dressing a wound in a odd location

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Carolyn R

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Hi everyone. I have a question for those creative individuals out there. My gypsy vanner had a sarcoid removed Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It was a tiny wart like growth that was most likely present when I got her a little over a year ago. I noticed it not long after she was here, but thought it may be a very small mole. Anyhow, this year it grew a little and then over a few weeks, seemed to blow up onto a pea size ball.

Anyhow, it was located in the "arm pit " folds of skin on the inside of her front leg. More specifically, take the elbow, run your finger from the elbow to the inside of the leg, and it is located in the skin folds there. It was biopsied and was indeed a sarcoid. The site was initially stapled, by Friday morning, she had popped the staples. The site was sutured, that lasted five days, then she popped the sutures. She is on SMZ's, It was suggested I try using medihoney gauze (very interesting stuff, used on skin grafts, burn victims, diabetic sores) and vet said to concentrate on keeping it clean, and be creative wrapping it, i could use diapers, vet wrap, what ever, creative is the key word. the bandages keep slipping from the area, so what have you all done to "be creative " in situations like these?

I am almost thinking smaller is better at this point, I am considering cleaning it, placing the gauze and a very large band aid over it, then using duct tape over it and attatching it to the actual furr that is a safe distance away from the wound.

Any Ideas?
 
Try stay free maxi pads or mini pads. Then vet wrap. On top of the vet wrap you might want to put masking tape and let some of it stick to the hair itself. Its easy to remove or just forget the vet wrap completely and go with the masking tape.
 
put a maxi pad on it. I'd wrap her all the way around the barrel and a bit on the front of the chest too with CoFlex (vet wraps cheaper sister!).
 
Can you use "AluShield"? It is an "aerosol bandage". On the can, it says:

AluShield is a convenient, water-resistant aerosol bandage that creates a protective barrier against external irritant agents in wounds in small and large animals.
 
For those hard to wrap places I use unpasturized honey. I spread some on and leave it unwrapped for the day. It gets cleaned with warm water everyday before reapplying. I also put vaseline under the wound just so the honey doesn't stick too bad into the hairs. It has never let me down. I had a full size horse rescue come in and his back leg was cut to the bone the whole length of his cannon bone. He was not to good with his back legs so we were sedating him daily to clean his wound and wrapping it. We started the honey treatments and within record time his wound healed and he he was sound. The vet was amazed at the quick recover time and started recommending honey to some of her clients. We never had a problem with infection and no proud flesh. I have a couple pictures some where of the injury if you are interested.
 
Yep, AluShield. Or AluSpray, same product. It's an aerosol bandage that I've used many times for your exact situation.
 
I third that you need a spray on, don't try to bandage. You can wash these spray ons off so no problem with re-dressing, and I would put straightforward honey on it, nothing else, not too much, be sparing with it- you want to keep it clean but you want to let it breathe, too. As soon as you can leave all dressings off and just keep it clean daily.
 
I have bandaged a mini, I used leg wraps (washable) and circled her girth, used the velcro to keep it on and I just used a gauze pad or something like that underneath the wraps. With a set of four I always had a clean one when changing the bandage.

A hard area to bandage I use triple antibiotic cream and Alushield or something like that on it and just clean it once or twice a day depending on how dirty it gets.
 
My small mini stallion got a huge abcess on his jaw/cheek and the vet recommended the alluspray stuff, it worked great. I cleaned the wound per vet's instructions daily and then used the alluspray to keep it covered and clean. [This was a couple years ago, but to the best of my recollection, it kept the wound quite clean.]
 
I've also used AluSpray with great success. It's a great product, very affordable and easy to use.
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Liz N.
 
Thanks for the great input guys! Once again, you all are one of the most helpful and kindhearted forums around! The vet wrap it out. Went through 8 rolls in 2 days. No matter how I do it, around her girth, through her legs, then around the wound and back again, it just slides.

I will be calling around to the TSC to see if they or other tack stores have any. I just want to keep it clean and let it finish healing. She is such a sweet big girl, don't even need to halter her to clean and "attempt" to bandage it. She just kind of looks at me like, "I know your trying, but really? This isn't going to work." Such a trooper.
 
Yep, Aluspray is great.. use it on all kinds of wounds. I haven't tried honey, good to know. If you really have to keep a bandage on it stays a little better on shaved skin, but that's a tough area to cover.

Jan
 
The use of Honey perked my interest..... Do you use just the regular honey from a store or organic?
 
It needs to be unpasturized honey. Like the type you get from a bee keeper. some health food stores care it too. The stuff you normally get from the grocery store is pasturized and it wont work.
 
After 24 years working for a vet found areas as these very challenging to keep covered. If you must bandage these types of areas (above the knee of a leg always wants to slide down to narrower part of leg) you must fasten something over the neck/back. But be careful it's wide enough to distribute even pressure over the back. With small animals using Tshirts over wraps or wrapping vet wrap over their back and around girth area. You have to be very creative. You can use old sheets in strips or somehow use an old horse sheet? Have even seen clients make their own out of a leg of old pair of jeans and fastening wide strap over horses neck/back. A lot of these were to keep the horse from messing with the wound as well. Your area is most likely hard for the horse to get at with his mouth. Areas that are "moving" are extremely difficult to keep bandaged as well. Hopefully you can get to heal as an open wound without wrapping. Good luck....been there and done that.
 
After 24 years working for a vet found areas as these very challenging to keep covered. If you must bandage these types of areas (above the knee of a leg always wants to slide down to narrower part of leg) you must fasten something over the neck/back. But be careful it's wide enough to distribute even pressure over the back. With small animals using Tshirts over wraps or wrapping vet wrap over their back and around girth area. You have to be very creative. You can use old sheets in strips or somehow use an old horse sheet? Have even seen clients make their own out of a leg of old pair of jeans and fastening wide strap over horses neck/back. A lot of these were to keep the horse from messing with the wound as well. Your area is most likely hard for the horse to get at with his mouth. Areas that are "moving" are extremely difficult to keep bandaged as well. Hopefully you can get to heal as an open wound without wrapping. Good luck....been there and done that.
Yep, , tried both approaches, with the bandages around the neck and girth tied into the leg area and even tried a leg from a pair of pants with straps the fastened around the body, because of it being located at a point of motion, it still pulled away from the area I needed to cover.

Got the alushield and the raw honey. Thoroughly cleaned the area with betadine, dried it, place a little honey over it and coated it with the alushield. I will have to update on the progress. Thanks again guys!
 

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