Gauze—The Double-Edged Sword

There is no class in veterinary school on how to get people to do what you want them to… but there probably should be. Fewer bad things would happen if we could be more persuasive with our go-home instructions, particularly for intense, ongoing conditions like diabetes or recuperation from an orthopedic surgery. Surprisingly, perhaps, wearing a bandage or splint also falls into that category.

Veterinarians are often asked for bandages, but there are only a handful of situations where we are likely to agree. The first thing to consider is body architecture: a surprisingly large portion of the canine and feline surface is incapable of holding a bandage due to its shape. A second reason that we’re reluctant to wrap injuries is because of the risk:benefit ratio. I never would have thought it when I was seven, binding up the legs of all my stuffed animals with tape and gauze, but in some cases placing a dressing does much more harm than good. It hides the wound we are tending, so no one can know if it is improving or worsening. It needs to be replaced at varying intervals (sometimes every single day!) in order to maintain cleanliness, and that is expensive. It traps moisture and heat at the site, making our patient more prone to skin damage even where there originally was none. It has to be wrapped tightly enough to stay in place (despite the animal’s efforts to escape it), yet loosely enough to allow normal circulation. It needs enough adhesive to remain in place, yet not so much that the skin becomes irritated by this foreign substance and develops an open wound. If something goes wrong under there, the injury could get worse than it was at the start. Much worse. Because of the risks, the pet owner must always be on high alert for anything going even slightly awry with a dressing or splint.

And that’s where the fire and brimstone come in. When your pet goes home with a bandage in place, you are bound to receive a rather stern lecture about how to be vigilant at home. The dressing can never get wet, so it needs to be covered with plastic when stepping outdoors, but only for a few minutes a day. If the gauze ever gets damp, discolored, or smelly, the patient must return to the clinic. If the wrap shifts from its original placement, it needs to be repaired immediately. If we say three days, we mean THREE DAYS. If we say every seven days, we mean...well, you get it.

When we place a dressing, we are hoping and praying that the time spent inside it will be as short as humanly possible. This can only happen if the pet owner treats it with the utmost respect after it leaves our clinic, almost like an additional member of the family. They may not have taught us exactly how in vet school, but we’ve learned to coax, pester, browbeat, tell horror stories of patients past with infections and amputations. In short, we’ll do whatever we have to in order to get our patient the best outcome possible.

Dr M.S. Regan