Soft Tissue Surgery;
Repair of Cuts, Abscess', & Wounds
On This Page:

Introduction to soft tissue surgery

and

What To Expect When You Go To The Vet  With a Pet Needing Surgery For a Wound

On Other Pages:

Our introductory page about surgery

Considerations BEFORE Surgery

Post Op Considerations

Spays (Ovariohysterectomies) in Dogs, Cats, and Other Pets

C Sections

Castration in Dogs, Cats, and Other Pets

Declawing Cats

Ear Cropping

Debarking

Cancer and Mass Removal

Fracture Repair

Abdominal Surgery

Hernia Surgery

Using the Omentum

Soft Tissue Surgery

Descenting Ferrets, Skunks etc

About the Treatment of Injuries, Abscess', ETC
Introduction:

Except for spaying and neutering, we do more soft tissue surgery than anything else.  Often 4-5 cases a day.  What I'm talking about here is the repair of cuts, wounds, and abscesses. 

Pets are always getting bit, cut, punctured, or wounded. Luckily most of these problems, while potentially serious, are pretty easy to fix.  Also luckily, this is my favorite type of surgery; cleaning, trimming, and fixing up wounds.

Despite the fact that most of these cases are relatively easy, there are quite a few steps involved that require careful attention:



















Home        How we treat different medical problems in pets; What to Expect        FoxNest Hospital       About our No Kill Shelter       
The History of Veterinary Medicine         The Human-Animal Bond    
There is a complete site map at the bottom of this page
Website Directory

Home    The Human-Animal Bond     The History of Veterinary Medicine    About our No Kill Shelter     The FoxNest Veterinary Hospital     


"What To Expect When You Go To The Vet"
if your pet should have a problem with ...

Abscesses, wounds, and injuries

Arthritis, Lameness, Fractures, and Ligament Injuries
To include Femoral Head Removal, Hip Dysplasia, Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries, Panosteitis, Radiographic Demonstrations, Disc Disease, and Bone Surgery

Bladder, Urinary Tract, & Kidney Problems

Blood Diseases, Anemias etc
Strokes, Vascular Diseases, Anemias, DVT, DIC, Blood Parasites, Rat Poison, & Bleeding disorders

Cancer, Masses, Lumps and Bumps

Cardiology  Heart disease in Cats, Cardiac Hypertrophy, Valvular disease, Cardiac Insufficiency, Congestive Heart Failure, Heartworm Disease, and a little history about the milestones in treating heart disease

Cats: general information page and directory of diseases and problems specific to cats including vaccine recommendations, leukemia, feline viral infections, feline upper respiratory disease and cats that just aren't feeling well.

Dentistry and problems of the mouth and throat

Dermatology: Skin problems including allergies, rashes, bacterial infections, and itching. Hair Loss, Yeast Infections, Hormonal Problems

Diabetes

Ear Infections and Other Ear Problems

Eye Problems  and Ophthalmic Diseases

Exotics:  Pocket Pets, Rabbits, Hamsters etc

Fleas, Ticks, and other parasite problems

Heart disease; Cardiac diseases, vascular diseases, stroke, & heartworms

Hormone Diseases: Diabetes, Thyroid Disease, Cushing's Disease or Hypercortisolism, Addison's disease or Hypocortisolism, Pancreatitis, obesity as a disease

Infectious Diseases  Colds, Distemper, Parvo, Leptospirosis, Bruceellosis, Panleukopenia, Feline AIDS, Leukemia, Hepatitis, Kennel Cough, Ringworm, Rabies, FIP, Canine Herpes, Toxic Shock Syndrome, & More

Intestinal problems: diarrhea, constipation, torsion, indigestion, and gas. Also pancreatitis, vomiting, esophagitis, colitis, parvo and other types of dysentery

Kidney Disease

Liver Diseases     

Metabolic Diseases: Diabetes, Thyroid Disease, Cushing's Disease or Hypercortisolism, Addison's disease or Hypocortisolism, Pancreatitis, obesity as a disease

Neural Problems and Diseases: Epilepsy, Rabies, Distemper, FIP, Paralysis, Tetanus, Seizures, Disc Disease, Toxoplasmosis & others

Obesity; new information and about Pfizer's new FDA approved treatment

Pancreatitis

Parasite Problems Fleas, Ticks, Heartworms, Intestinal Worms, Mosquitos, Lice, Mites, and other welfare recipients

Poisons  Snakes, Insects, household chemicals, plants, and foods that might poison your pet

Respiratory Diseases

Senior Pet Page: Geriatric Medicine

Skeletal-Muscular Problems Arthritis, Fractures, ACL, Ligament Injuries, Disc Disease, Pannus, and many other problems of the bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments

Skin Problems: allergies, rashes, bacterial infections, and itching. Hair Loss, Yeast Infections, Hormonal Problems

Surgery: Spays, Castrations, Testicle Recipes, Soft Tissue Surgery, Hard Tissue Surgery (Bones), C- Sections, Declawing, Tumor Removal and Cancer Surgery

Wounds, punctures, injuries, and abscesses

Urinary Tract Diseases and Problems


Other Topics on This Site

The Human-Animal Bond

History of Veterinary Medicine; lots of interesting stuff    

Zoonotics: Diseases, worms, and parasites people get from pets.

Lab Tests and what they tell us

Medications/Pharmacy Page

Nutrition & Diets
Includes information about Prescription diets used to treat disease, and a discussion about the pet food industry

Reproduction, breeding, & rearing information
Includes information about feline and canine heat or estrus, breeding, C-Sections, pyometra or Infected Uterus, dystocia, no milk, mastitis, & brucellosis
Also newborn care, undescended testicles, and alternative to spaying and castration

Vaccine and other preventive health recommendations

WildLife Page:  Taking care of baby bunnies, squirrels, and birds.  A very funny story about beavers, and other misc information

Our Dog Page:  a directory of problems of concern in dogs including parvovirus, distemper, canine herpes, and other diseases

Veterinary Pet Insurance


This is a cat bite wound near the tail head on a cat.  This is one of the most common wounds we see. Usually easy to repair but disastrous if ignored or not treated adequately.  Bites wounds such as these are especially common in non castrated male cats.
1.  Exam of the patient.  In addition to the obvious wound, there is often fever, infection, glandular swelling, GI stasis, mild shock, and additional less obvious wounds present that need to be identified.

2.  Deal with the patient's fear, panic, and pain if necessary.

3.  Consider pre-anesthetic testing, pre-surgical antibiotics, fluid therapy, and other pre-anesthetic medications.

4.  Careful anesthesia

5.  Aggressive cleaning of the patient or at least the wound area.  A lot of wound patients are filthy with combinations of dried blood, mud, urine, and stool.  

We like to clean the whole patient in order to look for additional wounds and because many of these patients will need to be kept indoors during their recovery period.  And of course we need to clean the actual wound , as well as clip or shave the hair in the area to minimize the chance of infection.

6.  Trimming of any damaged tissue, removal of ingrained grit and debris, ligation of any bleeders, repair, if needed of underlying structures, place wound drains if needed, and repeat hydro-therapy.

Some older wounds, especially bite wound abscesses in cats have fistulas (tunnels of inflammatory tissue containing bacteria ) that needed to be carefully dug out of the surrounding tissue.

7.  Closure of  the wound.  Sometimes this will require skin grafts, and sometimes the wound will need to be left partially open.  Wound drains may be needed, and if so, will need close attention.

8.  Laser therapy.  If your vet has a therapy laser, it helps to speed healing, reduce inflammation, swelling, and pain.  Follow up laser treatments are often needed for best results.

9.  Post op wound washes, topical wound treatments, bandages, e collars, antibiotics, pain management, and frequent rechecking will be needed depending on the severity of the wound. 

10.  Don't be surprised if follow up care is needed. Sometimes fluid builds up that needs to be drained and repeat surgeries are needed for some wounds. 

And sutures or staples, if used, will need to be removed...usually about 10-14 days after the surgery.

There's more information on my page about the treatment of injuries and abscesses


We vets see some amazing wounds in practice, but this cat with an arrow wound is rather unusual.
This case, which occured in Indiana, was reported on the news.  Assuming the arrow slid over the top of the skull without serious damage to the brain, this dramatic wound was probably fairly easy wound to treat successfully.  Sometimes it's the wounds that don't look too bad that are the worse.
This terrible wound of this dog's ear will probably need a skin flap surgery, might need a follow up surgery, and a plan to keep the patient from scratching the healing wound.
The original wound on this dog was huge and deep. With patience, surgery, antibiotics, and an owner willing to keep the open wound clean... this wound will probably be totally healed (except for hair regrowth) in a few more weeks.