Chronic wound after dog attack, 6 months later

[TheBusyMoose]

ok so I need to know if I am being extreme to be so frustrated and annoyed with this situation.

long story short I was attacked by a dog in November and had surgery. It got infected and I had 3 further surgeries a few weeks later. It is now a chronic wound and simply won't heal, I've had 5 more surgeries and I go to the hospital every week and they umm and ahh and say come back next week. I have a hole in my leg, I am in pain and it seems endless. I will post progression photos but it looks worse if anything than when it first happened. I have never been under a doctors care, just see the wound care nurse every week and every so often she will get a doctor and I go back to surgery. I've had enough and not really sure where to go from here

No photos yet but if it's on the bottom of your leg apparently it can take ages to heal there because often the blood supply isn't very good

I don't feel that black and white about it. I think the owner should have taken better care in training the dog and if not it should never have been off lead. They are wild animals and it's an instinct. I was just wrong place wrong time but I'm not sure I'm happy with it being destroyed because of me if that makes sense.

I know there's not really any other option but it makes me sad for a wild animal that should not have been in that position. I know af that stage there's little else that can be done but I still find it incredibly sad

mid thigh, not sure what's going on with photos... I did upload them but not sure how they get apprived

I think mnhq review them then add a sensitive photo caption

vet here
Have they ever done a Ct/MRI of the area?
we see chronic/non healing/recurrent wounds and tracts after bites if there is a small piece of foreign material left inside the skin/wound (such as tooth or claw). I’m sure the docs know what they are doing, but foreign bodies are a really common problem in our field.

Trying again with pics

Gosh I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I suffered a dog bite a few months ago but was very lucky that a tetanus shot and an iodine dressing healed it. They were 10 very painful days, I have scars from it. Yours sounds far worse and the infection is extending the pain. My dad doesn’t heal well due to his diabetes, is it possible you have an underlying condition preventing you from healing? I hope you heal well 💐

Oh believe me I still pull my weight both as a parent and financially and have done throughout our marriage.

He is rubbing his hands together at the thought of a payout.

They have checked for underlying health conditions like diabetes but I have none.

Cannot see any pics but a few things to ask
I see its on your leg, have you had a doppler and then ask about compression bandaging/hosiery
Have you have any bloods done for anaemia, diabetes etc as this will definitely affect the healing
How is your diet, alcohol, smoking, are you elevating your leg. Good luck. It sounds miserable

The second load of pics has posted... bizarrely not the first but hopefully it gives some idea of what it looks like

What kind of an arsehole comment is that??

Those last pictures are showing now, and yes the wound looks awful.

What about @Mousespoons 's comment? As you have no underlying condition it sounds likely there's something from the dog's mouth still in the wound causing the reoccurring infection and failure to heal.

I think you need that whole wound debrided back to healthy skin and resutured, it looks like it will never heal like that, you need to see a plastic surgeon asap. What a nightmare.

Anything that has happened, to you or the dog, is not because of you, it's because of the choices made made by it's owner(s).

If it helps you to see both yourself and the dog as victims of the owner that's ok, but it's time to start caring properly for yourself so that you can heal physically and mentally.

You can get help to deal with the medical and mental health impacts of this and you can get advice on a possible civil case.

That's pretty much what every surgery has been ... it just won't close and heal. It has hypergranulation or wound dehescince and then I'm back to square 1.

hoping someone else has been in a similar position and tell me their is an end point

As I said before I saw the pics you need an urgent referral to a plastic surgeon

I do hope you’re not married? If you are I take it you didn’t say the “in sickness and in health” part of your vows? Imagine being married to you! God help your partner.

It looks awful and could it be cut out back to healthy tissue and maybe needs a skin graft. I can't quite tell how big it is but maybe too big to draw together

You need referring to a specialist solicitor to try and get compensation for that (I see you’re doing that). The dog wasn’t trained well enough or is dangerous and should have a muzzle if it attacked like that. It should definitely be PTS. What if it attacked a child?

Agreed.

I had a skin graft it failed, just left me with another sore patch higher up on my leg.

in fairness the donor site has healed really well, it just didn't take