Just seen why our Chocolate Lab is limping.
She's got a deep cut on her left front paw. Big flap of skin. Looks pretty clean but obviously moist where she keeps licking it.
Vets not open till Tuesday due to Bank Holiday. She doesn't seem overly stressed apart from laying around a lot and limping when she gets up.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Martin.
I've just had a chat with SWMBO, who used to work in a Vets.
Common sense as you'd imagine. Keep her off of it and try to stop her licking it. But appreciate that's easier said than done. If you've feeling up to it, try and clean it with salty water. Say 1 teaspoon of sea salt to a mug of warm water. Should help prevent infection.
Good luck
Ok quick simple way to help her and stop her licking it is to get a sock put it over the paw and pull it up as high as you can and tie some tape around the top of it, quick easy and stops her biting or licking it and try to not let her walk around too much she should be fine till Tuesday. ass above bathe it first if you like and you should try checking to see if there is anything in it, If its a clean cut sock on job done :-)
Last edited by sonyman; 25th August 2013 at 12:39.
This is good advice, and to stop her licking it, a clean cotton sock taped up over the joint will help. DO NOT tape up tightly or use an elastic band though.Originally Posted by SeanST150
I don't know how deep the cut is, but if it's bad, you could clean as above (salty water), dry, and then seal with a smear of superglue and tape up with surgical tape (available in the supermarket), then protect with a sock.
This is just an idea, I'm not a professional!
I always thought that dogs licking wounds was beneficial as it helped keep it clean, but if that isn't the case, could you bandage it?
I've got two jack russels, a boy and a girl - the girl managed to hurt herself on Tuesday this week, Lord only knows how, but she spent a day running around on three legs - she's spent a few days feeling sulky and laying around but is getting much better and after a couple of days hobbling along on four, she's almost back to being herself - today will be her first walk since Tuesday. The other, Spike, is a little arthritic and managed to hurt his back leg running around the garden like a two year old yesterday. A nights rest seems to have improved things for him considerably and he's quickly recovered. I'm convinced that they only did it because I broke my toe last Sunday and they didn't like me getting any attention (as if!)
In my experience, dogs are remarkably good at self-healing. Try and get him to rest it and as long as it's not massively deep and there's no infection, he should be fine.
Just another thought, and this may be controversial, but if it's a flap of skin, have you considered super-glueing it? It may not be as barbaric as it sounds, super-glue was developed to quickly repair flesh wounds on soldiers in the Vietnam war, which is why it's much better at sticking fingers together than it is at glueing whatever it was you actually wanted to fix. I've had a number of quite deep cuts glued together in recent years and it's a great tool for the job.
Just seen Stewart's post above which was obviously submitted whilst I was typing. Looks like I needn't have worried so much about the super-glue suggestion :)
AS above - clean it and tape a sock over it, did the same with my dog and he was fine in a couple of days.
Stick a plaster over the flap to get it together but be wary of super glue.
Only reason I say that is my daughter was bitten and one surgeon wanted to glue the wound together and another refused to let him, saying it can trap an infection inside the wound. I don't know how accurate that is, but Im guessing they know their job.
Hope the mutt gets better!
On the sealing up issue, our dog managed to cut it's leg while I was out hillwalking for a few days - bleeding, but not life threatening. I had signal, so gave the vet a quick call for advice. They said that if they would stitch it within 2 hours, longer than that they prefer to dress it and leave it to heal up, as after 2 hours its pretty much guaranteed to be contaminated with bacteria.
I covered the cut with a little piece of non-adherent dressing kept in place with some conforming bandage and secured with a little micropore - tight enough to keep everything in place, but not to restrict circulation. I used a small waterproof sac to keep it as dry and clean as possible. When I got back home, I covered it with small kids sock to stop her pulling at the bandage.
Pad would be trickier to put a dressing on effectively, but if you're round the house, it shouldn't be too hard to get it sorted and then 'sock' it to inhibit them from chewing at it.
I'd suggest cleaning wound with Hydrogen Peroxide solution (available over the counter) however I have no experience with dogs. My thinking is, it is a very good antiseptic, doesn't sting (well almost) and again almost odourless. I definitely would not put superglue or anything in the cut just clean it, dry it and close with sterile gause/bandage (also available in chemists) and secure it as suggested above.
If you never used HP before, it is very reactive (clear almost ouderless liquid) and will bleach skin on contact and produce a lot of foam when it reacts with blood, open tissues etc which helps to clean wound. You will need to pour about 5ml of HP in a bottle cup (place it way away from the dog and pour whatever left in the bottle cup in a sink immediately after you finished) and use cotton swabs to apply it to the wound/cut, as long as swabs have excess of HP on them and some of the liquid gets inside the cut job is done. I'd suggest to double check with Vet if possible whether you can use HP on your dog. Speedy mending to your pal.
Fas est ab hoste doceri
Thanks guys.
Martin.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote