http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34647048/ns/health-pet_health/

Quote :

"A creepy case of a man who got tarantula hairs stuck in his eye has doctors advising people to wear eye protection when handling the eight-legged pets. In February 2009, a 29-year-old man visited the St. James's University Hospital in Leeds, England, after enduring three weeks of a red, watery and light-sensitive eye. A dose of antibiotics for what was presumed to be conjunctivitis didn't clear the symptoms. Doctors at the hospital examined the eye under high-magnification lenses and spotted hair-like projections sticking into the cornea of the right eye. Story continues below ?advertisement | your ad here "When we looked at this guy's cornea, the clear window covering the eye, we saw these little whitish spots and a little black hairy-like thing at the center of each," St. James's Zia Carrim told LiveScience. There were about a dozen hairs protruding from the cornea, a couple of which had gone all the way through the eye's thin covering. The doctors let the patient know of the hairy findings. Ah-ha — the patient immediately recalled an incident right before he started having eye troubles in which he was cleaning the glass tank of his pet, a Chilean Rose tarantula (Grammostola rosea). While focused on cleaning a stubborn stain, he sensed movement in the terrarium and so turned his head. That's when the tarantula flicked a "mist of hairs" that hit him in the eyes and face. Perhaps his pet got scared. To ward off potential predators, this arachnid will rub its hind legs against the abdomen to dislodge hairs into the air. Called urticating hairs, the structures have multiple barbs that help them puncture through ocular and other tissues. Once in the patient's cornea, the hairs caused an inflammatory reaction called ophthalmia nodosa — a broad diagnosis covering the response of the eye to insect or vegetable material. The doctors said the hairs were too small to be removed even with tiny forceps. Instead, they treated the eye with topical steroids, which largely cleared up the symptoms. As of August, the patient reported mild discomfort and intermittent floaters, the researchers announced Dec. 31. "

1/4/2010 11:02:02 AM

intermittent floaters

1/4/2010 11:04:21 AM

Story continues below ?advertisement | your ad here

1/4/2010 11:36:38 AM

I, too, choose not to keep a bunch of pets that do nothing for me.

1/4/2010 11:41:22 AM

1/4/2010 11:44:39 AM

paging Kitty B

1/4/2010 1:38:30 PM

1/19/2010 8:12:52 PM

^Ron Weasley would not like that video.

1/19/2010 10:09:12 PM