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Open wound care

R

rac

New Kit
Hi all,
My 16week old rabbit, Dude, had a pretty big dental op on Tuesday. He had malocclusion on his front teeth. But primarily we took him to the vet because a hard lump had formed under his chin. It turned out to be an infected tooth. This was then removed. The vet removed this through a large incision on his outer jaw line, leaving quite a large open wound. She said she used marsupialisation type stitches where the skin is not stitched back together to close the wound, instead, the wound heals from the inside out. This has left a large wound which requires cleaning and inspection at least twice a day.
What worries me is that I don't quite know what I'm looking for when I'm 'inspecting' and cleaning.
Can anyone let me know what are the signs of a further infection?
The wound is now quite hard and becoming difficult to clean.
Any advice would be great!
 
Poor Bunny :cry:

If the wound is closing up then it needs to be re-opened as at this stage if it closes on the surface it is almost certain that it will enclose a load of pus again.

Had you been getting any pus out of the wound as you have been cleaning it ?

Did the Vet prescribe an appropriate antibiotic and pain relief ? Did he/she show you how to flush out the wound and that it is really important to be vigilant about flystrike ?
 
Thanks for such a speedy response!
The wound is slowly closing up but from the inside out. The hole left is getting smaller. What worries me is that the swelling is not going down. Do you think this could be pus?
We've been told to clean the wound with salty water - which must be horrific for poor Dude. But I'm worried I'm not cleaning it enough. I tend to use a cotton wool bud to try and clean him as well as I can but I try not to hurt him and think that if I apply too much pressure it looks quite painful. Should I massage the area to encourage circulation and possible extraction of pus? I have read this advice somewhere.
We give him 0.3ml pain relief and 0.72ml antibiotics for him. One of these is called bay trip but I can't remember the other.
I am quite vigilant about flystrike already as I have lost a bunny to that before when I was very young. Horrid to see.
 
You can put a warm flannel to the area, that helped me get pus out of my Ellie's abcess, salt water won't be too painful so don't worry, and I squeezed hers the same as I would my own spots, they have very tough skin. Ellie's face is currently swelling because of the large operation, I was warned this would happen it may be worth asking your vet if it would be expected for his face to be a little swollen. I would be a little concerned if it was becoming hard though as Ellie's abcess was initially drained and came back within days of the operation and was hard to touch.

Sorry if I've not been much help!
 
Poor Dude

The wound has now closed (almost overnight) and its now a hard lump. It doesn't seem painful when I touch it but I'm still very worried. He's going to the vets tomorrow for a post-op check up anyway so I guess I'll find out what to do next. I just wanted to know what happened to Ellie's when you squeezed it? Did it drain properly? I don't think I can do the same but I'm nervous about the next steps. The vet wasn't too positive even before the operation. She said we may need to 'make a choice'. This terrifies me as Dude is a very happy bunny apart from this abscess.
 
I'm sure I used a dilute hibiscrub solution on a cotton bud (or syringed to flush the hole) to clean my rabbit's open jaw wound after radical surgery, and then high factor manuka honey syringed in to pack to opening and aid healing - both twice a day. There was some local anaesthetic that we dropped into the wound for the first session each day, followed by a depocillin injection and oral metacam daily. Unfortunately, we never got to the healing properly bit so I can't help any further. His wound was reinfected (wetter than it should have been, slight smell) and he didn't start eating properly for himself or recover from the third GA in 2 weeks.

I would also tend to think that the wound may need reopening and / or a reassessment of the antibiotic treatment. Baytril won't help with an abscess - you usually need an injectable penicillin - possibly for weeks / months.

Good luck at the checkup. You have taken the biggest steps - just need to get over the hiccups on the road to recovery now.
 
rac said:
The wound has now closed (almost overnight) and its now a hard lump. It doesn't seem painful when I touch it but I'm still very worried. He's going to the vets tomorrow for a post-op check up anyway so I guess I'll find out what to do next. I just wanted to know what happened to Ellie's when you squeezed it? Did it drain properly? I don't think I can do the same but I'm nervous about the next steps. The vet wasn't too positive even before the operation. She said we may need to 'make a choice'. This terrifies me as Dude is a very happy bunny apart from this abscess.
Click to expand...

Hmmm...I'm not sure your vet is that bunny-savvy if she's saying that after a tooth removal and abcess? :?

Lots of buns on here have had similar and been fine.

I'm wondering if you need to take her for a second opinion...?
 
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