Wound licking, how to stop?

[kabar 14]

Ey up folks, the lurcher cut the inside of his back leg on wire last week. It was stitched and was looking great until Thurs morning when he'd been at it over night. Its left a hole in the middle of the cut about the size of 2p with the stitches intact either side. He's got a collar on but has figured out how to hook it inside his stifle to let him at the wound. I will be going back to the vets again tomorrow but any one got any ways to put them off? I'm considering bandages as a bigger collar wouldn't let him walk through a door. Typical just before the season kicks in as well!

[MissRhianL 70]

To be honest butt, if the hole is a size of a 2p piece i personally wouldn take the dog back to the vets as if he got to it this time he wil do it again an cost you more in the long run. Any bangs like that my dog sees to himself providin that i bathe it 2-3x a day makin sure there are no foreign objects in the wound. Lettin the dog lick it will remove such things an eventually the skin will fold back together an heal up nice wit little scaring. Everyone is different i know wit injuries but thats what i do. Anyway hope it all goes well an dog should be back to normal in no time. Atb.

[skycat 6,174]

To be honest butt, if the hole is a size of a 2p piece i personally wouldn take the dog back to the vets as if he got to it this time he wil do it again an cost you more in the long run. Any bangs like that my dog sees to himself providin that i bathe it 2-3x a day makin sure there are no foreign objects in the wound. Lettin the dog lick it will remove such things an eventually the skin will fold back together an heal up nice wit little scaring. Everyone is different i know wit injuries but thats what i do. Anyway hope it all goes well an dog should be back to normal in no time. Atb.

 

:thumbs:

 

Though occasionally you do get some dogs which just won't leave things alone at all. Usually though, there's a reason a dog licks a wound too much: such as if there is something inside it which shouldn't be there. Foreign body. I've left quite big skin tears and whilst they may look worse to begin with, give them 10 days and the tissue will start granulating: looking pink and bobbly: those are the new skin cells growing. Most dogs lick a wound a lot for the first week, and can even roll back the edges a little, but once the tissue starts granulating they generally only lick it enough to stop if drying out too fast. Open wounds need to stay moist to heal properly until all the skin cells have grown to fill the hole in. Only stop the dog licking if it is biting, chewing and making things a lot worse.

[kabar 14]

Thanks both, I did take him back to the vets he was at it again last night and made it worse again. My vet supports coutry sports and is very common sensical with the dogs. He took the rest of the stitches out and said to leave him to it spraying with saly water every day. Such a shame though for 5/6 days he left it alone and it was looking great, then the itching of it healing set him at it!

Penny, your book mentions Honey which is something ive used on ferrets abd chickens but I was worried it may encourage him to lick it due to the taste, he can get a bit obsesive over licking anyway.

heres after 2 days,

After a night of bedning his head around his collar,

and "looking after it him self",

[leegreen 2,244]

The first picture with the stitches looks proper tight and was probably irritating the dog along with the healing process. The second picture (open wound) looks ok, nice and clean. As Skycat said licking is a good thing, keeps things clean, removes foreign bodies etc, something with my experience vets often miss and end up sewing something in! I've seen dogs heal on the out side and later this has caused an abscess, the body reacting to a foreign body (dirt,hair,etc).

Open wounds generally take a little longer to heal but in my experience they heal more reliably and a lot of the time if a dog can clean it's own wound you've no need to.

My approach is if it's not bleeding after a while, I leave it.