It was the kiss of death.
A friendly smooch from his pooch cost a German man his life, according to the report featured in the European Journal of Case Reports in Internal Medicine.
The 63-year-old man reported to Germany’s Rotes Kreuz Krankenhaus hospital with flulike symptoms after being licked by his dog several weeks prior. The unidentified man was “previously healthy” with no evidence of infection, according to the researchers.
However, a subsequent medical diagnosis revealed he had contracted Capnocytophaga canimorsus, a gangrenous bacterial infection caused by germs in the mouths of dogs and cats, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The infection is generally transmitted by a dog bite rather than a kiss — but the man’s condition rapidly deteriorated over the next 30 hours. He developed severe sepsis and a vicious rash, as well as blotching and bruising.
Despite intensive care, the condition metastasized to his kidneys, causing liver failure along with skin rotting and blood clotting, 7 News reports. Eventually, he suffered cardiac arrest.
Although the patient was “successfully resuscitated,” his condition eventually deteriorated to the point that his family shut off life support, reports the Mirror. He officially died from “multi-organ failure” 16 days after his admission to the hospital.
Doctors found the man’s case particularly vexing as he didn’t present the “immunodeficiency, splenectomy or alcohol abuse” associated with a fatal infection of Capnocytophaga canimorsus, the science journal reports.
Plus, the infection is so rare it infects less about four in 1 million people annually, according to the CDC.
But this is far from the first case of a life-threatening illness incurred by kissing canines.
Over the summer, an Ohio woman was forced to have her arms and legs amputated after being infected by her pup’s saliva.
In 2018, two different Wisconsinites contracted the infection from their pet dogs’ saliva — one person required all of his limbs amputated as a result, and the other died. And a mother of two died from septic shock in 2014 after her pet terrier infected her via a small cut on her hand.
Alas, the CDC advises that these rare cases don’t mean you have to to fear your dogs — but researchers do warn “pet owners with flulike, symptoms to urgently seek medical advice when symptoms are unusual.”