A Denver morning television anchor who was bitten in the face by an 85-pound (39-kilogram) dog during a live broadcast says she needed 70 stitches in her lips and nose.

Kyle Dyer of KUSA-TV wrote on her Facebook page over the weekend that she can't talk because her mouth is stitched shut to let a skin graft take and so blood can circulate in her lips again. The Facebook post says she expects another procedure in the next few weeks.

Dyer was injured Wednesday while doing an on-air segment with the dog's owner and a firefighter who had rescued the Argentine Mastiff from an icy pond in suburban Lakewood the day before.

She was petting the dog's head seconds before it bit her. (AP)