Surgical Wound Care

[kellee888]

His stitches popped open after the vet took our staples at 7 days.  The wound won't heal. He has been on meds, use of e-collar, limited to a leash for months.  He licks it, but he seems to open it with just activity.  At the moment he is feeling good, wants to run, and acting frisky- but the wound refuses to heal.  He did have a major infection earlier in the ordeal, but the vet says it was superficial and to just leave the site open. It has been 4 months and it hasn't healed!  Sambo had a previous ACL surgery with a different doctor last year and had no trouble.  We have spent way over $5,000 trying to help him.  Your thoughts?????  Are there wound care products we should be trying????  

[Lynguini]

We had a cat that had an open wound under her arm pit and it would not heal. It was tested and all was negative.   The vet stitched the wound up on two occasions and the stitches could not mend  and the wound together and it continued to stay open. We cleaned the would with saline solution, used topicals and nothing helped.  Finally, the vet recommended taking the cat to a specialist (plastic surgeon/tissue specialist for animals) and the doctor performend a surgical flap.  Due to the fact that the injury was in an odd area where there is constant motion, they took healthy skin from an area close to the wound and "flapped" the healthy skin over the would and stitched it.  I worked well.  The healthy skin survived and was able to heal.  Perhaps if all else fails, you may want to find a tissue specialist for animals....good luck!!!!!

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

Has your vet performed a culture and sensitivity of the wound and treated with appropriate antibiotics?  A culture and sensitivity should be performed if it has not yet been done.  

A wet to dry bandage often helps.  The bandage must be changed ever two days.

I have achieved success in getting open wounds to heal by using topical natural honey as a wound balm either with or without a bandage.  If not using a bandage than an E-collar must be used to prevent licking off of the honey.  The honey is placed on topically as you would any topical cream,  twice daily.  The wound must be cleaned with soap and water, rinsed well, and dried prior to each honey application.  

Other topical formulas that may help are:
Wound Balm, by Buck Mountain Botanicals; Haung Lian Coptis Powder, or Golden Yellow Topical by Jing Tang Herbal Company.