Open Wound Under Splint

[Guest BlackBeauty]

Hi,

 

I have a 10 year old boy, Leroy who broke his front right toe. That is healing well now for the last couple of weeks, however, when I went in for the cast change on Monday, they found that his skin had rubbed off down to the bone on his inner wrist from the cast. They washed the wound and re-wrapped his ankle and said that this will now take a few more weeks to heal. Does anyone have any experience with this ?

[Guest Energy11]

This can be common from the splint rubbing. I would see your vet about this splint, as it should NOT be doing this. There are many varieties of cast paddings to help prevent this type of thing. In this case, you are looking are the probabilty of a bad infection, and bone damage, as well.

 

I'd definitely say, see the vet and have he/she fix this.

 

Sorry you are going through this, but, yes, this type of thing happens, but obviously, there is a problem with this splint, or how it was applied.

 

Good Luck!

[Burpdog]

And the cast/splint is off, right?

 

This is why you do not cast/splint broken toes.

 

Sending prayers.

[Trihounds]

Not a result of a broken bone, but Brucie needed his foot wrapped and it ticked me off to no end that the vet wrapped it too tight and did NOT take the precaution of cotton balls between the toes. It only took a few days before the skin tore between two toes due to rubbing. I would be really upset at the vet if I were you...our pups don't need secondary problems when trying to heal from a broken bone.

 

By the way - welcome to GT!

[Guest BlackBeauty]

Not a result of a broken bone, but Brucie needed his foot wrapped and it ticked me off to no end that the vet wrapped it too tight and did NOT take the precaution of cotton balls between the toes. It only took a few days before the skin tore between two toes due to rubbing. I would be really upset at the vet if I were you...our pups don't need secondary problems when trying to heal from a broken bone.

 

By the way - welcome to GT!

Thanks to everyone for your responses ! Yes, the splint is now off and that is how they found the wound -- I think the padding was not sufficient. anyway, the vet found it and treated it and then re-applied the wrap, so they are re-checking it on Tuesday. I wish I had know that I could have just had a simple wrap without the splint-cast -- that's what did the damage -- probably not enough padding. I just wonder how long this will take... he has lost most of his muscle town in his upper leg portion as well -- ugh !!

 

And the cast/splint is off, right?

 

This is why you do not cast/splint broken toes.

 

Sending prayers.

Yes, I wish I had known that -- my poor guy is a mess. This was all done by the Vet -- the supposed expert !

 

This can be common from the splint rubbing. I would see your vet about this splint, as it should NOT be doing this. There are many varieties of cast paddings to help prevent this type of thing. In this case, you are looking are the probabilty of a bad infection, and bone damage, as well.

 

I'd definitely say, see the vet and have he/she fix this.

 

Sorry you are going through this, but, yes, this type of thing happens, but obviously, there is a problem with this splint, or how it was applied.

 

Good Luck!

Yes, he has been treated by the vet since day one, so they didn't put it on right I would say... it's hard because he is not using the foot at all and it has been almost 2 weeks

[4My2Greys]

That is exactly what happened to my boy Nadir right before Christmas time last year. He broke his toe on his left front leg so the vet put his leg in a splint up to his elbow. After about a week or so I noticed that he started licking around the top of the splint. I looked but didn’t see anything wrong so I muzzled him that morning to prevent him licking the area, by the next morning though I woke to the horrible smell of rotting flesh. The smell was so bad as I was driving him to the vet I seriously thought that they were going to tell me he was going to lose his leg. The splint had rubbed his leg raw to the bone and caused it to become infected. They cleaned out and cut away the infected area and then stitched it back together, but because it was up at his elbow where there is a lot of flexing about half the stitches did not hold so I had to treat it an area almost an 1-1/2” in diameter as an open wound. The vet had put him on an antibiotic but he became so sick on it with vomiting and diarrhea, losing almost 5lbs in just a few days that he was taken off of it. At that point I started using healing Manuka honey on the open wound when dressing it. It took some time but had very good success with the honey keeping infection out and healing the wound with minimal scaring.

 

 

[Xan]

Sad, right? Our Brilly's toe broke, wouldn't heal in the splint, got sores on both sides of his foot, and they were talking amputation. Advice from GT convinced me to take the splint off myself and leave it off. He's fine now, but there are scars on his foot from the sores.

 

Hope your guy heals up without further issue!

[Guest Energy11]

Not a result of a broken bone, but Brucie needed his foot wrapped and it ticked me off to no end that the vet wrapped it too tight and did NOT take the precaution of cotton balls between the toes. It only took a few days before the skin tore between two toes due to rubbing. I would be really upset at the vet if I were you...our pups don't need secondary problems when trying to heal from a broken bone.

 

By the way - welcome to GT!

Thanks to everyone for your responses ! Yes, the splint is now off and that is how they found the wound -- I think the padding was not sufficient. anyway, the vet found it and treated it and then re-applied the wrap, so they are re-checking it on Tuesday. I wish I had know that I could have just had a simple wrap without the splint-cast -- that's what did the damage -- probably not enough padding. I just wonder how long this will take... he has lost most of his muscle town in his upper leg portion as well -- ugh !!

 

And the cast/splint is off, right?

 

This is why you do not cast/splint broken toes.

 

Sending prayers.

Yes, I wish I had known that -- my poor guy is a mess. This was all done by the Vet -- the supposed expert !

 

This can be common from the splint rubbing. I would see your vet about this splint, as it should NOT be doing this. There are many varieties of cast paddings to help prevent this type of thing. In this case, you are looking are the probabilty of a bad infection, and bone damage, as well.

 

I'd definitely say, see the vet and have he/she fix this.

 

Sorry you are going through this, but, yes, this type of thing happens, but obviously, there is a problem with this splint, or how it was applied.

 

Good Luck!

Yes, he has been treated by the vet since day one, so they didn't put it on right I would say... it's hard because he is not using the foot at all and it has been almost 2 weeks

 

When I worked HUMAN ER, the paramedics had to do all the splinting. We ALL learned to apply LOTS AND LOTS of cast padding to prevent things like happened to your baby!OY!!! Really NO EXCUSE for what happened, had the splint been applied right... there ARE special circumstances, but they are few and far between!

[greysmom]

Dude had the same thing happen to him. He broke the toe and had to have it amputated. Two weeks later, the toe surgery site was all healed but the splint had rubbed several sores down to the bone. After that, it was 6 weeks of weekly bandage changes and antibiotics before he was better.

 

It took him most of a month to use that foot again after everything was healed. He lost quite a bit of muscle tone too, but it built up again quickly after he started using that leg. He still does the three-legged thing if it's really cold out and when his foot is aching from using it too much.

[Guest BlackBeauty]

Thank you all for your words of wisdom and encouragement. Yes, I agree, it should not have happened. so sad... I am taking him to another Vet whom I trust completely (this Vet was referred because she was an orthopedic Vet -- Ya !), so I am hoping my normal Vet will be able to better treat this. I LOVE the honey idea -- I've read about the anti-viral and anti-biotic properties : ))

 

Dude had the same thing happen to him. He broke the toe and had to have it amputated. Two weeks later, the toe surgery site was all healed but the splint had rubbed several sores down to the bone. After that, it was 6 weeks of weekly bandage changes and antibiotics before he was better.

 

It took him most of a month to use that foot again after everything was healed. He lost quite a bit of muscle tone too, but it built up again quickly after he started using that leg. He still does the three-legged thing if it's really cold out and when his foot is aching from using it too much.

 

It's so awful what these poor babies have to go thru : (( Glad to hear that your's healed. thank you !

[Guest TBSFlame]

This is what happen to Jeremy. It got infected. 8 weeks of very strong AB to get rid of it and that was after 6 weeks of AB. This last round cost $154 every two weeks at Walmart. Thanks goodness his seems well now. He was on leash walk for a long time. Months. Healing thoughts. I will never again let the vet splint broken toes.