testing my first aid skills

Bella decided to give my first aid skills a wee run through last night. Karla came in from work at 10pm and Bella went into mega-staffy-welcome mode and opened her stitches   
The vet was great on the phone explaining what to do so just now Bella has a makeshift dressing over the wound and I'm about to head over to tesco for some steristrips, dressing and elastic bandage. I panicked last night when I saw blood all over me and the couch and 15 years of care work with first aid training (people not animals but the basics are pretty much the same) went right out the window so don't anyone call on me in an emergency

I would have had a panick attack myself.
I do find it strange that she tore the stitches.
Glad everything is better now. Poor Bella is going through the wars.

It's disolving (sp?) stitches she has so I don't know if maybe that's why. The vet said on the phone that one problem with them is that they are in a continuous line through the wound so if part opens then the whole thing can but hopefully its healed enough the rest will stay together.
She is going through it. She is such a good wee girl with any wound cleaning and dressing too. She just lies there and lets me   

Poor thing!

Well done you! Don't feel bad about panicking. It's surprisingly common and is precisely the reason people recommend getting somebody else to sort things out if your dog gets into an accident - even professionals can panic when it's their own dog! You did really well.

What a good girl.
Yes dissolving stitches are 'weaker' with rough behaviour.

Poor Bella - Kuchar sends his sympathies as he did exactly the same thing after his castration by jumping up onto the dining table (his second name is Nutty and not without reason). And like Bella, he chose to do it over a weekend.

Well done for coping Caroline!

Oh dear, what a thing to happen. They're their own worst enemies - so enthusiastic about everything.

I'm glad she's ok though.  

Thank you it's horrible isn't it Linda!
She's back at the vet on tuesday to get the wound checked. She done it again today when Karla came in from work but I stayed calm, sort of, and put a new dressing on it. I think they should hand out a weeks worth of sedatives when a staffy gets spayed/neutered

It's a traumatic time, that's for sure. We hoomans know to take care when we have a fresh wound with stitches, but unfortunately our doggies don't.

I did find that putting the lampshade (aka cone of shame) on Kuchar helped a lot after his re-suturing.
Obviously the primary aim of this instrument of torture is to prevent the dog from attacking/licking the wound site, but I also found that the very limited field of vision also stopped him from jumping and allowed the wound to heal.

Not a happy time but worth it in the end and soon forgotten!

Xan ripped his stitches out before the vet even noticed he was properly awake. That night when I fed him he ripped them out again in a split second my back was turned and I thought he was distracted by his food.
There wasn't any place left to put in more stitches so he went without. Luckily the skin was 'stuck' together by then.
We can start a whole new thread on neutering war stories.
Luna (also a staffy) jumped over the bottom part of my kitchen door still groggy from her spay. We had just gotten home from the vet and off we went again to make sure everything was ok.
Luckily all the rest of my dogs have been uneventful.

Luckily with Demps, he couldn't physically reach around to lick his tummy stitches after his operation, so we could leave the collar off after a couple of days. He was so miserable with it on; he'd whine, couldn't climb the stairs, pee himself, etc.. He also couldn't even settle down in his crate, as the collar stopped him from turning and putting his head down.

For people whose dogs hate the collars, there are inflatable ones that you can also use, which most dogs prefer.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buster-279805-Inflatable-Collar-M/dp/B007GH3UES

This may not be the lowest price you'll find, but that's what the product looks like.

There's also the Comfy Cone, which has the same shape as a Buster Collar, but is (as it says on the label) far more comfortable and flexible.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Comfy-Cone-Medium-20-cm/dp/B000XY7C7C/ref=pd_sim_petsupplies_3/277-7148813-2124033?ie=UTF8&refRID=15RQDA8QFZDASA32AK0T

Omg, you wouldn't think they would be able to do anything like that so soon after an operation. This sounds really bad but I'm glad I'm not alone. The worst thing Millie done was destroy the cone. She managed to get it off and chewed it up   

Revenge at it's sweetest.

Just a wee update on Bella. She had her wound checked today and the skin is healing fine. She has a large lump under it but the vet thinks it's the muscle because she wasn't resting enough and not a hernia. So she's healing ok, just going to take a bit longer than it should have and she has the joys of the cone for an extra week   

Poor thing! If the lump is muscle, will it just gradually go down?

I didn't even think to ask that. She just said I've to keep an eye on it and if it gets bigger or swollen then I've to take her back. Hopefully it will heal properly the vet said that with excitable dogs with a high pain threshold the only way to make sure they rest enough would be to sedate them for a week, right now I think I might have taken that option   

I do feel for you Caroline, and Bella too of course.

One day at a time is one day nearer to complete healing. Kuchar was threatened with sedation too, but horrible though it sounds I found that wearing his cone 24/7 so depressed him that further sedation was not necessary. Once the wound was healed and the cone was off, all was forgotten and he was back to his former bonkers self!

Stick with it Caroline and continue giving Bella your TLC; each day seems like a lifetime right now I know    

I know this was a few months ago now, but how's she doing?

She is doing great Eleanor I was actually thinking I should give a wee update soon. I can't believe how quickly she has healed considering the problems with the wound.
This was her wound a couple of weeks after the op


And this is it now

It's barely even noticeable now. Her behaviour has been changing as well. She has gone for Millie a couple of times but a shout has stopped her where before I had to physically separate them. Millie is happy to lie on the couch near her and Bella has tried to initiate play a few times but Mills looks a bit wary about it. I really wish I had gotten her spayed a lot sooner, she is a much happier little girl  

Good to hear that Bella is tickety-boo now, and not suffering from those horrid hormones!

That's so nice to hear! You're right - you can hardly see it now!