A WOMAN was left with a life-threatening knee infection after being attacked by her own rooster.
The 26-year-old, who kept birds at her home in Switzerland, initially thought nothing of the small graze on her right knee left by the angry bird.
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The red arrow shows the damage to her knee
She immediately cleaned and disinfected the wound before getting on with her day.
But by the following morning, her knee had swelled up, turned red and become so painful she was forced to rush to hospital.
Just a few months earlier, the unlucky woman had been treated in hospital with antibiotics after a cat bite.
On inspection, doctors at Canton Hospital Basel-Land in Liestal, Switzerland, spotted a tiny lesion just above her inner knee.
Writing in the BMC Infectious Diseases, the medics said the mark looked superficial at first.
They would later discover the rooster’s beak had punctured deep into the joint, causing serious internal damage.
Tests on blood from her joint revealed she was suffering from septic arthritis, a serious joint infection.
If left untreated, the infection can rapidly destroy bone and cartilage, causing permanent disability, and in some rare cases, can be fatal.
In the operating theatre, surgeons found the rooster peck had gone all the way through the protective layer that surrounds the joint.
Surgeons flushed the knee with sterile solution, cleaned the damaged cartilage, and removed loose bits of bone.
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During the procedure, fluid spurted back out through the original wound, suggesting the beak had pierced the joint completely.
Tests revealed the infection was caused by Enterococcus faecium, a rare bug that lives in the guts of animals and is typically seen on farms.
It was likely transferred from the rooster’s dirty beak straight into the joint, the doctors treating her said.
The woman took a further nine days of oral antibiotics and made a rapid recovery.
At her two-month check-up, she could do deep squats with no pain. Ten months on, she’s was symptom-free.
“This is the first reported case of a rooster attack leading to bacterial septic arthritis,” the authors wrote.
They said the case “impressively illustrates the underestimation of the depth of penetrating wounds, if they are only assessed externally.”
What is septic arthritis?
Septic arthritis is a serious joint infection.
It is caused by bacteria or a virus entering the joint, either through an injury, injection, surgery, or bloodstream.
Symptoms include:
FeverJoint painJoint swelling
If left untreated, it can destroy cartilage and bone within days, leading to permanent damage. It can also be fatal.
Treatment usually involves urgent surgery to wash out the joint, followed by weeks of antibiotics.
Physio may be necessary to get the joint moving again.
Common causes include Staph aureus, but in animal-related injuries, other bugs like Enterococcus or even Pasteurella can be involved.
Source: NHS & John Hopkins Medicine