Anybody stitch their animals?

[MWG]

Well, it never fails... emergencies never happen between the hours of 9 to 5 do they? Wondering if anyone has stitched their animals when an accident has happened?

My dog has a gash on his shoulder blade. Probably needed 7 stitches but I was able to get in 3 before he had enough. Has anyone had any experiences like this?

I shaved the area, cleaned the wound, applied bactricacim (spelling ?), and stitched. Then I put a gauze on it and wrpped it. Tomorrow I am going to check the wound and put some hydrogen peroxide on it. Am I forgetting something?

Thanks,

[Pops2]

get a stapler, faster than stitching. plus w/ stitching you need to know when & how to put in a drain. stapling correctly, the wound drains on it's own. also i prefer an iodine based solution rather than peroxide. peroxide will kill cells adjacent to the wound and so provides food for bacterial growth (infection).

[wogglebug]

May be too late now, but don't forget the possibilities of super glue (crazy glue?). It was invented for surgical use.

[comfortablynumb]

I had a turky fly thru a window once I had to stich up her legs....

I had to stitch up a duck once too....

and my old tomcat, I had to stitch up his neck after a fight.
good old tomcat, just layed there and didnt move.

I had to stitch up a horses knee once too at the track.

[Scrounger]

The wife's dad had a goat that split her ear. We ended up stapling and super glueing it back together.

[watcher]

I use super glue a lot but it only works on wounds that don't have any stress on them. Staples are good but you have to plan ahead and have a stapler.

Here's a hint. Take your needle and rub one side of the tip on a sharping stone until you get a sharp edge as well a point.

[BackwoodsIdaho]

I stitched up my 9 year old daughter once - does that count? She didn't like the first stitch but after a couple of shots of Dr. Jack Daniels, she was ok with the rest of them. Her cheek didn't scar too bad.

[marvella]

i keep waiting for someone to tell how they used SOME kind of anesthetic first. it sounds like an already injured animal is being hurt further.

good god, at least spray chloraseptic on it first, or something.

[watcher]

Originally Posted by marvella

i keep waiting for someone to tell how they used SOME kind of anesthetic first. it sounds like an already injured animal is being hurt further.

good god, at least spray chloraseptic on it first, or something.

Usually shock is enough. If not then you just have to do what needs to be done. Which is better to inflict a little pain or leave a wound open until you can get a vet (if you can get a vet) to come and "do it right"?

Two other things. When my son took a header in grandma's bed the docs didn't use anything on him before they popped 3 staples into him.

And I have glued myself many times. AAMOF, my pocket knife slipped two nights ago and the blade with into my thumb next to the nail all the way to the bone. I pull it out, cleaned up the wound, stopped the bleeding and glued it. Yesterday I peeled the glue off, soaked it in salt water and re-glued it. No ER visit needed.

[marvella]

i've used the staples and can see that. a shot would be just one more stick. and the glue makes a ton of sense and is probably the best choice.

but a needle and thread?

[MWG]

When you guys are saying stapler are you referring to one like is on most people's desks? How do the staples stay in? I am confued on this one...

[gimpy]

the problem with sugical staples is they take 3 hands to operate, 2 to hold the skin edges together and one to staple. When suturing, remember that you are almost certainly dealing with dirty wounds. those need to be able to drain. Your biggest enemies are infection and dehydration (not necessarily in that order depending upon weather and location). Gaping Wounds less than an inch wide will most likely heal on their own if you prevent #'s 1 and 2. A mix of vaseline and topical antibiotics usually will keep the maggots off and let the wounds drain while preventing dehydration. Dont try for watertight closure, an inch apart will normally suffice although it may scar ugly, so for livestock, yes, for kids, an ER assuming you aren't snowed in.

[MWG]

Well, I took the bandage off to change it and it really didn't turn out too bad. I put hydrogen peroxide on it before I took the picture so that is what most of the drainage is.

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[ET1 SS]

I have stitched animals, myself and our son.

I have used chloraseptic, I have also used alcohol to try and help with patient stress.

It is better when someone else can hold and comfort the patient.

I have never stapled. I have seen staples and I am not convinced that they can handle much stress.

[ozark_jewels]

I have had to stitch a goat before. I had nothing on hand and it was an emergency. There was also a large torn artery pumping blood which I tied off before stitching the wound shut. I used a sewing needle, dental floss(which I sanitized with alcohol), and scissors to clip the area first. The goat nor I enjoyed it, but she healed just fine and went on to live a very full life. I took the stitches out after a week.

Pictures the day after the stitching:







Scotchs scar a month later:

[js2743]

hog rings work good on large cuts, i have seen my dad close up several large cuts with them on horses and cattle. he would use the smaller ones like for pigs

[MWG]

Wow jewels... you win! Nice work. So how do you close an artery? I hope I never have to do that but it would be better to know now rather than try to figure out later...

BTW, What happened to your goat? Looks like it had a gambling debt or something that the mafia tried to get even with?

[daytrader]

When we had pigs we used staples and super glue. Super glue works great! We used Iodine as well.

[greenboy]

I think I even gave stiches to a Martian once. (I was correct it wasnt a martian he was my neighbors Junior son, oh well he really seemed like from Mars to me, no nice) The number one for a sucessful operation is to keep the area clean, and to remember you have 8 hours to stich a wound. so if you need rest and the animal is not bleeding or the lidocaine or whatever you are using is wearing out ,if you are using something( I made a chicken drunk once before the stitches operation) you can take brakes. Now after 8 hours that's it. the wound is too contaminated and the healing process is too advanced to put sides of the wound together, you may try and sometimes you are sucessful but this is limited. Crazy glue and Dermabond are great!!! fast and clean. Godspeed...

[CJ]

We keep a staple gun in our emergency kit. Have used it on the dogs on several occasions, and once on DH.