When To Remove Dressing

[bfls]

My cat, Jack, had to have surgery to remove a bowel obstruction on Sunday afternoon. It was in the small intestine and they were able to move the blockage into the colon without having to cut open the bowel ().

I brought him home on Tuesday and he has a large dressing on his abdomen. My care instructions say to inspect the incision at least once a day but to also leave the dressing on for 3 to 5 days. I can't do both! I called the vet to ask what they want me to do but they haven't got back to me.

What I've been doing so far is inspecting the dressing to see if there is any obvious seepage and sniffing to check the incision smells OK, as well as just generally monitoring Jack's behaviour to make sure he is feeling OK. However, this won't catch problems in the early stages only once an infection is well advanced.

I have him in a baby onsie so he can't lick the incision. I'm inclined to take the dressing off so I can keep a good eye on what is going on. If you've had a cat who had such surgery how did you handle it?

 

[StanAndAlf]

I would follow your vet's advice and leave the dressing on for the recommended amount of time, and keep checking the way you have been.

Once the dressing is removed, I would then continue to check the incision site daily, as also suggested. I believe this is what they meant with their instructions, but I may be wrong.

As long as the dressing is on firmly, infection should have a lot of trouble occurring, unless of course sterilisation was compromised during surgery. Chances of this should be pretty low in a reputable practice though. I believe the reason for having the dressing on for that period of time is to allow some healing to occur with lower chances of infection, so by the time you take the dressing off, the healing process should go smoother and any infection won't penetrate as deep.

 

[di and bob]

Since the surgery was Sunday, and this is Wednesday, I would take off the dressing but continue with the onsie until a week has gone by. a small amount of licking is to be expected and wouldn't hurt if the onsie needs to come off to let the incision dry up. I don't like to keep dressings on overlong, it keeps them moist too long and prevents them from drying, and encourages infection, especially if they aren't changed. You could gently wipe the area with a clean moist, washcloth and apply a little human antibiotic salve (with NO pain relievers) or get some wound spray for cats at your local farm supply store, like Tractor Supply. I soak a cotton ball or cloth to apply it, the spraying sound scares a lot of cats.

 

[bfls]

I would follow your vet's advice and leave the dressing on for the recommended amount of time, and keep checking the way you have been.

Once the dressing is removed, I would then continue to check the incision site daily, as also suggested. I believe this is what they meant with their instructions, but I may be wrong.

As long as the dressing is on firmly, infection should have a lot of trouble occurring, unless of course sterilisation was compromised during surgery. Chances of this should be pretty low in a reputable practice though. I believe the reason for having the dressing on for that period of time is to allow some healing to occur with lower chances of infection, so by the time you take the dressing off, the healing process should go smoother and any infection won't penetrate as deep.

I finally heard back from my vet. They confirm they meant what you suggested. They could have been a little clearer in their instructions. Just to add to my confusion, the vet I spoke to also said it would be OK to take the dressing off sooner if I wanted - argh. It's an emergency practice so I deal with a different vet each time. I suspect each one has their own views on what is best practice.