My puppy has a green gunk wound from a fight. Is salt water enough?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. It is difficult to say for sure what the cause is as there is a lot of matted fur and crusted material over the area. I do see the green pus you are referring to, which to me tells me that there is likely an infection going on. This may be due to a resistant bacterial infection, which may explain why it has not been responding to treatment. If you have already been giving antibiotics and the area is not improving, it may be time to culture the area to determine what the causative bacterium is so that the most appropriate antibiotic can be used. If you are able to, I would shave all the hair away from this area so that you can get this area clean and keep it that way. I would use betadine and dilute that in saline so that you have a light brown solution to help disinfect the area several times per day. There is a product which you can purchase online that may help called vetericyn. I hope this helps and hope this problem resolves soon! Please let me know if you have any further questions / concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. You should take Murphy to your local vets for an appointment as this wound should be clipped, cleaned, flushed and potentially stitched up under sedation. It would take a very long time to heal if the wound was treated with antibiotics only. The symptoms of infection usually develops in the first 24hrs and include fever, discharge, swelling and pain around the wound.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. I would recommend having this treated sooner rather than later and get in as soon as you can to have this taken care of. This appears to be an abscess and has ruptured. This needs to be drained and flushed out with an antiseptic solution as well as having him placed on oral antibiotics. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. Please take the time to mark this question as helpful or not as it helps us to improve on the quality of our answers to other pet owners. Thank you kindly!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This probably isn’t a serious wound. Clean the wound with diluted iodine if you have it. If you don’t, warm soapy water works very well. Rinse thoroughly with warm water. If you have an E-collar, put that on her and then put some antibiotic cream/ointment on it (eg Neosporin or mupiricin). I don’t want her licking it so skip this step if you don’t have the collar. (You can purchase one at most pet stores if you’d like.) If you can apply the ointment once or twice daily, even better. Clean the wound gently with a warm wet cloth as often as needed (up to twice daily) if it gets muddy or very dirty. Chances are, it will heal up nicely even if you can only attend to it once. Hope this helps and best of luck to you and your pup!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I highly recommend that you have both of your pups evaluated by a veterinarian as soon as possible. These wounds can get infected very easily. Also, it is crucial to check if any of these wounds need further local therapy such as stitches. Your veterinarian could also start pain medications as usually lacerations like that are painful. Good luck and have a good day!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This looks like a fairly superficial wound at least based on this picture. However, it would still be a good idea to have him evaluated by a veterinarian to look at it more closely in case it is deeper than what it looks like. Also, these can be painful and can get infected so your veterinarian could potentially start antibiotics and pain control medications. If superficial, these wounds tend to respond well to therapy and heal relatively quickly. Good luck and have a good night!

Hi and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I am so sorry to hear Rumple was bitten by another dog. Based on the photos, it looks like the wound is draining a little, which is a good thing. However, I cannot say with certainty it is not still infected. Given Rumple was just started on antibiotics, he likely needs the full two weeks for it to heal. I would monitor for any pain or swelling in that area, worsening discharge or foul smelling odor or anything else concerning like incompetence, vomiting or diarrhea. If Rumple is otherwise OK, I would say it is fine to continue to monitor him and continue his previously prescribed medication. In fact, I would send these photos to your veterinarian who looked at Rumple two days ago. They would be able to compare the photos and let you know if they think the wound has gotten worse or not. I hope this has been helpful!