My dog has a painful open wound on her face. Could it be infected?

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. It is very hard to say if the wound is infected or not without examining your dog in full. In general, infected wounds are discharging, smelly, hot and painful to touch. Many dogs with infected wounds are generally unwell. A visit at your local vets is recommended to assess the wound and decide on the best treatment for Oreo. I suspect he may be prescribed an antibiotic cream or ointment to speed up healing.

From the pictures, the skin appears red and inflamed. It does look like it is infected. While this may not be a true emergency, I would recommend getting in to see your veterinarian very soon. Pookie will need the area shaved and cleaned up. Your vet may prescribe an antibiotic for this as well depending. Until you can get to your vet, you can keep the area clean and dry and use a mild soap and water to clean the wound. If Pookie is licking it, you can put on ECollar on her to prevent licking.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I am afraid that this is an open wound and will require further local therapy with debridement, cleaning, stitches, antibiotics and pain control medications. I recommend that you have Coco evaluated by a veterinarian as soon as possible for further assessment and treatment as these wounds are painful and can get infected easily. Good luck!

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. This appears to be a wound but I am unsure as to where on the body it is located since the photo is zoomed in. Based on its appearance, I would recommend getting Charlie in to be seen by a veterinarian so that the most appropriate treatment recommendations can be made. The longer this goes unseen, the more risk there is for infection. I would recommend having this evaluated and potentially putting Charlie on antibiotics and pain medications to help treat this. I hope this helps!

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!

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. It is impossible to tell from the picture how this happened, or how deep it is, but what can be determined is that it is a severely infected wound. Possible causes are penetrating traumas (sticks, bites, etc.), some parasites/worms can cause wounds like this, and some tumors can present in abnormal ways, however that is less likely. I strongly recommend that you have Star seen by a vet as soon as possible, as the wound appears deep and is definitely infected. It needs to be cleaned up, explored, and medications provided. Best of luck with Star, I hope she feels better soon!

Ouch! Poor Bess! This area looks pretty infected and if she had one last week my suspicion is she had allergies or some other cause leading to these areas of bacterial dermatitis (hot spots). You can try to clip some of the hair away from the area and gently clean it but I think Bess will probably need to see a veterinarian to get oral antibiotics. I don't think she has to be seen right this instant but you should try to schedule within the next day or so. Use an e-collar to prevent her from licking the area and making the issue worse. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach and I hope Bess' skin recovers quickly!