Skin Growth Removed From Sunny's Neck

[Hawthorn]

Hi everyone

 

I'm new here and have recently posted some pictures of my boy Sunny in the Introductions section.

 

I wasn't really expecting to be posting so soon in this forum, but last Wednesday Sunny had a small skin growth removed from the top of his neck, between his ears. After reading other posts here I didn't want to accept the vet's advice to "wait and see" as it was "probably" a histiocytoma so went ahead and had it removed. We should have the lab results in a few days.

 

Sunny has 4 stitches. Now, although I've owned greyhounds for the last 12 years, this is my first experience with stitches. I've done a search on this forum to learn as much as I can, but I still have a couple of questions.

 

The wound seems to be healing OK as far as I can tell, but Sunny is finding it quite itchy and tries to scratch it with a back foot. I am rinsing the whole area with sterile saline several times a day, which seems to help for a while, and also putting some soothing balm on the shaved skin around the wound but not on the wound itself.

 

We rang the vets for advice yesterday but, as he can't have an elizabethan collar due to the stitches being on his neck, they could only suggest that we try to cover the stitches in some way. So yesterday my husband went out and bought a load of dressings etc and we tried to concoct a dressing but without much success. We tried to make a gauze dressing and hold it on with micropore tape, but the tape wouldn't stick. Then we tried to secure the gauze with elasticated bandages that stick to themselves but this just made Sunny paw at his head even more, so that came off. The other thing we bought is some melolin dressings which have an adhesive border ie they are shiny and non-stick in the middle where they cover the wound but sticky all round the edges. I tried one on myself and it seemed to stick well, but I'm scared to put one on Sunny in case it sticks too well and hurts his wound area when I take it off.

 

Has anyone used this type of dressing on their hound, and was it difficult to get off??

 

The other thing I'm wondering about is Benadryl, which several people on here have mentioned. Is this the tablets for humans and if so would you use half the dose for a greyhound??

 

I realise that many people here are dealing with much more serious problems, so don't want to take up too much of your time, but any advice on this would be much appreciated.

 

At the moment we are keeping Sunny on a lead in the house and either my husband or myself are sitting with him constantly to make sure he doesn't scratch. Now, whilst being attached to a greyhound 24 hours a day has its appeal, after 24 hours the novelty is starting to wear off a little!

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

[AliWest]

Now, whilst being attached to a greyhound 24 hours a day has its appeal, after 24 hours the novelty is starting to wear off a little!

That just struck me as funny.

 

That said... you can rub a little triple antibiotic cream on the site about two times a day. Benadryl might help but check with your vet first before giving it to him. One teaspoon or one 25mg tablet would be enough.

 

and

[Guest LancePearson]

Our Kate had a benign histiocytoma about the size of a penny removed from the base of her chest about two weeks ago and it involved a 2.5" long incision, six or seven stitches. The vet said: "keep it dry, no ointments or antibiotics on the incision so long as it isn't infected. Her skin like all greys is relatively thin and flexible and we'll take the stitches out in ten days. If she bothers it we'll put a neck cone on. " The area around the site was shaved with clippers which gave it a mild sort of razor burn. She never bothered it even once though she could have. After a couple days when the fur started to grow out and itch a little she licked it once or twice but that was it. The stitches came out in ten days and now a week after that you almost can't see the incision at all which has flattened out nicely. Surgeon did a nice job. It seemed to me it healed quite rapidly...maybe these dogs with their 50% larger hearts and circulation promote better healing with better blood flow of nutrients, hauling waste away. When her fur itched as it was growing and when the razor sort of clipper rash was around it a couple times I put A and D ointment on it to soften the skin but not on the incision. End of problem. A and D is a human ointment with vitamin A and vitamin D in what is something like a vaseline base and softens the skin nicely. We had it from a hospital stay my wife had and then bought an extra tube for general use. Handy stuff. Like many ointments, neosporin healing cream especially, the greys respond to human stuff quite well it seems.

 

Anyway, that's our experience with Kate's incision, stitches and healing.

 

Lance, Karen and Kate