| Ask The Vet -
Q&A |
Question
I have a small Puggle girl dog. She was recently running
outside where we just had new windows put in and came in bleeding
with small slice on the bottom of her paw. I put some peroxide on
the cut and the bleeding stopped. I looked inside the cut and it
looks like there might be a small piece of glass inside it. It is
really painfull for my dog when I try to look at the cut. What should
I do? Should I try to remove the piece of glass? What if there is
no glass? Is there a method I could try?
Bob - IL, USA |
Answering questions:
Susie Samuel MA VetMB MRCVS from
Vet
Help Direct |
| Answer |
Hi Bob,
You
need to take your dog to the vets. Unless the wound is extremely
superficial, the only way to get the glass out safely and humanely,
will be under sedation or anaesthetic with prescription pain relief.
The vet will need to ‘explore’ the wound to check that
there are no fragments of glass left behind. Wounds like this are
often infected and the vet may well need to flush it and to prescribe
antibiotics.
Even
if the wound is very superficial, removal of the glass will be much
easier with specialist equipment. Attempted removal in unskilled
hands would be very painful and could cause the glass to be pushed
deeper into the foot causing more damage.
If
there is no glass it is still vital to get veterinary advice. The
pads of the feet are notoriously bad at healing and even small wounds
often need suturing.
Until
you get to the vets keep the foot very clean and restrict exercise
to an absolute minimum. You need to go to the vets at the earliest
possible opportunity.
For
future reference, and for the benefit of anyone else reading this,
peroxide should not be used on wounds; it can cause tissue damage,
slow healing and is very painful. Boiled, cooled salty water is
the best thing to clean minor wounds with but any dog with a wound
that is more than a graze should be taken to the vets.
Good
luck with this.
Kind regards,
Susie Samuel MA VetMB MRCVS www.vethelpdirect.com
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