the journal The Lancet. “The condition described is rare and the right diagnosis was made only after we discussed the clinical findings with the patient.”

The take-home message for owners of pet tarantulas, which the researchers say are becoming increasingly well loved: “Avoid handling the tarantulas at close range. If they do handle them at close range, they should wear some type of eye protection,” Carrim said.

And if a pet owner happens to get spider hairs in the eye, seek medical attention sooner rather than later, he added.

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A dog born with two legs has learned how to walk and is bringing hope to disabled soldiers in America.

Published: 10:02PM GMT 18 Dec 2009

The 7-year-ancient labrador-chow mix was born without front legs.

The puppy and her siblings, also deformed, were rejected by their mother. But Reuben Stringfellow, then 17, came across the tiny animal and brought it home.

He and his mother Jude, an English professor, had to carry the puppy, which they named Faith, for the first few months of her life. But eventually, with patience, and lots of peanut butter as a lure, Faith learned to walk on her two hind legs.

Seven years after her birth, the small yellow dog zips around crowded shops, bustling along with confidence.

Since her first steps in March, 2003, Faith has been a regular guest on US talk shows. She has also become a symbol of hope for injured soldiers.

Ms Stringfellow, who has become a motivational speaker and runs a website devoted to her tiny dog, gets more than 200 letters and emails a day.

Fans of the small dog say she provides inspiration.

“Faith has shown me that different is gorgeous, that it is not the body you are in but the soul that you have,” Jill Salomon of Montreal, Canada, wrote on the website.

Ms Stringfellow regularly brings Faith to veterans’ hospitals across the US to provide hope to disabled soldiers, a mission inspired by her son’s service in the US army in Iraq.

Ms Stringfellow told AP that during a recent visit to McChord Air Force Base and Fort Lewis in Washington, the dog brought cheer to soldiers heading off to war, and to those recently returned.

She just walks around barking and laughing and excited to see them all,” Jude Stringfellow said. “There is a lot of crying, pointing and surprise. From those who have lost friends or limbs, there can be silence. Some will shake my hand and thank me, some will pat her on the head. There is a lot of silent, heartfelt, really deep emotion.”
Thanks to original news poster.

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23/11/2009

An Australian man was in a stable condition in hospital after being slashed across the abdomen and face by a kangaroo that was holding his dog underwater.

An Australian man was in a stable condition in hospital after being slashed across the abdomen and face by a kangaroo that was holding his dog underwater.

Chris Rickard, 49, said he was walking his blue heeler, Rocky, on Sunday morning when they surprised a sleeping kangaroo in Arthur’s Creek north-east of Melbourne. The dog chased the animal into a pond but it then turned and pinned the pet underwater.

When Mr Rickard tried to pull his dog free, the kangaroo turned on him, attacking with its hind legs and tearing a deep cut into his abdomen and across his face.

“I thought I might take a hit or two dragging the dog out from under his grip, but I didn’t expect him to really attack me,” Mr Rickard told The Herald Sun newspaper. “It was a shock at the start because it was a kangaroo, about five feet high, they don’t go around killing people.”

Kangaroos rarely attack humans but will fight if they feel threatened.

Dogs often chase kangaroos, which have been known to lead the pets into water and then pin them underwater as a means of defence.

Mr Rickard said he finished the attack by elbowing the kangaroo in the throat, adding Rocky was “half-drowned” when he pulled him from the water.

http://news.uk.msn.com/world/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=151016816

(Submitted by Lindsay Selby)

Thanks to original news source

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