Water/Honey to Treat Wounds

MypupShooter · #1 08-05-2009, 10:02 AM

This will be a little long, so please bare with me

Stella was spayed on the 23rd of July. Everything went well and she was back to her normal self the next day. Vets did not give me an E-Collar, as she wasn’t bothering her stitches while she was there. She never seemed to touch them while we were home either – and I checked daily and her incision looked fine. Friday, after being out fishing/playing all day with my BF, her incision did not look good. I though it was just irriated from running in the grass or something. We had the appointment Tues to have her stitches removed, so I waited till then.

After seeing the vet, we couldn't get her stitches removed. The vet said it looks like she licked it open. The stitches are in tact, but the wound was slightly opened and now there is an infection and granular tissue (sp?). She's now on antibiotics for 14 days and she has to wear an E-Collar (which I haven't been successful with yet)

Aside from that, the vet wants me to do ‘hydro therapy’ with her. Twice a day, I need to take the shower head, using warm water, and apply it back and forth on her incision for 15 minutes. This is supposed to help with the granular tissues. After, I need to get a spatula and apply honey to the wound. She said honey is a great natural treatment for wounds… I looked it up on the internet and found lots of articles on it. I tired to look on the forums here, but only found stuff about kennel cough…

Anyway ever hear or used the water pressure and honey to treat a wound? I’m really interested in this, and really grateful the vet suggested this.

Looking forward to hearing from you all. Thanks

Sugarcain · #2 08-05-2009, 10:08 AM

I don't know about the water, but the honey I have used but not in a dog but in a cat. My daughter has a cat who cut his foot on a piece of glass. We took him straight into the vet but for stiches it would have cost over $250.00 (sedating him first, stiching, etc). The vet suggested honey and a bandage (still cost $80.00). I had my reservations, but it worked, and we didn't have to take him back to get stiches out. After a few days, my daughter changed the bandages and put more honey on it. He is perfectly fine now.

MypupShooter · #3 08-05-2009, 10:11 AM

Cool! Glad to hear someone else has heard of it. I'm going to try it tonight.

As for the water pressure thing, it's only because of the granular tissue. This should help break it up. Normally, the vet said you should be leaving the wound dry - but it's because of that tissue.

Thanks.

DawkinsPup · #4 08-19-2009, 06:08 PM

Honey is a natural antibiotic which is really good for infections and the healing of wounds. And FYI, its also a good moisturizer for the skin cause it locks in moisture. Im not recommending that you cover your puppy in honey for moisturizing purposes.

Mader · #5 08-20-2009, 06:26 AM

When I had my hysterectomy, I developed a seroma and the entire incision broke open, I had a gaping wound for 6 weeks while it healed from the inside out. We did use gauze soaked in sterile water packed into the wound itself. Now, I'm guessing that would be hard to bandage the dog, but it does answer the use of using water to heal.

I guess she will live in the E-collar, as she would sure love to lick the honey off...

Good luck, let us know how she does, this is very interesting

PrairieSky · #6 08-21-2009, 03:40 PM

I haven't heard of honey used to heal an incision, although my grandmother has recommended it for other healing purposes. She always says to be sure it's unpasturized honey, as it contains the natural "ingredients" for healing that pasturizing removes.
And, while I'm far from a doctor or vet, first aid training teaches you to use cold water or even an ice pack to help a cut form together.

MaggienDeuce · #7 08-21-2009, 06:04 PM

Honey does have natural antiseptic properties though I have never used it myself or for my dogs. As for the warm water, I feel your vet is correct. As I child I had a bad cut that required stitches and later got infected really bad. My doctor instructed my mom to soak the wound in warm, salty water a couple times each day. We did that and it made a big difference. I imagine it would be hard to soak your girl in such a way, so the warm water rinse makes since. I would use gentle water pressure.

Kilby'sMum · #8 08-21-2009, 06:55 PM

When Kona cut her leg sliding through a window (she was a baby and while she had learnt how to run, she hadn't exactly mastered stopping!) we used warm salt water to bathe the wound and then bandaged it up and it healed. There was no infection though so we didn't use honey but I have used it on myself before (for an infection from a cut on my foot) and it worked wonders. Good luck