Open wounds on moveable joints

LightHouse · 10-06-2009, 06:33 PM

Wondering if anyone has had similar situations thus providing insight on past experiences. Vets experience is limited so I am hoping a community may help.

It started at the beginning of this year when our old vet put Hunter on Prednizone. We didn't know 40mg was way too much for him, we trusted our doctor. Well come to find out the meds started to hurt his liver, skin, muscles, and much more. The beginning of July we noticed a hole in his elbow. We started with the bandage changes and getting him off of the Prednizone. (We switched vets by now)

We also almost lost him. Hunter spent 4 days in the ICU because of the Prednizone. We waited to see if the liver would recover. We were lucky and on the inside Hunter made an awesome recovery. On the outside we were not as lucky. To this day we have done 3 surgeries and daily bandage changes. We have spent about $6,000 thus far with no progress on the elbow.

We have tried "wet to dry" changes, 3 surgeries closing the whole, regular daily changes, meds...The whole bit.

At this point the granulation bed is there, the bone is not showing anymore but it just seems that the skin is not coming back over the wound and we are throwing good money at nothing.

Do you have any advice or a place to point us?

Thank you very much for your time!

MoosMom · 10-06-2009, 10:05 PM

Sometimes the skin can take longer to heal over because the body almost has to regrow too. If he is an older dog healing will most def take longer. Im glad you got a new vet and things have been improving since. I would continue to work with your vet and keep the would clean.

Dog_Shrink · 10-06-2009, 10:11 PM

I have seen on my rottweiler forum I believe a thing called leggings that is a criss cross strap design that holds these legging cuffs over the elbow joints to supress kennel sores and the like I'll have to go back and check it again to see if I can find you the link. I'd do a google image search for doggie leggings and see what comes up.

LightHouse · 10-07-2009, 06:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoosMom

Sometimes the skin can take longer to heal over because the body almost has to regrow too. If he is an older dog healing will most def take longer. Im glad you got a new vet and things have been improving since. I would continue to work with your vet and keep the would clean.

Thank you, yea he is actually a younger dog, a 3 y.O. husky. The issue with continuing to work with them is that we are doing that but we are just changing the bandage everyday at $20/day. It has sort of worn us out of money.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dog_Shrink

I have seen on my rottweiler forum I believe a thing called leggings that is a criss cross strap design that holds these legging cuffs over the elbow joints to supress kennel sores and the like I'll have to go back and check it again to see if I can find you the link. I'd do a google image search for doggie leggings and see what comes up.

That might be interesting i will have to search around for that. something like thay may hold his elbow in place so it can heal, im not sure.

Dog_Shrink · 10-07-2009, 09:54 AM

Here is a link to the site I was talking about withthe dog leggings.

http://www.dogleggs.com/files/condit...s/hygroma2.cfm

and a pic

LightHouse · 10-07-2009, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dog_Shrink

Here is a link to the site I was talking about withthe dog leggings.

http://www.dogleggs.com/files/condit...s/hygroma2.cfm

and a pic

thank you for posting this, this might actually be a solution for us.

HUnters leg looks like a cross between this

http://www.dogleggs.com/files/granuloma.cfm

and this

http://www.dogleggs.com/files/decubitalulcer.cfm

So i am thinking a full wrap with a bandage inside can save our money as we can switch out the bandage constantly and keep it clean

Dog_Shrink · 10-07-2009, 12:07 PM

I think that something like this would absolutely be the way to go. The pit bull/rottweiler forums that I belong to, the poster there who invested in these can't say enough good about how much they helped her dog. If your pup's elbows look as bad as the ones in the samples you posted then I think you'll really benefit from a set of these. I'm not sure that I saw pricing but even at $300 I would still get them for that serious an injury since maintenance would be soooo much easier and they're long lasting verstile aides to have on hand.

LightHouse · 10-07-2009, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dog_Shrink

I think that something like this would absolutely be the way to go. The pit bull/rottweiler forums that I belong to, the poster there who invested in these can't say enough good about how much they helped her dog. If your pup's elbows look as bad as the ones in the samples you posted then I think you'll really benefit from a set of these. I'm not sure that I saw pricing but even at $300 I would still get them for that serious an injury since maintenance would be soooo much easier and they're long lasting verstile aides to have on hand.

Yeah they are about 130 bucks. Funny thing is i wanted to find where there office is..... well..... its 3 streets from me. The fellow that owns the company listed his hom and is literally 1.5 minutes from where i am sitting. So after i discuss these with the vet i might give him a call for a fitting. Thank you again for the link. We are not sure if this will help the healing but it would def be a better long term financial solution.

Dog_Shrink · 10-07-2009, 12:20 PM

Well if the info they supply inthe success stories and the pics are true then it would appear that these would be a miracle for your pup. It's so cool that you're so close to them... YAY... I'm kinda excited for ya

If your vet is having you wrap them with vet wrap or another type of bandage then he should be all for these. I admit that the rigging that holds them up might take a little getting use to on the dog's part but I think the positive would totally outweight a week or so's adjustment time.

Cool.. please let me know how this follows thru...