My dog's seroma is back, wound opening, weeping, and smells. Urgent?

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.

It’s hard to know without being able to feel and touch the incision in person but I think it looks infected. I can see the underlying layer of suture but the deeper layer looks intact. I probably would not stitch this up if there was infection and the underlying layer is still holding together, but if the incision is truly infected it won’t heal without antibiotics. An e-collar would be very important as well since any licking could cause further damage. If things seem to be getting worse I would definitely recommend seeing your vet.

The wound probably got infected, this is not uncommon but it needs to be treated. you will need to take Scruffy to your vet today in order to get it checked, yor vet will clean the wound and prescribe a course of antibiotics.

This does look very moist and like an infection is starting. If your veterinarian sent home any pain medication, make sure to continue using it as directed. If you didn’t get any, make sure to get some tomorrow morning along with some antibiotics. You can use hydrogen peroxide or warm soapy water to gently dab on the area and then gently pat it dry. Apply some topical antibiotic ointment or cream such as Neodporin or Neosporin Plus which has topical lidocaine. Make sure the cone stays on as he will want to lick or bite at this. Try to get in to your vet first thing in the morning for a recheck.

This does look like a little bit of infection which sometimes cannot be avoided. Observe it, if it spreads rapidly, ie doubles in size you need to take him in to a vet for a check-up. If it stays about the same or does not grow much in size and he does not appear lethargic, you can wait until Monday to take him in for a recheck.

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.

This wound requires an immediate check up and possibly a stitch up as it seems infected and it is unlikely that will heal without immediate intervention. Proper disinfection and antibiotic treatment is required. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. Please find the time to give us a feedback about the consultation as that will be used to improve our service.