I have been consistently walking from 10 to 14km every day since my arrival to Punta Cana. The plan was to go for 14km this afternoon. I was walking at a good pace, listening to the sound of the waves, simply enjoying life. I had the sun in my eyes and never saw them coming. Before I knew it, I had 3 wild dogs attacking me. One bite the back of my leg and my immediate reaction was to throw myself in the big waves to escape. The fact that I had no swimming suit on never crossed my mind!
The bite itself is not terrible. Not too deep and I only had 3 teeth in. But these wild dogs scared the sxxx out of me! I immediately turned around and went straight to the medical team at the hotel panicking about rabies. Wild dogs in Dominican, rabies is a real concern.
I must say the staff was very nice to me. They did what they could at the resort and a representative will take me to the hospital tomorrow morning to get all the shots and antibiotics.
I’m sure everything will turn out ok. But oh boy I got scared! Kind of silly to think an animal never ever touched me while I was a trail runner and this happens on a beach
Ce qu’Elise ne précise pas sur facebook c’est que l’hôpital ferme à 17h00 à Punta Canada !!! Elle a vérifié auprès de sources canadiennes que le délai pour se faire administrer le vaccin contre la rage est de 24 heures.
1er mars
Wow... going to the hospital was an ADVENTURE!
We left the resort at 7am. The hospital was an hour away deep in the mountains. Red lights are only a suggestion in Dominican Republic and are entirely optional. The roads are really narrow and the ride was bumpy! Thankfully I left with an empty stomach. The probability of dying in that car ride was much higher than dying from the rabies (ha!)
I received the rabies shot within 24hrs after getting bitten, which is what matters. It was shot #1 out of 5 in the shoulder, I need the next one on Monday. Then once a week until the end of March.
The doctor said jumping in the ocean was the best thing I could have done - this way the dog’s saliva got washed off quickly with salted water. He also mentioned there were 4 cases of rabies in Dominican over the last year, so going to the hospital was definitely the right thing to do.
Just by talking around in the resort, seems like many guests saw these wild dogs yesterday late afternoon. The hotel should definitely do something to address this. I got lucky in my bad luck - my bite wasn’t terrible. With 3 dogs attacking me, it could have been a lot worse.
Found out today another bruise, seems like I also got a claw in. Felt a bit dizzy/weak from the shot today, but overall I’m sure everything will be ok.
I still have one more morning to enjoy the waves and the sun..
3 mars
Having 2 annoying hairy creatures keeping me awake all night to get pets was certainly the best part of coming back.
My wild dog attack has been reported to Public Health Canada and I received a lovely voicemail from the health inspector from the Halton region the second I landed requesting to call her back ASAP.
Got home at 10pm, so decided to call back this morning. Well turns out I absolutely needed more shots before 6pm today so I spent part of my day waiting at the clinic.
This is not an easy process given all shots must be delivered by Public Health. Finally received 4 shots, including one in the bite.
Was hoping for a rowing workout this afternoon... forget it! All shots are hurting
Best part? I’m getting more shots tomorrow!!!
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