A lot of dog owners enjoy letting their dogs lick them.

It might not be the most hygienic thing in the world, but most would think it’s pretty harmless.

But vets have warned owners not to risk their health, after one woman ended up having her arms and legs amputated.

Marie ended up hospitalised after her dog licked her hand which had been cut (Marie Trainer)

Marie Trainer from Stark County, Ohio, had returned home form a vacation in 2019 with a small cut on her hand.

She didn’t think much of it when she was welcomed home with ‘kisses’ from her dog.

But shortly afterwards, she fell ill.

Things went from bad to worse very quickly.

Speaking to FOX News, Marie said: “Four days later, I wasn’t feeling well and just got sicker and sicker.”

Believing she had contracted the flu, she was taken to hospital by her husband Matt.

Medics weren’t sure what was wrong with her, but it quickly became apparent it wasn’t flu when she fell into a coma.

She was diagnosed with a condition called capnocytophaga canimorsus, which is a bacteria found in the saliva of cats and dogs.

If it enters the human body, it can trigger a severe immune response.

Marie Trainer’s limbs had to be amputated (Marie Trainer)

In worst case scenarios, it can cause blood clots which can lead to circulation being cut off in the limbs.

When this arises, the limbs need to be amputated to prevent the infection spreading any further.

In the case of Marie, both of her arms and legs had to be cut off.

What are the health risks of kissing your dog?

Vets have warned that dogs are ‘overlooked spreaders’ for zoonotic pathogens.

Zoonotic means the disease is spread from animal to human.

A team of researchers at Penn State issued a warning about exercising caution around dogs.

Of particular concern to them was antibiotic-resistant salmonella, which can cause diarrhoea and even death in extreme cases.

Sophia Kenney, who authored the study, said: “Especially with salmonella, we think about the role of agriculture and transmission – we think about eggs, we think about beef.

“But the thing is, we don’t let cows sleep in our beds or lick our faces, but we do dogs.

“We have this close bond with companion animals in general, and we have a really close interface with dogs.”

Falls Village Veterinary Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, adds: “Dogs have a reputation for being fairly indiscriminate about the things they sniff, lick, and eat. For this reason, their mouths can easily become home to bacteria like E. coli, campylobacter, and salmonella. These microorganisms are zoonotic, which means they can be readily passed from one species to another.

Maybe not, folks (Getty Stock Image)

“While healthy adults will almost certainly survive being exposed to the viruses or bacteria in their dogs’ mouths, there is a non-zero risk of gastrointestinal illness and oral diseases from puppy kisses.

“Certain parasites like giardia, roundworms, and hookworms can also be transmitted through licks. These organisms can cause severe abdominal pain and digestive problems in dogs and humans.”

Marie has been on the challenging road to recovery after her quadruple amputation, undergoing rehabilitative therapy with prosthetic limbs.

She said: “It’s been challenging. Learning how to walk was the hardest thing, but I’m good, I’m doing good.”

A warning has been issued about the potential issues that could happen if one of the biggest countries in the world splits in two.

The Himalayan mountains are a vast area that covers five countries: India, Pakistan, Nepal, China, and Bhutan.

The mountains began forming over 50 million years ago and continue to today as the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates continue to collide, pushing the peaks slightly higher each year.

However, according to a 2023 study by a team of geophysicists, significant tectonic movement beneath the mountain range could split one of the countries in two.

The study was titled Slab tearing and delamination of the Indian lithospheric mantle during flat-slab subduction, southeast Tibet and was presented at the American Geophysical Union conference in December.

The study – led by Lin Liu, Danian Shi, Simon L Klemperer et al. – started by investigating the levels of helium present in the Tibetan springs and found a new development surrounding the underneath plates.

Helium levels were found to be higher in southern Tibet than in northern Tibet.

LAKPA SHERPA/AFP via Getty Images

Using ‘3D S-wave receiver-functions’, one of the images showed evidence of the top and lower slabs of the Indian Plate appearing to detach.

This led to the discovery that the two plates appear to be ‘underplating’ or ‘subducting’ beneath’ a mantle wedge. ‘

“Our 3D S-wave receiver-functions newly reveal orogon-perpendicular tearing or warping of the Indian Plate.” the study reads.

“Our SRFs objectively map depths to distrinct Indian and Tibetan lithosphere-asthenosphere boundaries across a substantial region of south-eastern Tibet.

“The inferred boundary between the two lithospheres is corroborated by more subjective mapping of changing SWS parameters, and by independent interpretations of the mantle suture from mantle degassing patterns and the northern limit of sub-Moho earthquakes.

DEA / D’ARCO EDITORI/De Agostini via Getty Images

“The southern limit of Tibetan lithosphere and subjacent asthenosphere is at 31°N west of 90°E but steps south by >300 km to ~28°N east of 92°E likely representing a slab tear.”

This activity means the Indian plate would peel into two instead of break.

It has also identified a potential heightened risk of earthquakes along the plate boundary.

It has also been suggested the upper part could pop up and cause Tibet to rise higher, leading the lower half to sink further into the mantle.

Douwe van Hinsbergen, a geodynamicist at Utrecht University, spoke to Science about the study’s potential impact.

“We didn’t know continents could behave this way and that is, for solid earth science, pretty fundamental,” he said.

Geodynamicist Fabio Capitanio at Monash University also reiterated that the study had not yet been peer-reviewed, but it was the type of work that needed more investigation.

Scientists have warned that a radiation storm could impact Earth in the coming days.

In and of themselves, solar storms are not an uncommon cosmic event, but these ones are a bit different.

Most of the time when there’s a solar flare or solar storm large enough to reach Earth, it goes off on a part of the Sun, which is pointing away from the Earth.

So, even if it was a gigantic solar flare it’s fine, because it will miss us by a very long way.

Others might be heading towards us, but aren’t strong enough to make it all the way to Earth.

Sometimes, however, the solar flares are both powerful enough to reach us here on Earth and also pointing in the right direction, though maybe it’s more the wrong direction?

This can cause disruption to things like communications, as well as electrical systems and computers in extreme circumstances.

We could see some disruption from solar flares. (DrPixel / Getty)

Lately, we have had a spate of difficult ‘solar weather‘, with the Sun releasing streams of electromagnetic radiation.

These contain large quantities of charged particles, and due to the intense magnetic activity on the Sun’s surface, there are a lot more of them than usual, and they’re going faster.

For those of us with our feet planted firmly on the ground, this means potential disruptions to communications and power grids.

If you’re an astronaut up in space, there’s also a heightened risk of radiation hazards.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has shown a 60 percent chance of a solar ‘radiation storm’, which will start tomorrow.

Fortunately, solar flares are predicted to miss Earth, but the radiation storms have a more wide-reaching structure.

There could be some satellite disruption. (MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty stock image)

This is because they emanate from the Sun in a spiral pattern, which covers a far broader area than a solar flare.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory team explained: “[As] the Sun rotates, the Sun’s magnetic field expands outwards in a spiral pattern, the Parker Spiral.”

The problem here is that some of the substances from a solar flare can get caught up in this spiral.

In the NASA team’s words, this leads to ‘the charged particles of the solar wind spraying out into the solar system like a garden sprinkler.’

Graphic.

Earth has potentially had some impact from this already, with farmers in Minnesota and Nebraska experiencing disruptions to their GPS systems.

Farmer Kevin Kenney told 404 Media: “All the tractors are sitting at the ends of the field right now shut down because of the solar storm. No GPS.”

While most countries on Earth are separated solely by a few hours, one country is so far ‘behind’ the US in terms of time that it’s still 2016.

Right now, there are six principal calendars in use; the Gregorian, Jewish, Islamic, Indian, Chinese, and Julian Calendars.

While the Gregorian calendar is the most widely utilised, there are thought to be around 40 calendars used in the world today.

One of those is the Ethiopian calendar, commonly known as the Ge’ez calendar.

While based on the same astronomical calculations behind the Gregorian calendar and its predecessor, the Julian calendar, the Ge’ez calendar differs in numerous ways.

Locals in Ethiopia will begin celebrating the 2017 New Year this September. (Emad Alijumah/Getty stock image)

For example, a year on the Ge’ez calendar consists of 12 months, each totalling 30 days and includes an unusual 13th month, called Pagume.

Pagume comes from the Greek word ‘epagomene’, which means ‘days forgotten when a year is calculated’.

Interestingly, this 13th month is usually only five days long, except in a leap year when it’s six. These extra days are tacked on to the very end of the year to sync up correctly with the solar cycle.

Another difference between the Ge’ez and the Gregorian calendars is that Ethiopia is considered to be seven years and eight months ‘behind’ the latter.

This is because the Ethiopian Orthodox Church plotted the birthdate of Jesus Christ at 7 BC, thought to be 5,500 years after God’s promise to Adam and Eve.

So while it’s 2024 for most of the world, in Ethiopia they only just welcomed in 2016 last September.

A year on the Ge’ez calendar consists of 12 months, each totalling 30 days and includes an unusual 13th month, called Pagume. (EDUARDO SOTERAS/AFP via Getty Images)

James McCann, an emeritus professor of history at Boston University, wants to change the narrative on the country’s date difference.

Speaking to the Miami Herald, he said: “I wouldn’t say they’re behind us. That kind of conveys that there’s something wrong with it. It’s just different.”

As well as a date difference, time works differently in Ethiopia too.

That’s because instead of operating from a 24-hour clock, locals employ a 12-hour clock and divide the day into two 12-hour slots.

The first slot therefore begins at dawn to dusk and the second cycle from dusk to dawn. .

Despite the Ge’ez calendar having been in operation since around 4 A.D, many official institutions deviate from social norms and elect to use the Gregorian calendar and 24-hour clock.

“I wouldn’t say they’re behind us. That kind of conveys that there’s something wrong with it. It’s just different.” (J. Countess/Getty Images)

Speaking on the subject, Ethiopia historian Verena Krebs said: “In Ethiopia, the two dating systems often coexist, and their use is relational.

“Universities and government branches or any official correspondence often also use the ‘Western’ calendar for official documents.”

So if you find yourself traveling to Ethiopia any time soon, it’s advised by Krebs that you ‘use your common sense’ to navigate the time and date change.

Be sure to clarify exactly what time you’re meant to be someone because you don’t want to end up somewhere eight hours too early… Or eight hours too late.