# Do you this will need stitches?



## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Penny cut herself. I don't know how, we went running in the country and on the way home I noticed she was bleeding all over the car. It's stopped bleeding now, and she's licking it a lot. Kinda looks like a barbed wire injury, but could be anything I guess. We're going to the vet tomorrow, what do you think Doc will do? Stitches, or just flush it out? It's about an inch long, pardon the pic, it's the best I could do with my cell phone. Here's the pic, I shaved around the wound:


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## spotted nikes (Feb 7, 2008)

From what I understand, if you wait, you can't stitch many wounds because the edges of the skin die/dry out.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Oh, so it probably won't be stitchable anyway? I didn't think it was worth going to the emergency vet, since it wasn't bleeding anymore. Willow once got cut on barbed wire and we didn't take her to the vet, and it took forever to heal. I'd hate to do that again. Poor Penny is limping around and milking it for all it's worth.



Ugh, just noticed the typo in the title, LOL. Too bad you can't edit titles.


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## CoverTune (Mar 11, 2007)

Willowy said:


> Oh, so it probably won't be stitchable anyway?


It depends on the wound, and the doctor. Sometimes they can "freshen the edges" of a wound, which means cutting away the dead skin and stitching together live/healthy skin that can heal.

From that pic, it's really hard to say what they'll do.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

It kind of looks "skinned" in the pic, but it really is a gash, through the entire first layer of skin. The edges of the cut are curled up. If he does want to stitch, he probably will have to cut away the curled skin. I'll keep everyone posted on how he handles it.


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## luv2byte (Oct 21, 2009)

Why take a chance guessing - take her to the vet.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

luv2byte said:


> Why take a chance guessing - take her to the vet.


I already said we're seeing the vet tomorrow. Or at least calling him--if he tells me over the phone that there's nothing he can do about it, or gives me the supplies to deal with it and tells me what to do with them, I guess Penny won't actually be going in. But there will definitely be vet contact tomorrow. I was just basically getting guesses as to what he'll do about it.


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## lovemygreys (Jan 20, 2007)

If it's an inch long, I wouldn't have it stitched. The vet will probably want to stitch it (that's how they make their money, after all), but a small wound like that should heal up just fine. Maybe get some antibiotics, but I wouldn't even do that unless it became necessary.

Of course, we have greyhounds which have notoriously thin skin, so flesh wounds are rather common here. To give you some perspective on the largest wound we've ever healed up, this wound didn't have enough skin for them to staple it closed the entire way (this was from an altercation between dogs). In this pic, the wound was already a couple weeks old and smaller than it was to start. That one took a couple months to heal up, but as I said...stitching it closed the entire way was not an option.









(a dew claw did that!)


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## sammy loo (Sep 21, 2010)

i'd probably go with the otc antibiotic ointment, gauze pad and some white tape over shaved skin while monitoring her for temp and excessive chewing on the wound or leg.


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