My dog caught her leg on barbed wire-- help?

[sirfunkeybut]

It looks bad, I have a pic but I can't post it. She tore a 3/4 x 3/4" chunk out of what would be her front knee. What should I do? It's not bleeding at all but looks bad

[sirfunkeybut]

[singleshot12]

that looks pretty bad, put some anti-septic on it and stitch it up yourself or taker to the vet

[Curly]

I think she should go to the vet and get stitched up, but I'm no expert.  Good luck, hope she heals up fast. 

[whackmaster]

I think you should go to the vet 

[Southpole]

that looks pretty bad, put some anti-septic on it and stitch it up yourself or taker to the vet

If it were my dog I would clean it up, wrap it, monitor it until Monday. Then you can assess then if you need to go to the vet. If it makes you sleep better you can get a vet or vet assistant on the phone and at least ask them what to do without taking the dog in. 

[Goldeneye]

The knee is a flex zone.  Wounds there need to be taken care of more than other areas.  They have a harder time healing.  Take to a vet while it's fresh.  If you wait they may not be able to close the wound as it should be.

[mossy8352]

Do her a favor and get her to a vet!

[WAcoyotehunter]

it's not that big and it's in a spot she can clean it... I would probably just let it heal up on it's own.

[NW-GSP]

Keep it clean and get some vetricyn spray or gell and get a cone. I have seen allot worse heal up with no problems.
It's best to let it heal from the inside out otherwise you have a high risk of infection and they would have to cut out the bad skin and tissue to even be able to do stitches or staples.

[jrebel]

If you wait till Monday the vet will not stitch it.  So you have two choices.....1.  treat it and let it heal which it will probably do but she will have a huge scare / without hair.  It could take a while to heal as well because it is on a joint, which will make it more susceptible to infection.  2.  Take her to the bet and get it stitched up....it will heal fast and less likely to be infected.  Will end up with a  very small scare at this point. 

[wildweeds]

Your dilemma is why everyone should have a skin stapler,I got one from my vet and instruction and hands on training on nailing it shut,it's very easy to do and the few times I've had cause to put one back together it's come out fine.You line the cut sections up and start stapling at the top of the wound,staple down and leave the bottom 1/4 inch open so it can drain and not create an abcess.I hit em with cephalexin antibiotics afterwards and about a week later ascess the healing and if it's looking good I take the staples out.

 The wound your dog has needs staples or stitches IMO. 5-10 of them would be my guess.

[Cascade_fisher]

IMO - stitches but you might have waited too long now and the skin flap will go necrotic and need to be cut off.  Stitching is easy to do with the right stuff and the stapler is easy too.  Build a canine first aid kit and the skills to use it.  It will more than pay for itself for a field dog.

[Stilly bay]

Your dilemma is why everyone should have a skin stapler,I got one from my vet and instruction and hands on training on nailing it shut,it's very easy to do and the few times I've had cause to put one back together it's come out fine.You line the cut sections up and start stapling at the top of the wound,staple down and leave the bottom 1/4 inch open so it can drain and not create an abcess.I hit em with cephalexin antibiotics afterwards and about a week later ascess the healing and if it's looking good I take the staples out.

 The wound your dog has needs staples or stitches IMO. 5-10 of them would be my guess.

IMO - stitches but you might have waited too long now and the skin flap will go necrotic and need to be cut off.  Stitching is easy to do with the right stuff and the stapler is easy too.  Build a canine first aid kit and the skills to use it.  It will more than pay for itself for a field dog.

that wound/area needs professional help to heal correctly and quickly. if it were anywhere else besides a joint I would attempt DIY stitching. even Vets have trouble with those spots.
 

[WAcoyotehunter]

Your dilemma is why everyone should have a skin stapler,I got one from my vet and instruction and hands on training on nailing it shut,it's very easy to do and the few times I've had cause to put one back together it's come out fine.You line the cut sections up and start stapling at the top of the wound,staple down and leave the bottom 1/4 inch open so it can drain and not create an abcess.I hit em with cephalexin antibiotics afterwards and about a week later ascess the healing and if it's looking good I take the staples out.

 The wound your dog has needs staples or stitches IMO. 5-10 of them would be my guess.

5-10 staples for a 3/4" cut???  We stapled a dog this week with a 3" hog cut and only gave 6 staples.  That little cut will heal just fine without any help.  Dogs are tough.

[Houndhunter]

 

Imo, just sterilize it and the dog will heal up fine. I put a sav on cuts like that and they heal up quick, its amazing to me how well a dog heals

[Houndhunter]

Btw wacoyotehunter, where are you hog hunting at? I've always wanted to do that with dogs

[RadSav]

Your dilemma is why everyone should have a skin stapler,I got one from my vet and instruction and hands on training on nailing it shut,it's very easy to do and the few times I've had cause to put one back together it's come out fine.You line the cut sections up and start stapling at the top of the wound,staple down and leave the bottom 1/4 inch open so it can drain and not create an abcess.I hit em with cephalexin antibiotics afterwards and about a week later ascess the healing and if it's looking good I take the staples out.

 The wound your dog has needs staples or stitches IMO. 5-10 of them would be my guess.

5-10 staples for a 3/4" cut???  We stapled a dog this week with a 3" hog cut and only gave 6 staples.  That little cut will heal just fine without any help.  Dogs are tough.

Yeah our dogs have had those little things quite often. Not even enough for us to stop hunting.  A little EMT gel and a couple staples is all it takes.  You don't want to seal it shut unless that is done by a vet.  If it's really deep staple a tube in there until you can get to a vet.  We always follow up with a bit of gauze and a light wrap.

Our Skagit puppy had one from her chest to her knee joint.  A little EMT and about six staples was all for the 12 hours it took us to get her to a vet. Slow recovery, but you'd barely even notice the scar now.

[wildweeds]

Damfino yote,I just start stapling and go for it,Seeings as how I was taught by a professinallly skoooled vet on how to do it,I figger don't mess with the recipe.................. He was an A+ WSU guy ,Heck it ain't like a stapler costs that much either 250 staples for near nothing.My auntie the nurse says they throw em away at the hospital after each use.In his case overkill is better than not enough,if he didn't put enough in and it tore open the customer would be on the internet in a second giving him the donnybrook mutha humpin for the entire world to see.Hickerbillys can throw on hitch dead center with a granny knot and when it fails say, "Whoops,musta coulda used 3".Hounds is one thing purty bird dogs is another. 

And Stilly it ain't rocket science,I had a setter yard a gash open similar to the OP inside the armpit(which from his picture looks to be the same scenario),Gave it a looking over,yardes out a few weed seeds with the hemostats,gave her a douching with  squirt of nolvasan and plowed  about 8 staples into it and left the bottom 3/8 to 1/4 inch open and a week later boom,all better.

Your dilemma is why everyone should have a skin stapler,I got one from my vet and instruction and hands on training on nailing it shut,it's very easy to do and the few times I've had cause to put one back together it's come out fine.You line the cut sections up and start stapling at the top of the wound,staple down and leave the bottom 1/4 inch open so it can drain and not create an abcess.I hit em with cephalexin antibiotics afterwards and about a week later ascess the healing and if it's looking good I take the staples out.

 The wound your dog has needs staples or stitches IMO. 5-10 of them would be my guess.

5-10 staples for a 3/4" cut???  We stapled a dog this week with a 3" hog cut and only gave 6 staples.  That little cut will heal just fine without any help.  Dogs are tough.

[KopperBuck]

Keep it clean and get some vetricyn spray or gell and get a cone. I have seen allot worse heal up with no problems.
It's best to let it heal from the inside out otherwise you have a high risk of infection and they would have to cut out the bad skin and tissue to even be able to do stitches or staples.

x5 on the Veterycin. A little spendy on the retail side but it's worth it's weight in gold. We use it on our horses, dogs, and ourselves.

[wildweeds]

I use it on myself too even though it says "Not for use on humans"  I also use the "Schreiners" on myself too,that dang cayenne pepper in it don't feel all that good at the initial application but sometimes you just got to walk it off.A word of advice on the Schrieners,even though it says it's good for killing fungus............... it's a real bee yatch when you think "Hey I'll try this on my athletes foot"

Keep it clean and get some vetricyn spray or gell and get a cone. I have seen allot worse heal up with no problems.
It's best to let it heal from the inside out otherwise you have a high risk of infection and they would have to cut out the bad skin and tissue to even be able to do stitches or staples.

x5 on the Veterycin. A little spendy on the retail side but it's worth it's weight in gold. We use it on our horses, dogs, and ourselves.

[Stilly bay]

And Stilly it ain't rocket science,I had a setter yard a gash open similar to the OP inside the armpit(which from his picture looks to be the same scenario),Gave it a looking over,yardes out a few weed seeds with the hemostats,gave her a douching with  squirt of nolvasan and plowed  about 8 staples into it and left the bottom 3/8 to 1/4 inch open and a week later boom,all better.

no its not rocket science especially to someone who has training. but for someone posting a "what do I do to help my injured dog" on the internet, Im guessing they don't have much if any training at all.

maybe once they have stitched up a few dogs with their Vetrenarian pal's supervision I would feel a little more comfortable telling them not to sweat it and stitch em up your self. but thats not the case.  where can you even buy skin staplers OTC if you don't already have one in your kit? ordering one or driving around looking for one  is going to waste valuable time.

furthermore like several have stated; its on a joint, a notoriously hard area to suture correctly even vets.

Im not saying this to pick a fight, since at this point its probably too late for the OP's dog to get properly stitched and now the wound will have a lot longer to heal and might just reopen occasionally.
maybe some one will read this and their dog will get a laceration in a technically tricky area and maybe he won't EFF around and just go straight to the vet.

[jackelope]

 

[ducksdogsdownriggers]

If it was one my dogs, I'd take it to, or at least call, my vet.

If that's not an option for whatever reason, or not the route for you, then get it clean and pick up some EMT spray/gel... and do what you can from there.
 

[sirfunkeybut]

I ended up calling the emergency vet and she said just to clean it and keep her from licking it and go to our normal bet on Monday. She did say that stitching probably isn't going to work due to location and not having a flap of skin to cover it.

[2labs]

Bag balm has worked well for me. Sticky stuff and seems to minimize licking. Hope your pups ok.

[KopperBuck]

Superglue is always an emergency fix.

[Goldeneye]

Problem with this one, is that closing it with anything like super glue there is a section of skin is missing so it's kinda hard to close the wound when there's not enough skin left to connect it.

[KopperBuck]

Read emergency.

[KopperBuck]

And add stabilization.

[benbo30]

judging by the picture its not that big of deal , keep it clean and let it heal on its own and i would recommend you go get some vetricyn to spray on it , i have had my horses with worse cuts than that ..... IMO Vetricyn spray will do wonders on animals. Dogs are tough and typically they will clean the wound themselfs . No reason to run to the vet everytime a little cut happens. but if you have the money go right for it , most of the time they wont do much other than instruct you what to do and maybe give you a antibiotic or cream that you could have gotten yourself from a farm supply store.