DOG MESS PUTS MAN IN HOSPITAL – 12 YEARS AFTER CUT INFECTED AT RUGBY TRAINING
A RUGBY player spent Christmas in hospital after an infection caused by dog mess flared up again.
Kenfig Hill RFC hooker Dan Colbridge had a cut infected by dog mess 12 years ago.
Dan was first disabled by the injury in 2007, when he was aged 20.
He had turned out to training and done so with a small cut on his leg. Unbeknown to him, he landed in the dog mess during the session.
A few days later, he experienced severe pain and doctors prescribed antibiotics, fearing dog mess had got into the scratch.
The infection eventually cleared up, although he was told he was at risk of it flaring up throughout his life.
And so it proved, when just days before Christmas, the 33-year-old began to feel sore in the same place where he had first experienced the infection.
It eventually got so bad he was admitted to the Princess of Wales Hospital, where he spent nine days waiting for his infection to go down, missing Christmas day at home in Maesteg with wife Amy and their two children.
The children insisted on waiting for their dad to come home before opening their own Christmas presents.
Amy said: “Dan said he was feeling unwell, and even though it has been so many years since he was first infected, it does tend to flare up when he’s feeling run-down.
“It started looking really red and inflamed, and he was in a lot of a pain. He has cellulitis bacterial skin infection, which lays dormant but can flare up.
“The first time it flared up it was treated with antibiotics, but this time it started blistering and he was struggling to walk.
“He went into hospital a couple of days before
Christmas and was there for nine days. We’ve got two children, and it was a really difficult Christmas, really stressful.”
Amy added: “This is all because some dog owners are irresponsible and lazy.
“They decide to take their dogs to playing fields to launch tennis balls and let them run free. The problem is the ones that don’t clean up after them.
“This is the painful consequence for Dan, with him having to take time off work, Christmas being delayed with a nine-day hospital stay and his reduced mobility. But it could have been worse.
“There should be bigger fines and consequences for those that are so bone idle.”
Dog faeces can cause numerous infections, the most serious of which is toxocariasis, which can lead to blindness in young children.
Dan still plays for Kenfig Hill rugby club, which has complained for years about dog owners allowing their pets to foul on their pitch.
Dan said: “Every time I am really ill, it flares up again, but this has been the worst time. It’s been painful, and a really strange feeling.
“It’s fair to say this Christmas wasn’t the best. My two children Ella-May, who is eight, and Xavier who is 18 months, had to come and visit me in hospital on Christmas Day.
“But they waited until I came out of hospital three days later before opening their presents.”
The water treatment technician, who has had to take time off work until his leg fully recovers, also had a message for dog owners.
He said: “We’ve got a dog as well, but we make sure we always take out plenty of bags with us when we take him out.
“Dog mess has the potential to be so dangerous. If people let their dogs foul on playing fields, it can be a risk to adults and children.
“If it got into the eye of a child and they went blind, how would they feel then?
“You wouldn’t let a dog foul a playground, so why would you let them foul on a playing field?”