Dog cut one if its pads.

Alfasudcrazy

Just noticed one of my dobermans (the male) has cut one of the pads on his rear left leg. Its a rather nasty gash - deep and measuring about one cm in length. Its not bleeding though and strangely he does not seem to be limping.

Am off to the vets with him at 3:30pm - yes he is coming in on a Sunday to treat my precious.:cool:

I have recently taken to taking them for walks where they can be left off the lead and run about for themselves but they do like to poke around in drains and other places where if on a lead they would not go.
Still its a relief being able to leave them off lead as they are now so strong its like keeping back a train to keep them travellng in the direction I want them to go.

They do run so fast I am worried they could injure themselves simply from the speed and their weight. It looks like I wont have to worry about that for a while now though as walks are out until little Nero's leg is better. :rolleyes:

Alfasudcrazy

Back from the vets - three stitches required. The vet conformed my fear that it was a nasty cut. Dog had to be sedated to put on stitches and its now bandaged and he is wearing a dog boot which only can be left on for 24 hours as it can be as much a hinderance to healing as when it was not there.

Dog pads are slow and difficult to heal. €80 out of pocket for that one but fair play to the vet for coming in as its not one to treat as 'ah sure it will be alright till tomorrow' Its not one to allow infection to set in - even though the vet suspects it already has - dog is on anti biotics to prevent same.:eek:

After this I am taking out pet insurance. :rolleyes:

iguana

Hope your dog get's better soon. Though I have to say that €80 to get your vet out on a Sunday seems great value. It's much more expensive in the UK, my nearest emergency vet costs £150 (roughly €225) for a Sunday consultation and that would be without the cost of the stitches and the anti-biotics.

Gillie

Get the Pet insurance! Very handy!
Bear in mind though. If the dog has any previous conditions you will not be covered for these!

We have Petplan for the GSD. When he was younger he was sick a lot but he's been sound for a year now so hopefully he's in the clear!
Can't imagine what it would have been like without the insurance!

Alfasudcrazy

Well so much for that - he pulled off his dog boot yesterday a few hours before it was to come off anyway so I left it. Now this morning I see the stiches have opened and we are back to square one. Dog is now lifting his rear leg now and again so it seems to be sorer than yesterday.

I have a pre-arranged appointment with the vet at 6:30pm so I will have to wait to see what he says.

Gillie

Best of luck!

Alfasudcrazy

Well today I changed to a different vet as the second attempt to stitch the foor ended in failure with the dog seemingly being able to undo them even though being muzzled all night - perhaps his sister is responsible?

Anyway my baby is back in surgery under the knife again to try and get this right once and for all. Will be bandaged this time and the dog will have to wear a huge bell collar and his sister will have to be muzzled.

Hope its third time lucky. :rolleyes:

artieanna

Hope all went well today...

Alfasudcrazy

Yes this vet was a bit more 'into it' than the other - again he had to sedate him and remove a small bit of the fleshy tissue. He said this was keeping the wound opening.
The bandages are the tougher adhesive type too so its staying on. Had to abandon the bell collar though as the dog was litterally going mad with it on and could not get in and out of his dog house with it.

I have him muzzled and had her muzzled but she pulled it off overnight and promptly chewed it to bits in case it was used again.

Things are holding up this time but am so lucky we have dry weather as if it was wet the dog could not be left outside in it.

Am nervous of keeping a dog muzzled overnight though - if he vomited he could choke - so I keep a close eye on him. Currently they sleep inside my house at night just until it heals properly.

fits

Having gone through similar myself recently, you could borrow a crate to isolate the injured dog and keep him quiet. Crates are fantastic useful things.
My dog broke his leg six weeks ago... so if you think you're having fun... I've visited the vet at least 15 times I'd say since it happened. It was an open fracture that got infected, and we're not yet out of the woods.

Alfasudcrazy

Must change the dressing tomorrow - can anyone recommend a good anti-biotic cream (I assume anti-septic and anti-biotic mean the same thing) Its just I like to be sure before I do things. Of course it has to be a holiday weekend too - when all bad things happen to me it seems. :mad:

Was out today for about two hours and arrived back home to find the two dobies running around having a great time - both were without muzzles!!

The male (being a bit slow) finally figured how to pull it off and also like his sister just so it could not be used again shredded it. It being a good Friday I can't buy a replacement. So they may have the dressing already changed themselves in the morning. :rolleyes:

Schlemm

If you haven't anything in the house in the line of antiseptics, some salt water will work wonders on the wound, and avoids any problems that might come about from the dog licking the antiseptic itself, especially if he's getting at it.

You can use regular table salt or epsom salts. You can bathe his paw in it and use a clean cloth to sponge it and clean off any pus or debris.

Bathing the wound is good because dogs can often lick off topical ointments before they get to work...especially if they're tearing their muzzles and bandages off! If he won't let you hold his paw in a basin, sponging it with a cloth for a few minutes will do.

If you catch him licking the wound, let him do so - dog's saliva has antibacterial properties so that'll help too.

artieanna

Schlemm wrote:

If you haven't anything in the house in the line of antiseptics, some salt water will work wonders on the wound, and avoids any problems that might come about from the dog licking the antiseptic itself, especially if he's getting at it.

You can use regular table salt or epsom salts. You can bathe his paw in it and use a clean cloth to sponge it and clean off any pus or debris.

Bathing the wound is good because dogs can often lick off topical ointments before they get to work...especially if they're tearing their muzzles and bandages off! If he won't let you hold his paw in a basin, sponging it with a cloth for a few minutes will do.

If you catch him licking the wound, let him do so - dog's saliva has antibacterial properties so that'll help too.

Totally agree with the above post and
Espom Salts is superb it will clean the wound and will aid healing...I swear by it for animal wounds and for human wounds too!! add two teaspoons to a mug of fairly hot water and apply with a piece of cotton wool. keep the muzzle on as it may sting a bit..bathe wound twice daily and you should see improvement in 2-3 days..

Alfasudcrazy

Good news at last - the treatment is working great. Wound exam at the vets this morning was very positive. New bandage on again until Monday but it seems we are out of the woods on this one.

Sorry for the running commentary but it helps to be able to write about it on here - god help us if anything serious happened. :rolleyes:

Dr.Bunson

Happened to my dog last year - she stood on glass - it went up through the pad and sliced an artery - she lost a lot of blood and could have died. After and expensive trip to the vet and much heartache for the dog (and for ourselves) the stiches came out and she healed up.

Later last year same think happened - stood on glass - but this time sliced off a peice of one of the pad - another expensive trip to the vet, and the lampshade collar went on the dog again for a week.

Since then I have got pet insurance for her (It will help keep future vet bills down).

I now don't walk the dog in estates, or park/green areas close to estates. I take her to the beach (not Dollymount, too much glass and sh1t there) or I take her to park area's that are away from estates. All the glass around is from people "knacker-drinking". I have nothing against this, I did it myself in my youth, but we used to dispose of the bottles/cans responsibly, not smash them in public areas.

Luckily, this happened to our dogs, and not our children...

artieanna

Alfasudcrazy wrote:

Good news at last - the treatment is working great. Wound exam at the vets this morning was very positive. New bandage on again until Monday but it seems we are out of the woods on this one.

Sorry for the running commentary but it helps to be able to write about it on here - god help us if anything serious happened. :rolleyes:

thats great news, its good to hear how you got on.....

Alfasudcrazy

well today little Nero was finally declared better - bandage removed and back to his full active life - well at least where I decide that will be. No more walking around in drains etc.

Thanks for all your replies and for listening to me over the past few weeks. :rolleyes:

Special thanks to Richard Hurley vet Tralee for his skill and expertise in resolving this matter.:cool: