My female Papillon is a year old and we just got her spayed two days ago. She is taking it much better than anyone could have hoped for; she does not complain of pain in any way and she is as happy and energetic as she was before she went to the vet. Unfortuanately, this means that she's discovered the stitches in her belly and is trying to remove them by scratching and biting! I can't be with her twenty-four seven (I go to school, after all) and I fear that she'll bite them out when I crate her for the night. Is there any way that I can stop this?
Answers:
i just went through this 3 weeks ago now with my rat terrier, she is 8 months old.
she kept licking at the stitches too. she never broke one either, but her skin swelled up around the stitches and got red. it looked very angry around the incision. after about 3 to 4 days, it began to look pinkish again, but still swollen. we managed to last for the full 2 weeks then had the stitches taken out. she never did break one of them.
but in the last 3 days (about 2 weeks after stitches were taken out) she began to get a lump at one end of her incision. last night it got VERY reddish-purple and swollen there. she kept licking it continuously. she sleeps with me so i was not getting any sleep either.
finally she licked a little hole in it. i was in a panic thinking her stuffings would fall out eventually. but what i found instead was a stitch that was left inside her. i managed to pull it out, it was about 1/2 inch long. after that she went to sleep. this morning it was not swollen and was pink again. i took her to the vet anyway to check it out since there was a hole in her skin there. but he said it is ok and will continue to heal. it is looking better all the time now.
oh the things we go through with our "babies".
all this to say, i think your dog will be ok, but for your peace of mind go ahead and call your vet, or take her there and see what he thinks you should do for her.
good luck and try not to worry too much. these little guys and gals are very durable.
E-collars (elizabeathen collars)!
U may have to put a tunnel looking thing around her neck for a while.She will still be able to eat and all but she shouln't lick her sticthes
when youre not with her put a shade on her. ask your vet for one. pretty much looks like a lampshade and will stop her being able to get at the stitches. there fine and she will still be able to drink when she wants.
Contact your veterinarian about getting an E-collar for her. You can also talk to your vet about giving your dog Benadryl. It will make her sleepy and will make her incision less itchy. The genereal rule is 1 mg for every pound of body weight (ie 10 pound dog will get 10 mg), but please contact your vet before administering any medications.
Good luck
when that happened to my dog we put a shirt on her
I am surprised that the vet who performed the surgery did not sell you an Elizabethan collar. Maybe they didn't have one small enough. The elizabethan collar is that cone-shaped plastic thing that you may have seen on other dogs after surgery. It prevents them from doing just what your papillon is trying to do, pull/bite the stitches out. Thier mouths/teeth can't reach around the collar to get to the itching area. Check around with some other vets to see if they have one small enough. I'm sure that they would be willing to sell you one.
I don't know about scratching but I think they put those things on their heads that look like lamp shades to stop them biting at their stitches after operations.
I know people that have put "onsies", one piece outfits for babies, on their Bichons after surgery if they did not want to use the collar. It seems to have helped.
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