The puncture you can see is often the least important part of a dog bite. Teeth enter at an angle, and a dog who grabs and shakes can tear tissue away from the layers beneath it while leaving only a neat hole or two in the skin. That mismatch between surface and depth is exactly why bite wounds deserve a veterinary assessment even when your dog seems bright and the marks look trivial.
Why a small entry hole misleads
Skin is elastic, so a puncture frequently closes over quickly once the tooth withdraws. Underneath, the bite may have created a pocket where skin has lifted away from muscle, and bacteria carried in on the tooth are left in a warm, poorly drained space. Crushing is part of the injury too: tissue around the puncture can be bruised and damaged even where it was never pierced. Bites over the neck, chest, abdomen, face and legs carry particular concern, since structures underneath sit close to the surface, and bites from a larger dog to a smaller one can involve force the skin marks barely hint at. Two small holes spaced like a pair of canine teeth usually mean the jaw closed fully, which tells the clinic more than the size of either hole does.
Warning signs over the hours and days after a bite
Swelling that increases rather than settles is an early signal, especially swelling that feels hot, firm or painful when your fingers pass gently nearby. Bruising that spreads through the coat, skin that darkens or feels crackly, and any discharge, leaking or unpleasant smell from the puncture all mean the tissue underneath is struggling. Movement changes matter as well: limping, stiffness when rising, reluctance to turn the neck, guarding one side of the body or yelping when touched near the bite. Whole-dog changes complete the picture, including unusual quietness, hiding, restlessness, shivering, reduced appetite or seeming warm and listless. Abscesses can declare themselves days later as a soft, painful swelling that grows quickly, so a bite that looked settled by day two still deserves monitoring through the first week.
Routing: what to do while you arrange care
Keep your dog calm, warm and resting, prevent licking at the puncture, and phone the clinic the same day for any bite that broke the skin, describing where the bite sits and how your dog is behaving. Bites to the throat, chest or belly, trouble breathing, pale gums, collapse or bleeding that will not settle mean you should be seen as an emergency rather than waiting for a routine slot. If you can do so safely, note the other dog's description, where and when the incident happened, and anything known about that dog's vaccination history, since the veterinary team will ask and the details grow harder to recall later. Photographing the punctures with a coin beside them for scale gives the clinic a useful size reference without disturbing the area.
The conversation to have at the clinic
Ask what depth of injury the examination found, whether any pocket under the skin needs attention, and which changes over the next several days should bring you straight back. Confirm how active your dog may be during recovery, when normal walks can resume, and whether a recheck is wanted even if everything looks calm. Writing those answers down at the time beats reconstructing them at home, particularly when more than one person will be watching the dog. Your incident notes and the clinic's discharge summary can live together in Pet Passport, the KinsLe record that keeps dated documents ready whenever a different clinician needs the history.