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Tegan's Injury

Tegan is the first territorial greyhound I have shared my home with. In her mind, everything as far as the eye can see (and that is a fair way in Tegan’s eagle eyed case) belongs to her. And the stuff which belongs to her is worthy of her protection.

In reality this means that she spends a lot of time patrolling the fenceline and ‘protecting’ us from evil trespassers. Because we live in a rural setting the most common threats are deer or hedgehogs, although she also takes offence at the postman, the occasional hang glider who happens to invade her personal air space, the sheep who graze on the hill in the Summer, and even the occasional leaf that dares to fall too loudly in the woods beside the house.

And guarding her hillside was just what she was doing one summer evening when she had her accident. Tegan was prancing up and down the fence, and barking at a hedgehog sitting on the other side. Somehow she got her left front leg under the fence, and when she pulled it back the skin got caught and stayed where it was – her leg didn’t. The technical term for this type of injury is ‘de-gloving’, which is just a fancy way of saying skinning.

What follows is an account of what happened that night, as well as a diary of her progress over the following weeks. I have written this in the hope that one day it may help someone else, as well as finding it very encouraging myself to view her progress over time.

PLEASE NOTE: The following story contains photos of Tegan’s injured leg at various stages of recovery. These were not chosen to be deliberately ‘gory’ but do involve blood and some open wounds. Please bear this in mind before reading further.

Wednesday 14th July

On a warm summer's evening Tegan is out in the garden when I hear a bloodcurdling scream. I am outside in moments, and see Tegan standing in the middle of the lawn holding one of her front legs off the ground. My initial reaction was that she had broken the leg, as it appeared to be an ‘odd’ shape, and her ankle was at least twice the normal size.

I shout for my husband Nigel, and rush over to Tegan. On closer inspection it becomes clear that she hasn’t broken the leg (she is actually able to put weight on it), but skinned it. She has removed all of the skin from just below her elbow joint to just above her ankle, leaving an area of exposed flesh about 4.5” (12 cm) long. The reason her ankle looks swollen is because all of the skin from her leg is bunched up over it, sort of like a long sock which has fallen down and collected over her ankle.

Nigel shuts the other three dogs inside, and runs to grab the cordless phone and the first aid box, while I help Tegan limp down onto the patio area by the house.

I place a large sterile dressing over the wound, while Nigel phones a friend (Larissa) with instructions to call around and find a local vet who is open and available to operate on Tegan tonight. Our regular vet is closed, and also nearly an hour away, so we need to find a nearby alternative. Larissa speaks good German and is also a fellow dog owner, so she is always the first person I call in situations like this.

I get a collar and harness on Tegan, while Nigel gets my van out of the garage and pulls it right up to the gate.

Larissa calls back with details of a local vet, and offers to meet me close by so I can follow her to the vet (I am in no way up to receiving and remembering complex instructions at this point – something which thankfully Larissa seems to realise).

Nigel and I load Tegan into the van, and within 12 minutes of the accident she and I are on our way to the vets. By this point Tegan is actually going into shock, and so appears totally quiet and calm. She isn’t loosing a huge amount of blood (but to be fair I have also dealt with a dog who severed an artery, so it takes a LOT of blood to really impress me), and is being very compliant and stoic. She stopped screaming the minute I got to her on the lawn, and hasn’t uttered a murmur since.

As I pull off the motorway I am greeted by the reassuring sight of Larissa’s car waiting for me in a lay-by. I follow her to the vets, and we unload Tegan from the car. The vet is outside waiting for us.

Once inside Larissa goes out to move the cars (we are both double parked on a narrow street) and the vet assesses the injury. He is impressed with the bandage, and after a quick look agrees that she will need surgery immediately if we are to save enough skin for a good repair. He doesn’t use a pre-med (in hindsight this was a mistake, and something I would never agree to again) and we put her out with gas. I hold her the entire time, and it takes Tegan a good 4 minutes before she is asleep. Once she is unconscious I leave with the agreement that I am called before she is woken, and we head back to Larissa’s house (closer than mine) for a drink. The surgery takes an hour and a half, and I arrive back at the vet’s just before he puts the bandage on. The wound looks good and has closed very neatly. It seems that we have been unbelievably lucky, as although the wound was very dirty, it was actually a clean skinning, and miraculously the only damage is cosmetic.

Once Tegan is semi-conscious the vet and I carry her out to the van, and I bring her home. She will need antibiotics indefinitely, alongside pain killers and anti inflamatories.

At home I settle Tegan in a bed under the stairs, and sit with her for a while. At 1:30am it becomes obvious she is going to be pretty out of it for a while, so I crawl off to bed where I have nightmares about her screams.

Thursday 15th July

Tegan in the garden the morning following her accident.

At 6am I wake in a panic realising I haven’t heard a murmur from Tegan all night. I rush downstairs and she isn’t in the bed under the stairs. Instead she has moved herself into the lounge and settled in her usual bed. She lifts her head as I come in and looks quite bright, which cheers me enormously. She even manages to hobble outside with the boys to go to the toilet, and I start to feel quite optimistic about the whole thing.

I spend the entire day close by, and although clearly stiff and very sore Tegan is eating well, and even feeling feisty enough to make it clear she is cross with me about the events of the previous evening. I have never met a dog quite as moody as Tegan!

Friday 16th July

The swelling below the bandage can clearly be seen 36 hours after the accident.

After another peaceful night I come downstairs to find Tegan is reluctant to put weight on her leg, and her paw below the bandage is looking a little swollen. There is no heat in the leg, and I call the vet who advises me to increase the anti inflamatories for a few days. I also try massage, hot and cold compresses, gentle exercise, and raising the leg as much as possible. The swelling doesn’t get any worse, and during the day Tegan seems to be moving a little easier on it.

Saturday 17th July

Tegan has been taking the homeopathic remedy Arnica since she came home, but today we start to see the first real signs of bruising. Her paw is now very swollen, and underneath the fur the skin is black and blue. I have been advised to keep the bandage on for at least five days, but as the swelling does not seem to be improving (and a further call to the vet who repaired her leg does not yield any new suggestions) I decide to remove the bandage and see if that helps with the swelling.

The weather is lovely, so I get Tegan settled outside on a bed in the shade and sit down beside her to remove the bandage. It takes a lot of soaking (and I don’t remove all of the black tape which was holding the bandage at the top and bottom) but it does come off in the end. Throughout it all Tegan doesn’t make a murmur (except when I try to remove the black tape), and not for the first time I am thankful for such a sweet natured and trusting dog.

The wound looks better than I had hoped. It is neat, all the stitches look ok, and is only bleeding a very small amount. I massage her paw and keep it raised while allowing the wound to get some air.

When I re-bandage I take care not to make it too tight, and hope this will allow some of the swelling to dissipate.

The increased swelling is clearly visible and prompts me to remove the bandage. Note the angle of her nails in relation to her paw (particularly her dew claw) – the swelling has forced them to stick out at an unnatural angle.

The single line of stitches about 1.5inches (4cm) below Tegan’s elbow look fine 3 days after the accident.

Sunday 18th July

Once again Tegan’s leg looks very swollen this morning so I remove the bandage to allow it to air. I also raised her leg on rolled up towels. I call the vet who advises me to take her to our regular vet tomorrow if the swelling is still there. While I do understand that some swelling is inevitable I am still concerned that it will cause problems.

In herself Tegan seems fine and is hardly limping despite the size of her paw.

Monday 19th July

I call my regular vet (Martin) first thing, and he agrees to see us right away. It is a relief to finally have someone take my concerns about the swelling seriously.

This is the first time Martin has seen the wound, and he finds it hard to believe that the damage isn’t more serious. He agrees that the swelling is a problem, as already it is causing the stitches to tear the skin and create small open wounds along the original join line.

We use a combination of acupuncture and more conventional medication to try and reduce the swelling, as well as switching to a system of twice daily wet bandaging to keep the wound healthy.

The wound is beginning to pull apart slightly, probably as a result of the swelling.

Wednesday 21st July

I return to Martin’s, and he is amazed at the effect of the wet bandaging in just 2 days. The open wound went from dark red and nasty looking, to bright pink and healthy looking in just 48 hours. The beauty of the wet bandaging means that the wound also stays fairly clean without me having to do anything more than keep reapplying fresh wet bandages twice a day. The acupuncture seems to have done the trick with the swelling, and although Tegan’s leg is still a little bruised it is more or less back to a normal size.

Martin also suggests that we remove most of the stitches as it is obvious they are doing more damage tearing the thin skin, than good holding the edges of the wound together.

Although it is tempting to be discouraged at the size of the open wound now, I am choosing to focus on the positive, and be happy it is so clean and healthy looking.

Oddly enough the main problem we have had up until now has been finding a way to alleviate the swelling. This was made exceptionally difficult by the location of the wound – greyhound legs simply do not have any ‘spare’ skin to accommodate excess fluid, and they are so slender that even a small amount of blood/fluid can cause major swelling, which in another breed of dog could almost go unnoticed. But now the swelling has gone the location of the wound is actually our biggest advantage. As long as I can keep Tegan from doing anything too strenuous, then the skin on her leg will receive very little pulling from her normal day to day movements. If the wound were on her side (as in the case of Anne’s dog Piper) even getting up off her bed would place pressure on the edges of the wound and slow down the healing process.

The wound straight after the stitches were removed and before any wet bandaging.

Tegan’s wound after the removal of stitches and 2 days of wet bandaging. You can see where the stitches tore the skin (hence us removing them so early), and also how clean. Despite seeming larger than a couple of days ago, the whole wound has stopped bleeding and looks a lot healthier.

Thursday 22nd July

After exchanging several e-mails with Anne in Australia who has been through a similar (although much more serious) experience with her own dog Piper, I decide to switch from wet bandaging to using Manuka honey dressings. The wet bandaging has been a miracle in getting the wound into such a nice condition, but I now feel we need to apply something which will encourage healing. I am also keen to stop the antibiotic treatment as soon as possible, but obviously we can’t do this until the open area is smaller. Getting an infection now would be devastating for Tegan.

I order a jar of honey from the very helpful people at manukahoney.co.uk

Saturday 24th July

The Manuka honey arrives and I apply it directly to a large, non-stick, sterile dressing pad, which I then place over the wound on Tegan’s leg. The honey obviously smells good, as up until now Tegan has ignored me when I am bandaging her, but today she is just desperate to get her long nose into some of that honey. I cover the dressing with a layer of cotton wool bandage, and then put Vetwrap over the top to keep everything in place. The cotton wool layer simply helps to absorb any excess honey which may leak after becoming liquefied from the warmth generated by being in contact with Tegan’s leg. It helped prevent the entire house becoming covered in small sticky patches.

Monday 26th July

The pale colour, healthy margins, and decreased depth of the wound signal a major turning point.

And today I think we witness the second miracle in the past two and a half weeks. The Manuka honey has exceeded all of my expectations, and the wound has closed dramatically in just two short days. The progress is simply astounding.

Wednesday 28th July

We have now moved on from one large wound to two small ones!

I am now able to leave Tegan without a bandage for a large part of the day (when I am at home to supervise), and I only need to reapply the honey dressings overnight. We have stopped the antibiotics, and Tegan is now coming out on walks again. She does have to be on a lead, as with the warm weather she is very tempted to leap into the canal and go for a swim (one of her very favourite occupations). Until the wound is totally closed over I just don’t want to risk her getting an infection from the water (much to her disgust).

Sunday 1st August

Wound, what wound?

Since starting to use honey on Tegan’s leg the dramatic progress is almost visible on a daily basis. In just 8 days the wound is now healed. For half of those 8 days Tegan only wore a honey dressing at night. Even our vet is now a total convert to he healing powers of Manuka honey!

September 2004

Tegan’s leg has healed completely, leaving only a rather distinctive scar which will become less obvious as her hair grows and starts to cover it. Thankfully we have not seen any lasting problems from her accident, and life has returned pretty much to normal.

Thank Yous

As with any story of this type, there are a host of people who I would like to publicly thank.

First and foremost my husband Nigel, for stoically dealing with yet another greyhound crisis, and understanding what Miss Tegan means to me. [And for paying the eye-watering vet bills, he mutters through gritted teeth.]

Larissa who was such a rock on the evening itself. Without her assistance the whole thing would have been a lot more stressful, and Tegan wouldn’t have received veterinary care as quickly.

Anne for her wonderful (and inspirational) web site about her dog Piper. On the bad days it was helpful to go and read about another dog who had recovered from a far worse injury than the one we were dealing with. Anne’s personal advice on using honey to help heal the wound was brilliant.

Dr Schwyzer who sewed the skin back on, and was understanding about my insistence on remaining with Tegan.

Dr Martin Rohdewald whose intuitive combination of traditional and alternative therapies really helped to prevent any major complications. His willingness to indulge my theories and suggestions is the reason he will always be my first choice vet.

In conclusion

Finally I think the most important thing after an event like this is to go away having learnt something. I would like to think that Tegan has learnt that furiously shoving your leg under the fence is not a good idea, but I somehow think this is unlikely.

So here is what I have taken away from the whole experience (aside from the enormous vet bills!!):

• Have an emergency plan. You regular vet may be wonderful, but you need to know where to find a vet for the times when your own is not available (and believe me when I say the big accidents never happen at 9am on a Monday morning). When you have a seriously injured dog you do not want to be dragging out the phone book and a map, and trying to find somewhere that is open.
• Have a selection of important numbers displayed in a prominent location (ours is on the pin board in the kitchen). Remember that you may not be the person making the phone calls, and you may not be able to recall numbers committed to memory in a stressful situation.
• Include the numbers of a couple of ‘doggy’ friends in your contact list. It can help to be able to call someone and explain the situation and then leave them to make the necessary calls while you attend to your dog, just as Larissa did for me the night of Tegan’s accident.
• Always make sure you have at least one vehicle with enough petrol to get you to a vet. The last thing you want to be doing is stopping to fill up because the fuel light is flashing. I never allow my van to drop below quarter of a tank, and the night Tegan had her accident I was extremely thankful for this.
• A well stocked first aid kit is invaluable. Being able to place a large, sterile dressing over Tegan’s wound slowed down the bleeding, prevented her licking it, and helped to prevent the skin from drying out and dying. It also offered some protection while travelling, and made it easier for my squeamish husband to help load her in the car!
• If you have a dog then I personally believe you should also have some form of basic first aid knowledge. Tegan’s injury was spectacular looking and very large, but I knew that with appropriate first aid followed by rapid veterinary care she would recover. This knowledge helped me to stay calm (ish!) and focus on my dog.

Tegan is finally able to return to her beloved water.

And of course the most important thing that came out of that night was to be able to walk away (eventually) with my slightly scarred, but totally healthy dog at my side.

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