My SO's giant dog bit my hand...

The title would seem obvious enough, but I do want to warn the squeamish: Blood, open wounds, and nasty scarring in this post... mixed in with wonderful pet portraits I took; I thought it'd make a neat combo.

(Humbly ask Mods to not delete this post due to gory elements as there is some valuable pet care recommendations in it that all could benefit from. Thanks.)

This is my SO's dog. His name is Lance. He's a 4 year old Great Dane. Hard to imagine a dog his size being as playful and energetic as he is, but he does basically behave like a pup in a small horse's body.

Let me make it clear from the get go: HE IS A GOOD BOY AND DO NOT BLAME HIM AT ALL. He's also a great model, look at that fucking smile!

See those big , floppy ears of his? Well, that's where all the trouble began. A week before the bite, he had been shaking his head a lot. Clearly, it indicated something in his ears was bothering him. I told my SO to take him to the vet to get him checked out and I assumed she did.

That was my mistake. (More on this later).

A few weeks ago, I head on over to my SO's to pick her up for a date. At the gate, I hand her phone charger to her as she had left it in my car. She heads back inside, leaving the gate halfway open.

Big ol' Lance comes up. I catch a look in his eyes and remember the times he's run out of the gate (again, he's a big dog, wrangling him is not a fun, easy or fast procedure). So I grab the gate and go to close it. Lance, however, gently places his snout between the gate and the frame, effectively not letting me to close it.
I don't force it or squeeze him with the gate hoping he'd move, we both just kinda reach this uneasy truce between man and beast. I do want to close the gate though, as the sight of the neighbors cat might work him up and he'd chase after it.

So, I take my left hand and with an upward-facing palm gently motion for him to move back. Did the whole "shoo" noise and everything. The second I place my hand on his nose, he bites, catching the three fingers seen above in his jaws.

After the initial "DID THIS MOTHER FUCKER JUST BITE ME?" moment wore off, I tried to remain calm, but that's when Lance decided to pull...

I felt his teeth tear my finger open and that's when I did my best "autistic screeching" impression.

(SO's face has been slightly edited cuz she'd kill me if she found out I posted this).

Lance eventually let go and ran back inside. I pulled my hand back and quite a bit of blood was trickling out of my wound. It also hurt like a mother fucker. Turns out you have a lot of nerves in your hands, making them super sensitive.
FUCK. ME. IT. HURT.

Anyway, my SO heard the ruckus, came out in a hurry, and asked what happened. "Sure, babe. I'll tell ya in a sec but can I get a band-aid or something?". She went into crisis mode, kept me calm (I don't react well to a lot of my own blood spilling out), and cleaned my wound up. When we saw my finger split open, she said we had to go the ER.

Once there, I got some pain meds (no morphine though... cheap fucks!), got my wound cleaned, and had my SO take a photo. ER Doc said I couldn't get stitches just yet as we had to make sure the wound wasn't going to get infected given the sheer amount of bacteria in a dog's mouth. So, they cleaned it up and wrapped it up tight, hoping that would be enough.

It wasn't...

4 days after ER and LOOK AT THAT THING!

Fucking stitches...

After about 4 days of cleaning the wound, it was clear it wasn't going to scar very well or close itself anytime soon. Enter Dr. Surgeon!

Had to take two injections of local anesthetic to numb my finger enough to get the job done. Didn't hurt at all and felt pretty good about that.

That feeling did no last very long...

Swelling and stitches.

Once the localized anesthesia wore off, I'd like to say I was butch and tough and say the pain was manageable. It. Was. Not.

Shit hurt like hell but had to bite the bullet cuz it was the fastest way for the wound to close and heal up. I liked how the blue in the stitches brought out the carnage of my wound.

The healing continues...

Notice the delicate penmanship in Lance's biting method and how it rendered an almost uncanny resemblance to the state of California, complete with an accurate depiction of Baja California.

Middle finger healed first and healed well. Was very happy about it too cuz not being able to properly flip people off was cramping my lifestyle and I almost exclusively flip the bird with my left hand so yeah...

This is what my fingers look like as of today. The first two have healed quite well and you kinda can't see the scars.

The scar/scab on my fucked up finger went from looking like California to resembling a fucked up, rotten banana. It itches a lot and it takes a lot of fucking will power not to pick a it. I should be rid of this scar tissue in about two weeks, so maybe I'll post an update later.

I wanted to end on another photo of this handsome fuck because I want to reiterate: HE'S A GOOD BOY AND I DON'T BLAME HIM FOR WHAT HAPPENED.

Remember what I said about his ears and how I suspected something was up with them? Turns out I was right.

The day after the bite, my SO took him to the vet and they found he had a massive ear infection. Poor ol' Lance had that massive discomfort in his ear for God knows how long and was obviously not in a good mood. An other wise gentle, giant got so uncomfortable he bit me when I tried to force him to move. I'm very thankful it was me, as I'd hate to think what a dog like Lance could have done to my SO who is half my size. Lance has since recovered, his ear infection has vanished, we bro'd it out and are back to being best buds.
So why post this, other than satisfying a weird fetish thing some of you might have for scars and gore? (You know who you are.)
Simple! I like you bunch and don't want this to happen to you. If your furry companion starts showing signs of discomfort, do not ignore it. Get them checked, even if there is the slightest doubt they can be in pain. Our pets are family, but they are also animals. When they get stressed and are in pain, they can lash out and bad shit can happen.

Cat Tax of my boy Tom looking all modely and shit.

TL;DR:
OP got bit by SO's Great Dane. Blood. Stitches. Scar Tissue. PSA: Don't ignore your pets discomfort!