Pressure Sores

[Guest cestbarb]

My 8 year old girl is being treated for kidney disease. She's losing protein and is now on a low protein, kidney diet. Since her imune system is compromised she's not healing well.

 

Over two months ago she started getting pressure sores on her hip. It started as a lesion about the size and shape of a cigarette burn and slowly got bigger. The doc didn't want to put her to sleep to stitch her up since she's a poor risk for anaesthethic so he suggested an antibiotic and keeping the wound clean to see if it would heal on its own.

 

After three weeks of not healing she finally got stitches (local anaesthetic). Two weeks later still not healed and the stitches gave out. We've now been seeing a board certified surgeon who said that stitches would not help since she keeps lying on the same side and stitches would not hold. She now has three pressure sores, one on the thigh and ankle of her back right leg and one on her knee on the front leg. We've got a follow up visit with the plastic surgeon on Saturday. His advice - try to keep her on soft/padded surfaces, keep the wounds clean. Maybe it's because of the heat (although our house is air conditioned) but she keeps away from the padded beds, even though we have several in almost every room of the house.

 

I feel I should be doing more for her than just making sure that the wounds are not infected and the area is kept clean. Right now only the lesion on her front knee keeps bleeding, the other ones are sometimes moist but usually not bleeding. Has anyone had a similar experience? Any suggestions?

[BrGreyhndz]

You might try using a product like granulex- they use it for people with bedsores. Best of luck with your girl.

[Guest gr84me]

Have you thought about getting a Coolaroo bed?

 

Link to Coolaroo dog bed

[Guest argolola]

God bless her. She will be in my prayers.

[swiftwhips]

Hi! I had an elderly Afghan who developed nasty pressures sores that my vet thought would not likely heal. I used an orthopedic (egg crate foam) bed, kept the wounds scrupulously clean & used EMT gel. My vet was amazed that they actually healed completely!! Hope this helps your girl - pressure sores are no fun to deal with .

 

Stef & the silly 7

[Guest cestbarb]

Hi! I had an elderly Afghan who developed nasty pressures sores that my vet thought would not likely heal. I used an orthopedic (egg crate foam) bed, kept the wounds scrupulously clean & used EMT gel. My vet was amazed that they actually healed completely!! Hope this helps your girl - pressure sores are no fun to deal with .

 

Stef & the silly 7

 

Thanks Stef I'll order some EMT gel today.

 

Have you thought about getting a Coolaroo bed?

 

Link to Coolaroo dog bed

 

Thanks for the link, I didn't know about coolaroo beds, although I'm not sure Maddie would get up on one.

[Guest LynnM]

My Louis broke his leg in December. As of last week, his elbow is closed. It'll probably crack a few more times, but it's mostly healed.

 

I've seen the results of folks that feel that they HAVE to do something to close the sore and most of the time, it becomes surgery and sutures on top of surgery and sutures. Not my cup of tea.

 

I'm no vet, but having dealt with a pile of pressure sores, I tend to be more of the mindset that as long as it's not getting worse, then I let time and nature do its work. I DO keep the wound clean (water or Betadine or Chlorhexidine wound flush... NO harsh chemicals or peroxide, etc) and use Cut Heal or EMT Gel (Cut Heal when it's large, and EMT Gel when it's most of the way healed) If there is infection, oral antibiotics may be necessary. These things can take a LONG time to completely heal. Patience is key!

 

Lynn

[Guest grey_dreams]

Poor girl. You've gotten a lot of good suggestions already, and I wanted to add one more possibility that you might think about trying. Back in April, Skinnymini posted a great thread about using sugar or honey to treat wounds. Here is the link:

 

Wound care with sugar

 

Good luck!

[Greytlady94]

You could check with your vet about using water therapy. It's something you can do at home and it has speeded healing of a lot of really nasty wounds.

[Guest cestbarb]

Thanks everyone for some greyt advice. A little patience, keeping the wounds clean and EMT gel hopefully will do the trick. Now if only I could keep her off her bad side. Thanks again

[5blackgreys]

As a nurse I can vouch for the sugar remedy. There's lots of new stuff out today, but sugar really will work. I also second the use of an egg crate mattress. If you opt to get one try and get a medical grade one. The ones I've seen in places like Target are usually to thin. The medical grade ones usually come in 2 or 4 inch thicknesses.

 

Best of luck

[Charla]

You could also use Adaptic , a non-stick dressing by Johnson and Johnson, drug stores carry it. It's a petroleum coated gauze that won't stick to wounds and helps keep them clean & moist enough to heal. Please don't use Betadine on healing sores , it and peroxide are cytotoxic & undo newly granulating tissue. Normal saline is a much better cleanser ... you can buy it or make your own.

 

To make your own saline, stir about 90g of table salt into one liter of boiled water. Let it cool before use !

 

Non medically sterile homemade saline is useful for such things as washing eyes out and cleaning wounds - it hurts less than tap water as the osmolality is close to that of plasma.