My senior dog's leg wound isn't improving. When will it heal?

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.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I am afraid that this wound may take more local therapy for it to really heal. This means local cleaning, debridement and potentially closing it with stitches. At the same time, I think antibiotics at this point should be chosen based on a culture to be more specific in terms of what is being used specifically targeting the infectious organism. If treated appropriately, this is likely going to heal well. Good luck!

This presentation could be due to a trauma or localized spot of skin infection (likely to be caused by bacteria). Ideally a check up, appropriate disinfection and possibly antibiotics (oral, topical or in a shampoo formulation) are needed to solve the problem. The area must be clipped more and disinfection may be started at home with very diluted hibiscrub or betadine or salted water baths (twice daily). Buster collar may be useful as well to avoid any licking (if any). 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. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Sorry to see that T is having this problem. A few things are possible here. I am assuming that the original wound never healed, only got better. If that's the case then I would suspect either a foreign body has entered the leg or an insect/spider/other has bitten him that started the entire problem. Puncture wounds can look very different over time so it may have been only one small puncture wound from the inciting event. I would advise taking T back to your veterinarian so they can recheck the wound and possibly rethink what is going on. (Assuming they saw it initially) after it first happened. They may want to culture the wound and run a sensitivity of the bugs that grow out of the culture to determine what antibiotics would be best. They may also advise some x-rays to determine if a foreign body has entered the leg although this can be of questionable value depending what the foreign body could be. Exploring the wound might be another option. All of these can be discussed with your veterinarian and I have made some assumptions here and could be wrong. I wish you the best of luck with T and I hope you get to the bottom of this very soon.

This presentation could be due to a neurological lesion affecting nerves innervating the legs (please tell us which leg you think is affected to have more specific answers). I would recommend a neurological examination and eventually further investigations (EMG and MRI/CT might be needed). 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.

Oh my, this is a large wound for Ruger! Treatment and prognosis for this type of lesion will be dependent upon the initial cause (i.e. burns, cancer, ringworm infection, bacterial infection from a skin infection, etc.). Ideally, I do recommend taking him to the vet to determine if the wound has become infected so that appropriate treatment can be started. Topical sprays, such as Vetericyn, can be helpful with many cases of wound healing, but do not start any of these treatments without first consulting Ruger's vet. I hope that all goes well!

I am sorry to hear about your dog. If this is not improving with topical medication he may need to be switched to oral/systemic medications as the problem may be deeper under the skin than topical meds can penetrate. I would let your vet know he is not improving. Occasionally we may need to do testing such as cultures or biopsy in some cases that don’t improve with traditional treatments.