Just a follow-up and I'll stop when you guys have had enough. We're at day 3 with Manuka honey and immobilizing. The attached picture shows the wound this morning and you can clearly see the lacerations from the mattress sutures. Unfortunately, the edges will not stay approximated and there's no adherence. I really hesitate to ask for some fine (4-0) sutures to close these due to the amount of trauma we already have. Thoughts?
Otherwise, it looks a lot healthier but still a long way to go. There is one mystery knot of the heavy suture line on the inside of his paw that I can't figure out where the suture goes. Hoping to have that removed on Wed. Just FYI, we were able to buy the Manuka honey at the local Save Mart grocery store for $19.99. We opted for the honey without the silver only because of some (very few) reports where the silver version had complications with deep tissue wounds. I think with this level of wound, the wound fluid has to go somewhere besides just sitting in the wound until the next change. It's harder to tell with honey how much of the fluid is infected wound fluid and how much is just honey (both are yellow). with the large pocket under the pad, I don't want drainage into the hole that may cause a reaction we can't see. He's on a broad spectrum antibiotic and a specific for a K9 type of MRSA infection from the first hospital.
Thanks again for the support and information.
View attachment 8311452
Something you might want to do with the next dressing change: Take a freezer storage bag (quart is OK), cut the sides so you have single layer. Lay over wound and with a sharpie carefully (as accurately as you can) mark out (outline over) on the bag the actual "open" edge of the wound (not granulation), with date; on second half of bag do the same for what you see as "red" and date. Helps to reassure that progress is being made or not.
Besides the honey what is being used for dressing on top?
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