“It does not look to bad was my first thought”, l could see a red patch on his side. Mind you, as it was night, and l was not wearing my glasses so was blind as a bat.
The dog was yelping which as it is a lurcher and they and their kin greyhounds can be very wimpy did not concern me. Till l got a bit closer and then it was “ohhh boy not good”.
Apparently they had been out for a walk. Taffy* (*not his real name) running off a lead had come back somehow wounded. It was like someone had taken a knife and cut out an almost nice circle. There was no shredded flesh or anything, a total mystery.
I got the owners to sign in while l took Taffy out the back to get a vet to have a closer look and get some antibiotics, anti inflammatory and pain relief into him and for me to get a dressing over the wound.
The vet took one look winced and said to go ahead with the drugs l had drawn up on standby and dress the wound. I grabbed a passing auxiliary to help hold while l put a dressing on.
As soon as l started to dress the wound Taffy screamed the place down. I decided to see how he was when l had done and covered the wound. Taffy made it clear he was going to scream non stop.
The dressing was not tight. Pre wrap you could touch around the wound, he would just not tolerate a dressing so l undid all my nice neat belly wrap and we stared at each other.
Plan 2 I needed a cover till he was operated on later that night. I dug through the dressings draw awaiting inspiration.
2 large melolin inspired me. I taped them together to make a big “block”. Then a roll of elastoplast was stuck carefully down the sides of my block and pressed firmly over the wound. He looked unhappy but at least did not scream.
I picked up a buster collar to stop him getting to the wound but he freaked so we left the muzzle on him in case he tried to bite the wound/dressing. All seemed well and he was happy if such a word could be used to tolerate my temporary dressing.
Taffy was stitched up later that night after l had gone home. A lot of the skin just pulled back up, apparently it had flopped down. When awake you could not tell there was loose skin there. Once Taffy was under GA it pulled back, a bit tight but at least no major grafting or anything was needed. There was no abdominal wall rupture, another big worry. Although when he was awake there had been none to see. Taffy went home the next day.
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Poor dog... I do wonder how he got such a wound? As you say, it looks clean cut. Most odd. I do hope he heals up well.
ooch! lurchers are just very sensitive souls ! dave screeches the place down if he has to have a jab - would hate to be a neighbour of the vet.
joker was bitten (just a tiny puncture wound) last december and got really bad blood poisoning. he had to have two lots of surgery and then it was looking like he would have to go to cambridge for plastic surgery when he decided to take matters into his own paws and scratched all the (by now quite a few) stitches out. bizarrely this seemed to do the trick and our long-suffering vet stapled it tight together and it finally healed! joker now has a 6" scar on his shoulder and a very straight line between grey and white fur where a big tuck had to be made.
When l give Wibble injections l use an "orange" needle (means very fine diabetic needle)
If she doe not scream the place down during the injection, l have shown her the needle/syringe post injection and said... "Gotcha"
She will take one look at the needle and screeeeeem the place down even though by now the needle is in sharps.
The injury looks a lot like a wire injury, particularly from barbed wire. I've seen them on cattle and sheep—and a motorcyclist who rode into a barbed wire fence.
The barb hooks into the skin, also cutting the tissue underneath, and then the forward motion of the animal tears the skin back in a roughly triangular shape. The point of the triangle is the entry point of the wire.
Not nice.
Thanks Stoney, that was the only thing we could think of it was just it was such a "clean" would with no shredding flesh on it.
That would explain the action of it.
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