Dealing with a open wound from surgery.

[crispycake]

Has anyone's dog had a open wound that healed up?
Any tips on how to look after the area?

Our dog (staff) had surgery on the 12th of dec to remove two tumours, surgery went well apart from the leg incision where two stitches ripped open and the vets said to leave it too close over/scab which it did.
We got her stitches out on the 27th all ok then New Year's Eve morning we woke up to the scab bleeding quite a lot, trip back to the vets who said the tumour was just in the wrong place, not enough skin to close it up properly and its just one of those things, so she put ddog on 2 different antibiotics to cover all areas of infection and told us we are going to have to deal with a open wound for a while.
At the moment the scab is hanging on (I think there's a stich in there) but all round the scab has opend up, no bleeding really, it's pink and healthy looking, we've been flushing it out a couple of times a day with hibiscurb like the vet said, changing her bedding daily. She doesn't seem bothered by it and she can't reach to lick it.
It's probably about 1inch by 1.5inches.

Is there anything else we can be doing to help it heal up?

Just looking for someone to come along and say it'll be fine really :)

When our dog had a wound that opened up the vet recommended Manuka honey. You can actually buy it from the vet in tubes (easier to apply than buying a jar). We did, however, wrap an old sheet round the dog's middle and put a coat over to stop licking/getting honey everywhere. That may not be what you want to do if you want the air to get to the wound. Sounds like you're doing just fine!

As Mitchell said medical grade Manuka is the best stuff.

Will look into the honey thank you. I'll mention it to the vet on sat & see what she says as we don't really want to continue with antibiotics for the whole time she has it.
Dressing the wound is really hard as no dressing stay put due to where it is

Try some tubigrip (for wrists or knees from a pharmacy) with some micropore tape.

I put stay sutures around these wounds to secure dressings to, I see a lot of open infected wounds in awkward places, not post surgery I add.

Thank you polkadot Just bought a tubigrip so will see how that goes.

lonecat thank you will try these tomorrow if we don't have much success with the tubigrip.

Would you leave it open to the air or dress it?

I tried to post on this last night but bloody phone wouldn't let me! I was also going to say manuka honey - it is great stuff on open wounds. You can get a tube of Activon from the chemist methinks.

yes definititely Manuka honey - my dad split in (bald) head open and needed stitches but refused so my mum put Manuka on it daily and it healed beautifully with no scar.

I hope your dog will make a complete recovery poor thing

brunette no scar that's amazing & thank you.

Came home before & her scab had fallen off so we now just have a hole.