Dog bites man's toe off 'to save his life'
A dog in the US is being hailed a lifesaver after it chewed off its owner's infected toe.
Jerry Douthett, from Rockford, Michigan, was passed out drunk when his jack russell terrier Kiko bit off a large chunk of his toe.
"Jerry had had all these margaritas, so I just let him sleep," his wife, Rosee, told the Grand Rapids News.
"But then I heard these screams coming from the bedroom, and he was yelling, 'My toe's gone, my toe's gone!'"
When the 48-year-old went to hospital to get treatment for his injuries, doctors realised that he was suffering from type two diabetes.
Blood tests showed that Mr Douthett had a dangerously high blood-sugar level of almost five times normal.
In addition to the disease, his toe had been swollen and infected for several months before the dog bit him.
"I was hiding it from people, Rosee included," Mr Douthett said.
"It smelled, and I look back now and realise every time we'd visit someone with a dog, their dog would be sniffing all over my foot."
Mr Douthett believes that Kiko could literally smell the disease emanating from his foot and bit his toe to save his life.
Studies have shown that the sense of smell in dogs is over four times stronger than ihumans.
But doctors are not so sure.
"We see all sorts of problems, and I'm rarely surprised by anything, but I'm tucking this one away as an extreme oddity," infectious disease specialist Dr Russell Lampen said.
Dog bites man's toe off 'to save his life'
