Stitches

CoverTune

Corona had her spay surgery on January 29th and when I picked her up no mention was made about having to come back in to have the stitches removed, so I assumed they were the dissolving kind.

Well... it's been two and half weeks now and the stitches are still in. Is that strange?

I meant to give the office a call yesterday, but it slipped my mind and now I wont be able to get a hold of them until Tuesday.

briteday

Attached to your receipt should have been a "care sheet" that gives you info and instructions for the post-surgical care. You might check your paperwork to see if you received anything like that. If not I would call the vet on Tuesday and ask.

Orange County Ca

I routinely remove stitches myself on both humans and dogs.

I douse the wound, tweezers and a small scissors with Hydrogen Peroxide as it doesn't sting. Its available at any drug store. Use a cotton swab or patch to wipe everything down. Use gloves if you have them or wash thoroughly with soap and douse your hands with the Peroxide.

Snip one or more of the stitches with the clean scissors and pull each stitch out. Make sure you remove any knots.

Wipe the area again and keep on eye on it for a couple of days.

That's all the vet is going to do except examine the wound for infection which announces itself by redness and pain if you touch the wound.

Others here will be horrified at anyone but a Vet doing this but I've been doing it for over 50 years without a problem. Frankly you'll be more carful than the Vet will.

Shalva

I also remove my own stitches on my dogs.... luckilly I havent needed them on me..... lately.....

I offered to take my husbands out a few weeks ago..... and went and got a meat cleaver and he told me nicely he would rather go to the doctor lololol
was truly kinda funny

but I think depending on the dog it could be rather tough if you don't have good help to remove them yourself....
just give the vet a call this week and I am sure they will just take them out for you.
s

agility collie mom

Hi, Contact your vet. Some sutures are absorbed, some have to be removed. Either way if your sutures have been in 2 1/2 weeks they are starting to pull, which makes them more difficult to remove. The sutures that are absorbed kinda of pop and stick out when they start to break down. Sometimes the knots are difficult to remove if you aren't use to doing so. Call your vet, there should be no charge for suture removal whether they are the ones that have to be removed or the ones that are absorbed. Your vet would no doubt prefer to see your pet. They always like to follow up on any surgery that they have done. Let us know how everything turns out.

Puppy & Dog Forums

 

CoverTune

Oh lord, I could never remove them myself! And honestly, I cant even see the stitches, only the knots at each end, so I don't imagine they'd be easy to remove anyway.

Thanks though, I'll pop by the office on Tuesday.

Willowy

If you can't see the stitches, they might be the dissolving kind.....I've had a few cats done by a vet that uses dissolving sutures, and I was able to see the knots for at least a month. After that, the knots just kind of fell off, and I found them around the house, LOL---I guess the knots don't dissolve as fast as the part of the suture that's inside the animal. When the vet uses regular sutures, I remove them myself, even with the cats (which isn't easy , I always need someone to hold the cat. Dogs usually lie still). I just get some fingernail scissors and some tweezers, then snip and pull. No biggie.

Orange County Ca

Yeah it'll wait until Tuesday.
Dissolved or not the Vet will take care of it.
By waiting you may have made his job a little harder but hey that's what he gets paid the big bucks for eh? :-)

CoverTune

Well I just gave the vet's office a ring (nearly forgot, what a day, ugh lol) and I'm taking her in this afternoon to have the stitches removed. Hopefully it wont be a big deal as I have to be gone all afternoon/evening...

CoverTune

Bah... all that and they only snipped out one knot... left the other and said it should fall out on it's own, and it's not causing any problems.

Oh well, at least it's not like I had to pay for it (and rightly so, after a $400 surgery!).

fyremn238

My dog recently had stitches also, she ran into a barbed wire fence.

I called the vets office to ask how long she had to wear her plastic cone. The lady told me that the stitches would come out in 10 weeks and that my dog should wear the cone that long..

This seems way off to me, I am thinking she meant 10 Days.

But I am still not sure how long she should wear the cone for...

Help...

Orange County Ca

DAYS. Then just watch the site to make sure she doesn't irritate it.

You can always call her back.

Puppy & Dog Forums