Wound Won't close

[cadaha]

HI,

I have a dog (5 months old) that I rescued 3 months ago. He cannot use his hind legs and shuffles around on his right hind quarter.

We have a wheelchair that we bought from here which is great.

We now have an ongoing problem where he had a growth on his right hind quarter. This was removed and then the area closed with stitches. He has remained a a baby playpen since this operation. Within 2 days the stitches came out and the wound repoened. I went to a local vet who stitched him back up and we then placed him back in his paypen and once again the stitches came out and the wound reopened. We took him back to the vet who said it was too late to restich him so he had an open wound that we had to irrigate regularly and spray antiseptic onto each time we cleaned it.

A few days ago a neurologist took a look at him to see if he had any feeling in his hind quarters while she was checking him out she said that would like to clean out the wound and remove some tissue that the first vet missed when he removed the growth. She removed the missed tissue and cleaned him all up and then closed him up. She put extra stitches in him in an X pattern as she was aware of my previous issues with the other vets.

Since then his wound has reopened. I am now at my wits end and he will need restitching today. This is very bad for my boy as he has been confined to the playpen/cot for a month now but it makes no difference to his healing process as we have to keep returning him to the vet.

I really need some advice on something that I can use to cover the stitches to reduce/remove the friction from them. I have tried diapers but they come off in no time and also are not very hygeinic when a wound is involved. I and seriously considering a line of duck tape over the stitches to at least reduce the friction that is tearing them out and give the wound a headstart on healing.

If you have had this sort of problem or have any ideas please let me know as this is causing my boy to have a miserable life now and if we can get over this hurdle we know he'll have a great life. Wheelchair, swimming pool, we are at home all day to care for him. We just need a 2 week healing period to get the wound properly closed over and healed.


Many Regards

Carl

[puremutt]

you sound like an angel taking such good care of your dog.
I Googled your problem here;s one website that came up:
http://www.sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/ ... ing-wounds
you can look in google yourself maybe just type : dog wound won't heal.
hope this helps!

[Bobbie]

Merlin had this problem with his first CCL surgery. For the second one the vet did staples, every half inch, and left them in for two full weeks. It worked. Ask if they can use staples instead of stitches.

[cadaha]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, I thought the same thing about staples but as this is a 3rd world country we are limited by what can be done. The vet ended up usng sea fishing line and grommets, at least this time it won't be the stitches that give. He said that we could further reduce friction with the diaper we that put on him. Hopefully this is the solution. Poor boy.

Thanks

Regards

Carl

[CarolC]

Hi Carl,

Excuse the artwork (not) but can you kind of pinpoint where the wound is?

[cadaha]

if I had to say, it would run the length of 3, 1, 5

Regards

Carl

[Bobbie]

Does the vet use superglue? That also works to keep wounds closed.

[CarolC]

Maybe you could put knickers or a diaper on him and not worry so much about a mess if you do "poop on demand", explained in this article:

https://www.handicappedpets.com/mediawiki/?title=Bowel_management_in_incontinent_pets

Even if you don't do bowel managment, suppose you know he's just pooped. You could put a diaper on for 6 hours or something...? Any amount of time it is covered might help it heal, even if it isn't 24/7. I also wonder about bandaging the lower area, like 1 thru 5?

I wonder if satin sheets would help, or anything that would be close to frictionless, silk, high thread count cotton.

Also, I'm not a surgeon but is putting in a row of internal stitches before closing the outside an option?

[servicedogroo]

I would try to see if they would do staples if that doesn't work try the surgical glue. I had a post spay bleeding that took stitches, staples and glue to get it to close among other issues.

[likecollies]

My dog had a wound on his paw that would not heal. I know this sounds crazy, but i used a product called Willard Water http://www.drwillard.com/.

The would disappeared in roughly 2 weeks. There are no guarantees, but it is worth a shot.

[servicedogroo]

besides staples or even covering with a diaper the other idea would be to actually put pure honey, not the pasturized stuff on the wound this is a natural way to help the wound heal and stay clean. helps the body to create new skin and close the wound on its own.