Dog Surgery Question?

I noticed last Thursday that my dog Joey had a huge round hard spot where his front leg meets his body. Just the week before we had him in the vet鈥檚 office getting his shots. We assumed that it was just an allergic reaction to the shots, but we took him in Friday. I left him there to be taken care of. A few hours later the vet鈥檚 office calls me and tells me that it was a mass the size of a tennis ball. They removed it and put staples in to close the wound. My question is when I went to pick him up it was not wrapped with any kind of bandage and they told me that they never put any dressings on. Meanwhile 3 days later he is still bleeding from it and I have had to keep dressings on it to keep him from bleeding all over the house. I know that animals will lick the wounds to make it heal faster, but I feel that the vets office should have put something on him till he gets healed up a bit more. Am I wrong or is what they did right?

I called the vets office on Saturday to tell them and they said that I could come back in and pay them $15 to put dressings on it. I told them that I could do that at home and save that money. It kills me to see my baby hurting. He is in pain and bleeding. The funny thing is this place has a motto of "We treat your pets like family" I would hate to see what they would do to their families. I come from a strong health care background and I find it appalling that they would leave an open wound open to all the possible airborne things that could cause more infection.

actually i used to work at a vet's office... if you put dressing on it, it typically brings more attention to the area and causes them to scratch at that area more... since this was such a huge mass, bleeding is almost to be expected from the surgery! you have to watch though and make sure that he is not irritating it in anyway to make it bleed! My dog had a small mass on her neck under her muzzle and she kept scratching at it every second that we weren't looking because she knew she wasn't supposed to be doing it! but DO NOT put triple antibiotic ointment on it, this will draw more attention to the incision and worsen the possiblity that he is making it bleed! I say take off the dressing so that the incision can get oxygen and keep a close eye on if he is irritating it. If it just bleeds from not being messed with, then call the vet and they should be able to give you a special wrap to go over it. But i agree with the vet, do not cover it unless it ABSOLUTELY needs to be! Hope everything turns out well!

you need to call the vet and tell them that the price of the dressing should be included in the price of the surgery! I'm sure that was worthh a pretty penny! But the dressing should be included in that price, sounds like your vet is trying to rip you off!

Not sure on the bandage thing..but usually after surgery they will put a cone thing over the head so they wont lick it. Go to another vet and see what they think immediately.

i would put a bandage on it, like they should have.. but let it air out a little during the day.. when my dog had surgery for tumors they bandaged her....

this has happened to me a couple times. I dont think it should happen, but It has never been a problem, it goes away

I think they should have at least put a cone around his neck, but that wouldn't keep him from scratching it. You should definately let the vet know and take him back in if it is still bleeding that much!

I just had my cat fixed and when I picked him up there weren't any bandages on his back area. They didn't even use stitches back there. I don't know why they don't use bandages. I would call your vet back and explain that your dog is still bleeding from the wound. Maybe there is something he can do. I wish you the best of luck!

I think they should have. My cat had an IV put into her paw and because she was bleeding pretty bad when they took it out they put a whole pink cast on her leg. The pressure from the cast stopped her bleeding. I really think that the doctor should have put something on it, and you should probably take him to ANOTHER vet to get another opinion. I'd see about having it dressed because if its on the shoulder of the dog then they can't really reach there very well and they'll lick a spot raw if its sore already. Besides that, they can still get infected.

I guess it depends on the Vet most of them will not put dressings on the animal but if the wound is really bad they usually do it any way just because of bleeding to stop it . I guess you did the best thing by dressing it your self and taking care of your baby .

My Golden had surgery on his foot and kept ripping the bandages off. This was hard on the incision. We finally just left the bandge off and all was well. Turns out it was the bandage that was bothering him, not the incision. This won't be forever, be patient with him.

Good luck - I hope everything turns out ok!

I had some questionable advice or therin lack of from a recent vet who had treated my seriously sick dog. I took her to another vet the other day and he confirmed my suspicions and openly answered my questions. Get a second opinion or buy a cone to keep Joey from trying to take care of his own incision.

I also work at a vets office, an no, if we were doing the surgery, we would not dress it, but if you dog is licking you need to get a cone, either from your vets office or from the pet store(i.e. Petco). If he apears painful ask you vet about some antibiotics or pain reliever for you pet, they should have sent something home with you for that. please e-mail me if I can help anymore.

I've never heard of a vet not putting some kind of dressing on an inscion, especially if there was a potential for bleeding. Also, many vets would have put one of the head cones on your dog to prevent licking and possibly reopening the wound. I'd let the vet know about the bleeding and cosider finding a new vet.