Most bleeding looks far worse than it is, and most wounds that turn serious did not look impressive at the time.
Both halves of that matter, so this article deals with the bleeding first and the deceptive wounds second.
Stopping bleeding
Firm, continuous, direct pressure.
- Clean cloth, gauze or towel over the wound
- Press firmly and hold for a full ten minutes
- Do not lift to check. This is the mistake everybody makes, lifting the dressing disrupts the forming clot and restarts the whole process. Ten minutes, timed
- If blood soaks through, add another layer on top rather than removing the first
- Elevate above heart level where practical
- Keep your dog calm and still. Excitement raises blood pressure and worsens bleeding
No tourniquet. They cause tissue death, and in almost all situations firm direct pressure is both safer and more effective.
Go immediately if: bleeding does not slow after ten minutes of proper pressure, it is spurting, it is from the mouth, nose or anus without an obvious cause, or your dog has pale gums, is weak, or is breathing rapidly.
Bite wounds are never minor
This is the section worth remembering.
A dog bite creates a narrow puncture with a crushed, torn cavity underneath. The skin opening may be a few millimetres. The damage beneath can be extensive, and the small opening seals over within hours, trapping bacteria inside.
That is the recipe for an abscess: a hot, painful, swollen mass appearing three to five days later in a dog whose small wound seemed to be healing perfectly.
Any bite wound should be seen, and this includes:
- Bites from other dogs, however small the mark
- Cat bites, which are worse per millimetre, deep, narrow, heavily contaminated
- Bites from rodents or wildlife
- Any bite in an area with rabies risk. This is a same-day conversation about your dog's vaccination status, and about yours if you were bitten breaking up a fight
Do not close a bite wound yourself, and do not seal it with anything. It generally needs cleaning, exploring, and often antibiotics and drainage.
In India, add a rabies consideration to every bite of unknown origin. It is not paranoia; it is the reason to go rather than watch.
Cleaning a wound
Use: clean running water, or sterile saline.
Do not use:
- Hydrogen peroxide. It damages healing tissue as well as bacteria
- Undiluted antiseptics, strong Dettol, spirit, savlon at full strength. They sting badly and harm tissue
- Powders, turmeric, oil, ghee, or ointment on a wound that may need closing. They contaminate the tissue and make proper cleaning harder, and turmeric on an open wound is a genuinely common presentation that complicates treatment
Clip fur around the wound if you can do so safely, so you can see what you are dealing with.
Do not remove anything impaled. A stick, glass, or metal embedded in a wound should be left in place and stabilised. It may be tamponading a vessel, and removing it can cause sudden severe bleeding.
Which wounds need a vet
Go, for:
- Any bite wound
- Wounds that gape, or are longer than about two centimetres
- Deep wounds, or ones where you can see fat, muscle or bone
- Wounds on the face, a joint, the chest or the abdomen
- Puncture wounds of any kind
- Anything heavily contaminated
- Wounds that are hot, swollen, smelling or discharging
- Any wound in a dog that seems unwell in itself
Timing matters for closure. A wound stitched within the first several hours does considerably better than one closed a day later. "Watch it overnight and see" is how a closable wound becomes an open one.
Some wounds are deliberately left open to drain. If a vet has done that, do not cover it up because it looks unfinished.
Bandaging
For transport: a clean covering with light pressure is right.
For ongoing care: only under veterinary direction, and this is not excessive caution.
A bandage applied too tightly cuts off circulation, and dogs have lost limbs to home bandaging. If you must bandage for transport, you should be able to slide two fingers underneath comfortably, and it comes off as soon as you arrive.
In Indian humidity, a bandage over a damp wound becomes an infection risk quickly. Wounds generally do better with air than with covering.
Stop the licking, which is the more useful intervention. A cone, properly fitted and actually left on. Dog saliva does not sterilise a wound, persistent licking reopens it, introduces bacteria and delays healing considerably.
A basic kit
Worth assembling now, kept somewhere everyone knows:
- Sterile gauze and a roll of cotton
- Clean cloth or towels
- Saline
- Blunt-ended scissors
- Tweezers, and a tick hook
- A cone that fits your dog
- Your vet's number and the nearest night clinic
- Your dog's weight, written down
- A large towel or blanket, which doubles as a stretcher and a restraint
Not in the kit: human painkillers. Paracetamol, ibuprofen and diclofenac are toxic to dogs and are among the most common serious poisonings in Indian households, usually given by an owner trying to help.
The bottom line
Pressure, firm and continuous, for ten minutes without peeking. No tourniquet. No powder, no turmeric, no peroxide.
And treat every bite wound as serious regardless of how small the mark is, because the small ones are precisely the ones that seal bacteria in and abscess a week later.
A wound that seemed to be healing and has become hot, swollen and painful three to five days later is an abscess, and it needs opening and draining rather than more cream.