Purpose or Case Report: The majority of children’s hospitals reside in urban settings, and the most common animal related injuries seen in these areas are induced by cats or dogs. However, urban medical centers serve patients from large surrounding rural areas where a more diverse array of animal or agriculture related injuries can occur. Although an altercation with an angry horse, pig, or cow could result in severe trauma in adults, animal related injuries pose an even greater danger to children given their smaller stature and growing bodies. The natural curiosity of children also increases the risk of severe injury when living or playing around industrial agricultural equipment. Even partaking in outdoor sports or leisure activities confers risk for exposure to a variety of injury mechanisms. Depending on the specifics of the surrounding ecosystem, radiologists may also care for patients exposed to envenomation from snakes, scorpions, spiders, and various other insects, resulting in local or systemic complications. When incorporating a mechanism of injury, radiologists may anticipate complications of exposure to these animals or insects and can recommend further imaging evaluation. For example, in addition to characterizing imaging findings, such as local necrosis, from a brown recluse bite injury in a patient transferred from an outlying hospital, the radiologist would anticipate the urgency with which to assess for more systemic complications such as angioedema, rhabdomyolysis, or internal hemorrhage due to disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. To best serve our patients, pediatric radiologists should exhibit familiarity with possible mechanisms of injury related to wildlife, their various imaging manifestations, and potential complications in order to help guide clinicians in managing these potentially devastating injuries. This educational exhibit aims to demonstrate key findings of such pediatric injuries through a series of cases.
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