Barbed Wire Injury

[Willow1306]

My dog has just got back from a walk this evening and we've discovered that she's cut herself on what we ca only assume is barbed wire. She has a minor cut on her belly, which i've treated with salt water - it's only shallow and of no concern. Unfortunately she has also gashed into her leg, on her thigh. It will need staples/stitches but i've just rang up the vets and they'll only hear from 'true emergencies' after hours and i don't believe anything nasty is going to happen overnight in this case. I've again treated this cut with salt water and would like to put something over it to keep it clean, but i dont see this as possible with the positioning of it. It doesn't seem to bother her and is a straightforward gash. I will take her to the vets first thing tomorrow morning, but in the meantime is there anything else i could do? Or does anybody believe this come be a real emergency situation and she does need the vets tonight? I am personally sure she's fine, but have never dealt with this sort of injury on a dog before.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Skhosu]

They probably wont be able to stitch after a few hours, I Would insist they see her or find a different vet. At least that's the case in horses.

 

[Willow1306]

I've rang up another local vet and spoke to the emergency on-call guy. He said that because she has eaten tonight they couldn't knock her out to do the stitching anyway, so i'm to take her in first thing tomo and as she will be knocked out anyway they can pinch skin/flesh from around the wound so it won't be a problem stitching her up. Phewf! Just got to keep it clean til then.

 

[Acolyte]

I did have my greyhound stitched up once two days after she had been bitten by another dog (long story, BF was supposed to be looking after her - NEVER again

) and she was OK - they gave her a general, and had to be quite careful with the stitching as it was over her flank area. As you will appreciate, not a lot of spare skin or fat/muscle on that area for a greyhound!

But she healed absolutely fine, and was perfectly OK afterwards, so fingers crossed your dog is the same

 

[Willow1306]

Thank you, that is reassuring! Not used to dogs injuring themselves, just horses. There seems to be plenty of spare tissue around the area and the wound meets easily so should be OK as long as she settles tonight and doesn't aggrevate it, she is pretty chilled out though so that is a relief!

 

[FinnishLapphund]

I agree that if you want it stitched you can't wait. But what size are we talking about? One or ten staples? And to me, a gash is something that could be deeper than it looks?
That it doesn't seem to bother her could mean anything, like people, dogs act differently when in pain. Then it's that thing about not letting others know about that you're injured...

If you do stay at home I would suggest more salt water and wrap it up to keep clean. If you want more unorthodox advices use honey or anything with Aloe Vera. But my vet do say "You're allways so early with your pets", sometimes their symptoms have been so vague I couldn't quite tell the vet what made me react.
Today that meant that the cat had cured her earproblem by herself, and the vet didn't need to do anything. But there's also been the times, like with the cancerlump that was found so early, the laboratory staff had never seen a bad cancerlump caught in such an early stage before.

from Sweden.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

Didn't see that Acolyte had a dog that got stitched two days after the bite. Well with the muddy wet weather we have over here right now I wouldn't want to try and keep a wound clean for long.

But as long as it's not at the pawregion, there's not much difference in bandaging a horse, human or dog. I'd still sleep with a leash on the dog and the other end somehow secured to my arm, so that she couldn't start to attend the wound once I was asleep without me hopefully noticing it.

from Sweden.

 

[CAYLA]

I would not put anything on the wound as in a dressing, you have done fine to clean it, it does not sound like a emergency and it can be stitched tomorrow, the vet will in general like to stitch asap, but if they need to, they will debride any dead edges and stitch the fresh skin, my whippet jumped a barbedwire fence last week, so had a few small skin flaps torn, but they where relitavely small, I would not have had her knocked out to have them stitched and im a nurse, so could have easily popped into work, I had 1 stapled the next day and the other 2 dried and scabbed over.


She had a shot of anti b's and was fine, she has done the same again tonight, this time her ear

again I have bathed it and I will get her checked tomorrow.

Place at-shirt on her if you are worried she will lick at the wound site.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

Just felt for saying it one more time, I did say UNORTHODOX advice about the honey and aloe vera.
I sure hope it didn't come across as my first choice of action or so?

from Sweden.

 

[CAYLA]

Aloe vera is actually very good for wound management

we use it at work.

 

[Willow1306]

Just an update : I took her to the vets this morning and they were fine with it being left overnight. They took her in to be knocked out - unfortunately they found another wound on her groin which i hadn't found (she's very hairy and there was no blood) so i feel awful about that as apparently it was pretty bad. At least they found it though and have sorted it out. She isn't insured; It cost a fortune but she is OK and thats the main thing. A little dozy still she hasn't reacted to the lamp shade on her head yet and i'm not sure she's going to be very comfortable when it does dawn on her (scared of her own shadow).

So a few days of discomfort ahead for her but provided there are no complications she'll be fine

 

[Acolyte]

I'm really pleased to hear that she has come through OK

so fingers crossed she makes a full and complete recovery - I am absolutely sure she will do

I forgot to say yesterday, when my greyhound had her incident the vets advised me to leave her until the next day before the wound was stitched as I called them out out-of-hours to have my original "OMG look what my b*stard BF has let my dog go through without taking it to the vet" rant

She also had to wait until the next day to be stitched when she was frightened by fireworks and put herself through a glass door the first year we had her

Another out of hours call out, lots and lots of sedatives and bandaging, then stitched the next day...

She was the sweetest little thing imaginable, and wasnt really accident prone honest!

 

[FinnishLapphund]

Nice to hear everything is okay.
I don't have the nerves to wait with something like that.

About the Aloe vera though, when my mother had a wound and nothing the doctor did made it heal, I broke of a stem of my Aloe vera plant and used it on her wound, it healed in two or three days. But I still allways goes to the doctor or vet first.

from Sweden.

 

[Acolyte]

I bought an aloe vera plant specifically so I could do that with my dogs FinnishLapphund

Luckily I haven't had to use it yet (touches wood frantically!) but it is there just in case

 

[SouthWestWhippet]

Hi, sorry to hear about your dog

I have a whippet and she has delicate skin and has had several tears in her life from racing/hunting in the fields.

Some of these have been small enough to leave alone but she has been stiched up by the vet under general on 3 occasions now. On all three occasions she has recovered rapidly and the scar has been really minimul. And, like your dog, on one occasion she had a second injury I hadn't seen which the vet cleaned up when she was under so you aren't the first to miss an injury on your dog especially when there are other, more obvious injuries to take your attention

Just wanted to offer this as a bit of reassurance for you as it can be scarey if you haven't seen it before.

 

[Willow1306]

Thanks for your replies.

Good to know that your dog has made speedy recoveries from similar things too - mine is really not a happy bunny and just sits there and shakes when she has to have the 'lamp shade' on. Fortunately she is being really good and not licking her wound at all when it's off (there is always somebody with her when it is off), it's very tempting to leave it off but i won't!

One little thing that i've noticed is that her eyes are running a bit (not loads, but i do keep on needing to clear gunk out of the corners of her eyes), which they don't usually do. Could this be a side effect of anti-biotics/painkillers?

I really don't like this game, she's not usually a miserable dog despite being scared of her own shadow, she's always so happy about the little things in life but she's totally depressed right now

Not lookin quite so much as beautiful as this :

 

[Acolyte]

She is so pretty

I wouldnt worry too much about her eyes, I cant say any of mine have had runny eyes as a result of antibiotics but every dog is different! As long as she is not rubbing at them then I would say that they aren't bothering her