Home animal wound treatment

On weekends, I take my 2 German Shorthaired Pointers out to our property to run free. It's a pretty much fenced 55A and they have a blast running through the fields, woods, pond, etc. sniffing, running, burning off energy. This weekend, came home after a few hours on the property and daughter noticed a "hole" about the size of a quarter on my female GSP's front leg. Said "this needs stitches". It wasn't bleeding, she wasn't even licking it. Wife and daughter took her to a 24 hr Emergency vet and $500 later she was home. I about flipped. Looked at the bill: $79 office visit (no quarrel there, it was Sunday after all), $103 for 7 stitches (ok, sounded a little high but not outrageous, vet's gotta eat too). But the rest was anesthesia, blood work, meds. Now, don't get me wrong, she got good treatment. We also own a horse who runs up vet bills as well (a house call is $90 but owners at the barn usually get together and use the vet services when he's there to share the house call cost). My concern is this:

We're getting ready to retire in a few years and love animals. Plan to keep 2 dogs and get another horse or two. But I got to thinking that with a reduced income, the "unexpected" vet bills living on property (that has lots of "surprises" like old barbed wire laying around) could be an issue.

Started looking online about "home" treatments thinking I'd learn to stitch up cuts on our animals and found that superglue can be used to close wounds and there's something called Trophy EMT gel that can be applied as well. Wife is very proficient at using Betadine on our horse's minor scrapes/scratches. I explained to her last night that a $500 vet bill every month or two might be in the budget now but would really hurt after we're retired.

So my questions: What do you have in your "animal first aid kit"? What things do you do yourself and what do you leave to the vet? Do you use any local anesthetics that are readily available? What about pain meds?

Can"t help with most of what you asked about, but you can save some $$ by buying generic betadine. Wally World carries a store brand that is much cheaper.

I"ve used jeffersequine.com for 20+ years for animal supplies - dogs, cats, horses, livestock. They are about as cheap as it gets. I give the horses triple EFT vaccinations every year and I give them myself. Saves lots of $$. If you have enough horses, you can save even more money by purchasing the 10 dose vial, syringes & needles rather than the single dose shots.

Needles, syringes, vet wrap and various wound treatments are things I keep on hand at all times. They have lots of uses.

If you find an abscess before it blows open, clean the area well with alcohol. Get a syringe and an 18 needle. Gently insert into the "knot" and pull back the plunger on the syringe to drain the puss. You may have to repeat multiple times and over several days. Keep repeating until the area stops filling with puss. By doing this, you prevent the abscess from erupting and having to deal with an open wound.

I"ve done this successfully on both dogs and horses. Just remember to keep everything clean.

One trick to keeping a bandage from sliding off is to wrap in a figure 8 pattern. I"ve never had a bandage wrapped that way get loose and slide off.

Hope this helps.

To treat an abscess, go to a health food store and buy some colostrum. It will probably come in gell caps of around 200mg. Three a day and the abscess will open and drain out. It will be a mess but the wound will close up on its own. The draining should start in two or three days after starting the colostrum.

We give our horses their shots. My wife has been a nurse, so this is not a big deal for her. If you need meds for your horses or dogs, check out WalMart Pharmacy. You'd be surprised how much you save. Your vet just calls in the script. I guess the rest is dependent on your training as to what you should attempt to fix and when you need a vet. If you are so inclined and have the time, maybe you could volunteer with your horse vet one day a week. A good friend of mine did this when he retired. Learned a great deal and also ended up getting a break on costs whenever he did need the vet!

I do everything. I have no formal training, only back yard and what I saw a vet do while young and at home. Not sure if you can buy freezing where you are but we can. I have froze and then stitched with fish line. Most people don't know or don't care but most animals, and dogs especially have there own bacteria fighting ability. A dogs saliva is a great antibacterial agent and most dog wounds need no stitching at all. I have replaced the calf bed on cows and stitched the hole shut just like the vets do. I use baler twine and pump her full of penicillin for 3 days and there good to go. Just can't forget to take out the stitches before they calve again. never lost one yet.

Had a horse rip open a 6 inch cut with a 3 inch flap hanging out of it. Little freezing and stitched with fish line. Abscesses I just take a sharp utility knife, cut it open and rinse out with iodine. Taking animals to a vet for anything other than a c section to me is a waste of time. I have performed one c section with my dad telling me what the vet did, (I myself have never seen it done before) we froze the cut area slowly and made the cut took out the calf and no problems. Just work in clean environment.

A lot of it has more to do with how much you can stand then what the animal can go through. After all they are just animals, and if something goes real bad , a little lead fixes it. I have had less die on me than what the vet killed on my dads farm when I was at home.

I have "worked" on my dogs more than once.

The one thing I have found most useful is superglue. I have glued up more small cuts and such. Worth every penny. I sterilize and rinse rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide.

I also keep non-stick gauze and tape on hand for the smaller stuff or to protect a cut I have repaired with super glue.

My vet gives me a dose of antibiotics to give to the dog if the cut is more than a minor repair. I give him a call swing by and grab another dose for the next time.

I have yet to had to attempt stitches.

My vet tells me he is amazed for what people bring their dogs and cats to him for. Simple things that would be no different than you putting a bandaid on your finger. Minor cuts and scrapes. It does make him good money.

Rick

I use "Vetricyn" wound treatment spray on my cattle and it says it can be used on dogs. I get it at the local coop and it's about $30 for a pint spray bottle. This stuff is pretty good. I recently had a heifer that had a wound that was over 12" long and deep enough that you could see the bone in her rear flank. I gave her 40cc of LA300 and sprayed the wound with the Vetricyn and she is almost healed up in roughly 3 weeks. I seldom use a vet for the cattle but a dog is more like a family member and sometimes use the vet. The problem is that most vets know this and charge accordingly

For large gashes requiring fifty or more stitches I use a 50/50 mix of vaseline and Listerine and cover with duct tape. For pain meds I give them Jack Daniels but not Jim Beam . I hate Jack Daniels.I used to use superglue but then I had to walk around for three weeks with my hand attached to a horses butt when I overdid it.

Thanks for all the replies. Lots of good info here (except the Jack Daniels one, my [b:eb736fcd58]GERMAN[/b:eb736fcd58] Shorthaired Pointers prefer beer. :lol: )

Gun dog forum has a list of things for the field. Clotting spray,emt gel, vet wrap and a half dozen other things. My GSP is always getting cuts and scrapes. Betadine, gel and wrap most.

Open wounds around here get water therapy and
honey. Honey works on eveything from dogs, to
horses, to cows. Draws flys to eat the dead flesh
so you don't have any "proud"flesh on a horse. Best
part is bacteria can't grow in honey.

Make sure they get a tetanus shot every 10 years
like a human.

Animals are people too.

yes, our dog died a year ago of tetanus. The vet we took her to miss-diagnosed it, until she seized up. I knew what it was then. But too late.

My mother had a cocker spaniel the seemed to always had to make a trip to the vet for some reason or another. They didn"t take her in for small things. During her life I would guess they spend easily $7,000 on that dog. My dad figured it was his anti-retirement investment.

we took little ernie in to get neutered last week. got him home and he swelled up and was bleeding so DH drove 6 hrs round trip to the emergency vet, then back again in the morning to pick him up and take him to the original vet, then to go back and pick him up later that day. all told little ernie cost us over 800.00 last week. we were wanting to buy a welder. think im gonna rename little ernie welder.

Got a bottle of 65 year old gentian violet solution, out of a barn, at
a sale a while back, it works on humans, too, don't ask me how I
know, LOL! Bag Balm has healed up many a barn cat around here,
too. Had a cat whose neck got stepped on by a cow, had an awful
flap of skin hanging on. Smeared it with bag balm, and fed it extra,
and that darned cat lived a long life. A little crazy, would stalk
forward like he was after a mouse, then start spinnin around, chasin
his tail!