Dog bite injuries

Aug 14, 2009 21:06

Setting: medieval England (1193 to be precise ( Read more... )

1100-1199, ~medicine: injuries (misc), ~animals: pets, ~middle ages

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y2jdingo August 15 2009, 10:39:03 UTC
Not versed in anything resembling your time frame, so I'll just go on the dog bite:

A dog not trained to attack will go for a limb, especially an offered one. If your lady sees the dog, the majority of human reactions would be to swing out her dominant arm to get him away. While you could definitely swing the scenario that she kicks at the dog instead, it might come off better if your dog attacks from behind or out of her line of sight.

As it pertains to the actual bite - you can really swing this any way you want it. If the breed's never mentioned or really applicable, you've got even further room for maneuvering. Dogs that were trained for game retrieval or herding are a lot more likely to go for nips and quick bites as opposed to bull terriers which bite and hang on for grim almighty death.

If your dog's defending something it's very likely they'll nip and back the hell off. On bare skin this'll leave puncture marks, drawing blood maybe. Even without infection or disease to worry about it'll feel very warm, very body temperature. Very red for the rest of the day, then a good sized bruise for about a week. It'll be tender to touch, but she wouldn't have any difficulty at all in walking even just after the attack. Her boots will take away a whole lot of that. She'd definitely feel the bite itself, the boot would probably have holes in it, but there'd almost definitely be no blood if her boots are as sturdy as I imagine.

Dog gone mad or instructed to attack, or your variants of bully breeds or even German Shephards would be more likely to attach and do the head-shaking ripping, which would do a bunch more damage. Puncture wounds, teeth would rip and make longer marks, drawing a lot more blood. Would also probably end up deeper. Her boot, again, would be great for reducing damage. You could either swing it so there's just puncture wounds again (the dog could penetrate, but not rip - unlikely but possible), or rips in the leather - imagine it caught on a bunch of butter knives. There'd be gives around the holes. As opposed to parts torn out, though, you'd have rips where the top row of teeth sunk in, maybe a small rip to the side when the dog eventually gets pulled off/killed/whatever you're going for, and small punctures to the leather where the bottom jaw went through.

Edit: ack, just read your comment and I'll see if this is still applicable.

Edit 2: Okie-doke.

Seconding naamah_darling's suggestion of the dog somehow bringing off her boot if you want big injury. She'll definitely be more concentrating on keeping Dog 2 off her face and throat as opposed to the one down near her foot - apart from the flailing kicking which an experienced guard dog would mostly avoid, Dog 1 could be left alone for long enough to bite down, catch mostly leather but still do the dog bite-and-head-shake and bring it off. If you want to go this route leverage might work better to have the dog grab foot/shoe first off, then get a better grip on her calf. Dog 1 would then let go, and go for her now-bare leg, which could then take as much punishment as you want. Depending on how quickly the dogs get dispatched (owner, killing them, distraction) she could either have the one bite, as above, or the super-shredding-death-flail which will rip up flesh something fierce.

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red_fox_writer August 15 2009, 11:13:04 UTC
This is really helpful - thanks.
I think I'll go for the pulling off her boot thing and then the dog biting her bare leg - though I'll have it killed off before it can do any really terrible/ permanent damage.

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