EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Hey guys I got a dog of mine cut this past weekend and I stapled him up but he took some of them out and I had to re do some of the staples. I also notice that he was a little swolen aroung the really good cuts. Could you guys tell me what type of anitbiotics would work to help the lil dude out. He is only 7mo and I wanna make sure he is ok. Thanks for any advice! ;D

Dexamethasone is a good one.

Dex ain't an antibiotic.......

not sure the name of mine but the vet gave me some...just make sure you clean it real good..mine got cut up and i have to spend almost two hrs cleaning it because it had gotten infected the day after it happened...if its a puncture i wouldnt keep it stapled...if its a clean gash/cut then i would....i just hate infection.

Your right its a Anti-inflammatory. but it works good for swelling.

dex is steroid! Last resort with many side effects. My vet dont like it. Can get several types of fish meds over the counter. Oh yea...steroids weaken the immune system and could make infection worse. Consult a vet or search it!

3 cc's penacillen everyday for 3 days (unless its durapen then everyother day)should get rid of the infection, I use dex for the swelling if its REAL bad but other then that the vet isnt going to give you anything else except something for pain...but sometimes pain is a good thing, keeps them quiet while they heal..jmo

3 cc's of penicillan for 3 days.

I buy the chewable generic Baytril from my vet for $2 a pill when I need antibiotics. If you dont have a close relationship with your vet they may require you to bring him in before they sell you the meds.

As stated Penicillian will work, I personally give 2-3cc's of 300,000 units per/ml IM injection twice a day.  I've recently been using Cephalexin aka 'Kflex' aka 'Rocephin'.  You can get it from your vet, pill form or injection.  I perfer IM injection, mix .9 cc of 2% lidocaine with the shot cake mix, tends to be very viscous.  The lidocaine would help with the minor pain of the injection, it has been referred as the 'peanut butter shot'.
But it works well, very potent! Helps fight multiple infections and an over all great drug.....FYi it was one of the first antibiotics ever found to be productive!
I'd stay away from any anti-inflammatory meds too, those tend to dehydrate dogs and depending on how severe the injury is, that all plays effect with wether the dog is drinking or not.  Keep the cuts clean, I personally don't use staples but clean atleast twice daily and you can use 1-2 aspirin to help with pain.  Hope everything works out

Robert aka 'Doc' Edwards
Rusty Knife Kennel
Kapolei, Oahu, Hawaii

I will see if my vet gives me anything for him if not I will do the penicillin shot then go from there. What do u use to clean the wounds? And can I get it over the counter? Thanks for all the advice. This is my first cut dog so I wanna do it right.

I dont normally staple dogs unless absolutely necessary! However, hydro therapy has worked very good for me on minor to moderate open flesh wounds! Just take your water hose and keep a continous stream on the wound for 3-5 minutes 2 or 3 times daily until it heals. If it is starting to swell then infection might have already set in. Try some hydrogen peroxide after the hydro therapy. Depending on the severity and location, antibiotics would also be helpful to ensure it doesnt become more infected.

Penicillin Procaine G at the feed store.

Do not give Dex if he has any kind of a infection started.  It should be administered at the very first of the dogs injury and do not give to a pregnant female .  Dex is a miracle drug if you know how to use it works on many different things such as to help prevent heat stroke .

to doctor the cut I use hydrogin peroxcide for an open cut to get the junk out, bedadine to scrub and clean the cut, then put some triple antibiotic cream on if the dog wont lick it off. but the main thing is to keep the dirt out of the cut! and remeber a scar dosent mean your dog is no good, its sometimes a conversational peice  ;D

Peroxide is BAD for the tissue.

I am a newbie at hydro therapy but I do like the results I had a few months back.  I am a big user of bleach, dilute it down to 3/4 water with 1/4 in a bowl and flush with a syringe. 

It is better to let it drain naturally so unless it is in a critical area I tend to leave them open (imo staples are over used like antibiotics) but keep the dog put up in a clean kennel flushing it twice a day with bleach water and spraying with wound kote to keep flies away.  There is also a blue diluted scrub you can buy that is good for flushing, I cannot think of the name but it is what the vets use..

Depending on severity, my go to is Cephlexin (fish flex is otc), Baytril is one for serious injuries that have a great potential for infection because it is so strong....I rarely ever use it and you are going to need a good relationship with your vet to get it over the counter without a visit.

Rymadil (vet prescribed) is a pain reliever / swelling reducer...like someone else said the Dex is a last resort because the side effects could be much worse.  My vet told me when he gave me the bottle the only reason he was letting me have it was because he knew I had enough sense not to over use it.  The swelling will subside within a couple of days, I believe childrens Ibuprofen is ok for them but I am not 100% on that since I am lucky enough to get my meds directly from the vet.

Ok I have dirt kennels a I like the hydro therapy idea. So should I put him in a crate? I also use the liquid band aid stuff. To help keep flys off. But the vet did give me smz tmp 960 mg antibiotics what ever that is I got 20 and will give it to him 2 times s day. He said it should.get rid of any infection. Do u know what he gave.me because I don't lol.

It is a sulfer based antibiotic, I have never ised it but if he prescribed it then I am sure he will be fine with it.

You need to get him out of the dirt and the cuts need to able to drain so at the bottom should be left open at minimum otherwise you will get fluid pockets (hematomas) that are going to need draining....the hydro therapy is also going to require an opening for the water to flow.

The SMZ 960's work great for me

I googled it and it is a broad spectrum although the primary uses are:

'Respiratory, urinary tract, skin or gastrointestinal infections as well as other conditions'.

I had some of them left over from when I had a bad cut / infection and then wound up using the remaining for the round of kennel cough we fought a month or so back but it has never been given to me by the cet for cuts....it has always been Cephlex or Baytril depending on what it was.

Ok I will take a couple of staples out this way I can.let the water flow.  Ok I'm glad to hear someone has used it and ot has worked.

hydro therapy is a good deal i don't know about the bleach tho never tried it we just use a saline solution . basically warm water and salt mix . that was pprescribed by my old vet . woked great for me . hydro and penecilan is all i ever used . and like the vet told me unless a seirious cut leave it alone if the dog can lick it and keep it clean .

The bleach is some good stuff, my aunt used to make us put it on cut / scrapes when we were kids....it burns for just a min (no worse than saline) but it will take the soreness out on top of killing everything bacteria wise.

I used it on my husband when he got cut a few years back ... No infection and healed up perfect with no complications to all his doctors amazement.  I also talked my accident prone brother in law into using it and thats all he uses now lol....it is some good stuff.

I think Veterycin (sp) is chlorine based....man if I had only ran with it!

The bleach is some good stuff, my aunt used to make us put it on cut / scrapes when we were kids....it burns for just a min (no worse than saline) but it will take the soreness out on top of killing everything bacteria wise.

I used it on my husband when he got cut a few years back ... No infection and healed up perfect with no complications to all his doctors amazement.  I also talked my accident prone brother in law into using it and thats all he uses now lol....it is some good stuff.

I think Veterycin (sp) is chlorine based....man if I had only ran with it!

I don't like posting pics of cut dogs or what not but 2 of the cuts were pretty serious. Here he is fixed up.
 (http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx133/FL_Hogdogger/IMAG0476-1.jpg)
 (http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx133/FL_Hogdogger/IMAG0477.jpg)
I will so the salt and warm water. I don't have bleach at the house lol
Again thanks guys for all the advice. I'm learning as I go... :-\

I very seldom use staples or stitches. I keep a bottle of amoxillen capsules handy and only use it if I see an infection. But I start out using cut heal in the spray bottle at 3 times a day and then drop off to twice a day. Tried different ways and this works the best for me.

Cut n Heal is some good stuff!  My dad swears by it on his scrapes and scratches :D but we use it as well! 

There is tons of learning (you will never really stop) and opinions out there but with time you will form your own ways of doing things but this is a great place to ask questions!

Don't try to re-staple or stitch a wound that has opened back up.  Won't work without cutting back to fresh tissue and you'll have a hard time doing that without some lidocaine or Rompun.

Hydrotherapy works very well.  On minor flesh wounds, 99% of the time keeping it clean and maybe a little Penn will have him back up in no time.  If it's in an area where the dog can lick it, he/she will help keep it clean also.  I've also kenneled a dog with a wound together with another dog.  His friend will also aid in licking and keeping clean.

granulex spray is great to help with healing of cuts i always use iodine mixed with water 3 to 1 to clean cuts and 3cc pen. every day for the first 5 days and every other day for 5 more days  and if is just a small cut or a puncture i i do the pen. and let the dog take care of it if they can reach it .This has always worked for me

ha ha that post you made bryant about putting dogs together made me chuckle a little. i remember when i had a couple of gyps in the pen together , well thet beat and chewed heck out of each other for some reason . then after i doctord em back up they was lickin and doctoring on each other better than i could . females is funny sometimes .

I would crate the dog, give it amoxallin & put neosporin.
no hydrogin perox nor iodine.

Well i already did re staple him. He had most of them missing the other day. I didn't use lidicane but he didn't buck a bit just sat there he is a tuff lil guy.  But tonight I did the saline solution rinse through the cut and gave him antibiotics. So I hope he gets ass healed so he can get back in the game.   ;D

Use Cut Heal...You will be glad you did.

Were do u get it?

U can get cut heal at TCS

Just have to throw my .02 in here. I only use antibiotics if absolutely necessary. When I do, cephalexin is a good all around choice, but you really need to think about the seriousness of the wound and the depth of the wound or the tissue involved with the infection. Some antibiotics work an aerobic bacteria, some on anaerobic, some on gram positive and others on gram negative. Another thing on antibiotics is to make sure you run the full cycle and don't just quit giving them when the dog seems to feel better, that just builds resistance in the bacteria to the antibiotic that was used ( that is why penicillin is not very effective in humans) and don't always grab the strongest antibiotics (baytril, Cipro, etc) right from the start because if you do, when you have a severe infection and need the stronger antibiotics they will not b as effective. Keep this in mind if you choose to use antibiotics and the infection doesn't clear up and or gets worse. In either of those situations a vet visit is a necessity. As for the dex, it is a good tool when used right. It is a corticosteroid and suppresses a dogs immune system therefore it should only be used if there are no other options. This is just my opinion so take it how you want. I don't believe I would have a 7 month old PUPPY in the woods in a situation where he/she could get cut up in the first place. That is the quickest and easiest way to ruin one. You take a puppy that has the makings to be a good dog and get him cut bad and all of the sudden you just took all of the want to out of it and a lot of times they won't get over it. That is one of the things that I can't stand to see or hear about someone doing. Let the PUPPY grow up and mature, not just physically but mentally as well!!!

I agree a lot with whats been said here.  But to Barney time things a bit or put things into what some call layman terms, medications used for any process is so simplistic it's complicated.  You wouldnt put yourself on a morphine drip because you got stitches would you? Well granted some would take the meds just to take'em but better yet you wouldn't use a shot gun to kill a bee hive! The indications and contraindications of medications are only useful if the side effects don't over exuberate the fixing of the symptomatic therapy that they are being used for.  Penicillian is good but what happens when the infection takes over and the pooch developes pneumonia? Given the dog is most likely already severly dehydrated but once you fill that dog up with IV fluids he's going to drowned... Literally! So take things slow, everyone is always so excited to get there pups back in the game but allow them to heal on natures time.  Unless the dog had developed some serious trauma, there should be no use of steroids or any other meds thats you wouldn't be willing to use on yourself.  Every medication I've ever used on a dog was and is intended for human usage.
But what irkes me the most is when people use staples as a way to close an injury, especially not knowing how deep the wound actually penitrates.  Staples are ONLY for superficial use knowing that the skin has not been damaged past the 3rd layer.  I've had guys bring dogs to my house because they stapled wounds closed that were way deeper than they thought; infection had taken over and the infection had actually tracked the wound 2x deeper than what the wound originally was. Believe it or not, a wound is already infected at the time of injury.  It takes time for specific symptoms to show. Use common sense gentleman, why close a infected wound? Some of the largest wounds on humans are always open, allowing the body to heal from the inside out.  With clean irrigation, proper antibiotics and adequate healing time, you or your pups will be back on your feet before you know it.  Healing is a process, it is time consuming but it's only right by you to give your dogs that time to re-coup.

Good luck on your next hunt and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Robert aka 'Doc' Edwards
Rusty Knife Kennel
Kapolei, Oahu, Hawaii