A DOG owner has told how her life changed forever when a lick from her pet terrier caused her to lose all her toes, fingers and a leg.

Mildura woman Julie McKenna told the ABC how she was hospitalised last year after the dog licked a burn on her left foot and, weeks later, it sent her into septic shock.



"It's definitely changed my life, it's changed my life in every aspect,” the former nurse said.





"Having no fingers and no, well amputated leg and half a foot, it's everything, you have to think twice about how to do things."She believes people need to be careful around pets, particularly if they have broken skin.

"I mean you see dogs licking kids on the face and things like that, I mean it's just one of those million-in-one chances, it's like the bird flu, you know, how did it hop from bird to human?" she said.

As hard as it is to believe, it could have been worse - Tasmanian man Yorke Mountforde, 46, lost both legs and his fingers after being nipped by a dog at a barbecue in March.



“It was a tiny little scratch on my thumb. Just a nip,” he said.



He became ill during the night but thought it was the effect of “a dodgy prawn”.



When he turned green and started smelling septic, his wife, Sally, insisted he go to hospital.



Just 24 hours after being bitten Mr Mountforde lay comatose and black all over as staff battled to keep him alive.



"They told me twice that he might die,'' Mrs Mountforde said.



The doctors' challenge was making a diagnosis.



They discovered Mr Mountforde had his spleen removed as a child after being hit by a motorbike.



People without a spleen have a greatly increased risk of infection and sepsis from the capnocytophaga bacteria carried in the mouths of healthy dogs and cats.



"I'd urge anyone who's had their spleen out and who doesn't know about the increased infection risk to talk to their doctor straight away,'' Mr Mountforde said.



He had to have his legs and fingers removed after they became gangrenous. But he won't let that stop him.



"I'm confident I'll be walking soon,'' he said.



The daredevil, who used to climb towers for a living and ride motorbikes for fun, is often asked what happened to him, and he can’t quite believe it himself.



"When I say I got bitten by a dog they don't believe me. They think I'm joking,” he said.



"My family always worried I'd fall off a tower or come off the bike. Turns out towers and motorbikes were safer than going to a barbecue.”



- By Rachel Hewitt and Heather Low Choy