Poor Lady!
My dog Lady has had a lump on her back for several years. We figured it was just an Old Dog Lump, some type of benign tumor. A couple weeks ago it became visible through her hair, covered in dry skin but gross and mushy underneath. Then, inexplicably it absessed and burst.
It was probably at least a day before I was over at my parent's place to notice it, and I cleaned it out that evening. Some gross puss-ish stuff came out, but for the most part it seemed pretty clean. WRONG!
I asked mom to clean it the following day, but she forgot. Truth to tell she didn't seem that concerned about it. But I was. The hole was pretty big, about the size of a dime.
I cleaned it out on saturday, right after writing my last entry, in fact. I had all my antiseptic goodies, gauze and warm water all aroung me to start. I squeezed the lump a bit to see if there was any more puss. There was some white stuff in there, yup. Gotta get it out. Wait a second... it moved. I used the tweezers to open the hole a little more, then recoiled in horror. Maggots in my dog. I ran to get my dad to come look, and wanted to take her to the vet immediately. It's saturday, remember? Vet's not open. And it's not life-threatening, so better not call if we can avoid it. But those things had to come out. My sister, being gruesomely curious like the rest of us, came to look. I had Lady lie down again and I squeezed it and a whole ball of maggots cam poking out. I cannot even begin to describe to you how disgusting this was. Almost two hours we spent cleaning it out and that first group of maggots still turns my stomach. I let go to grab the tweezers, but then the maggots were sucked back in. I pushed them out again, then told my sister to use the tweezers to grab them while my dad grabbed some paper towel. She started to poke at them, but they squirmed and she freaked. I yelled at her to get them before they crawled back in, and gagging, she managed to start grabbing them.
Allow me to interrupt a moment to give you a brief tutorial on maggots. Maggots are the larvae of flies from eggs laid in the wound. When hatched, they begin to eat all the dead and dying flesh out of the wound. This is actually a good thing. Nature's way of cleaning out a wound, if you will. BUT! Maggots can only be in a wound for a certain length of time, one which I am not certain of, before the burrow in to change into flies. When they pupate, they have to find a way out, and this is how they can cause more damage; by digging their way out through good flesh, or I believe through dying inside and festering. Sick.
The more I squeezed, the more they came out. Then something else was visible. I squeezed harder and it started to come out, this huge white something. Teresa gagged and couldn't do it, so I yelled for dad to hurry up and take her place. Dad pulled the thing out. It was fatty-like tissue, possibly the tumor itself. Now there was a great gaping hole in the absess. For an hour and a half we picked and prodded, finding more and more maggots. When we finally figured we got most of them, we started using a q-tip dipped in alcohol to swab it out. Lady had been so quiet and patient through the whole thing, but I expected this to really hurt. No reaction. We swabbed it out as best we could then filled the absess with alcohol to kill any maggots we might have missed. Once it was as clean as we could get it, we put a poultice on it to draw out any infection that might have developed.
I checked it the next day, and while it was clean, it was all <.< dialated and >.> engorged... sick. The hole had started closing, not a good thing with a deep wound. I poulticed it again and later put tea tree oil (which is actually a gel) on it. You think it was gross to read about it? You should have seen it!
There were still gross lumps in it though, and I really wanted to have her checked out by the vet. So dad and I took her in on monday. Good news; we did everything right. Hurray! The vet decided to lance the lump to remove anything left in it. Dad and I wanted to watch, and the vet gave us a strange look and suggested that he'd call us if he needed us to hold her. I could tell he thought we'd be in the way. No problem. We waited patiently, and in what seemed like no time at all he came back. No signs of and maggots, we had gotten them all. Yes! He cleaned out all the yucky cheesy-puss-stuff out, told us to flush it out with betadine solution (which, being horse-people, we already had), that I could continue to put tea tree oil on it to speed healing and hopefully discourage more flies, because he wanted it left open to the air. The twice-daily flushing should help to prevent more maggots. She was also put on antibiotics.
So now, the wound looks so much better and Lady has noticably a lot more energy. My poor dog!
It was probably at least a day before I was over at my parent's place to notice it, and I cleaned it out that evening. Some gross puss-ish stuff came out, but for the most part it seemed pretty clean. WRONG!
I asked mom to clean it the following day, but she forgot. Truth to tell she didn't seem that concerned about it. But I was. The hole was pretty big, about the size of a dime.
I cleaned it out on saturday, right after writing my last entry, in fact. I had all my antiseptic goodies, gauze and warm water all aroung me to start. I squeezed the lump a bit to see if there was any more puss. There was some white stuff in there, yup. Gotta get it out. Wait a second... it moved. I used the tweezers to open the hole a little more, then recoiled in horror. Maggots in my dog. I ran to get my dad to come look, and wanted to take her to the vet immediately. It's saturday, remember? Vet's not open. And it's not life-threatening, so better not call if we can avoid it. But those things had to come out. My sister, being gruesomely curious like the rest of us, came to look. I had Lady lie down again and I squeezed it and a whole ball of maggots cam poking out. I cannot even begin to describe to you how disgusting this was. Almost two hours we spent cleaning it out and that first group of maggots still turns my stomach. I let go to grab the tweezers, but then the maggots were sucked back in. I pushed them out again, then told my sister to use the tweezers to grab them while my dad grabbed some paper towel. She started to poke at them, but they squirmed and she freaked. I yelled at her to get them before they crawled back in, and gagging, she managed to start grabbing them.
Allow me to interrupt a moment to give you a brief tutorial on maggots. Maggots are the larvae of flies from eggs laid in the wound. When hatched, they begin to eat all the dead and dying flesh out of the wound. This is actually a good thing. Nature's way of cleaning out a wound, if you will. BUT! Maggots can only be in a wound for a certain length of time, one which I am not certain of, before the burrow in to change into flies. When they pupate, they have to find a way out, and this is how they can cause more damage; by digging their way out through good flesh, or I believe through dying inside and festering. Sick.
The more I squeezed, the more they came out. Then something else was visible. I squeezed harder and it started to come out, this huge white something. Teresa gagged and couldn't do it, so I yelled for dad to hurry up and take her place. Dad pulled the thing out. It was fatty-like tissue, possibly the tumor itself. Now there was a great gaping hole in the absess. For an hour and a half we picked and prodded, finding more and more maggots. When we finally figured we got most of them, we started using a q-tip dipped in alcohol to swab it out. Lady had been so quiet and patient through the whole thing, but I expected this to really hurt. No reaction. We swabbed it out as best we could then filled the absess with alcohol to kill any maggots we might have missed. Once it was as clean as we could get it, we put a poultice on it to draw out any infection that might have developed.
I checked it the next day, and while it was clean, it was all <.< dialated and >.> engorged... sick. The hole had started closing, not a good thing with a deep wound. I poulticed it again and later put tea tree oil (which is actually a gel) on it. You think it was gross to read about it? You should have seen it!
There were still gross lumps in it though, and I really wanted to have her checked out by the vet. So dad and I took her in on monday. Good news; we did everything right. Hurray! The vet decided to lance the lump to remove anything left in it. Dad and I wanted to watch, and the vet gave us a strange look and suggested that he'd call us if he needed us to hold her. I could tell he thought we'd be in the way. No problem. We waited patiently, and in what seemed like no time at all he came back. No signs of and maggots, we had gotten them all. Yes! He cleaned out all the yucky cheesy-puss-stuff out, told us to flush it out with betadine solution (which, being horse-people, we already had), that I could continue to put tea tree oil on it to speed healing and hopefully discourage more flies, because he wanted it left open to the air. The twice-daily flushing should help to prevent more maggots. She was also put on antibiotics.
So now, the wound looks so much better and Lady has noticably a lot more energy. My poor dog!