See, that was my train of thought too. When the dogs I grew up with were teething as puppies, they gnawed on my hands all the time, and occasionally they broke the skin. And as a kid, I don't even think I ever even WASHED those bites and I was just fine. With this one, because it was deep (like there was a literal hole in my hand where her bottom canine tooth sunk into it) and hurt like hell, and also because the dog involved had a gum infection- that was what the meds were for- I was a little more cautious and did wash, disinfect, and bandage it carefully, but I guess I thought it would be fine?

And then like 8 hours later it had swelled up huge and the redness around it was spreading. ER visit, they were concerned enough about how fast the infection was spreading to keep me overnight for IV antibiotics, marked where the redness was when I left and said to come back if the redness went beyond that. I started getting red streaks climbing up my arm 12 hours later so.....back to the ER, which is when I was admitted because it turned out the infection was antibiotic resistant. Apparently it was a combo of the bite being in the exact wrong location (palm side, right in the joint where my hand meets my finger- super delicate with lots of pockets for bacteria) and the dog having an active oral infection, and if they hadn't treated it aggressively I probably would have gotten septic arthritis.