Sorry this is long, I am very upset right now!!!WHen I picked up Cody from the hospital last week, he had a big scab on his underbelly, just as it goes up to his chest. I didn't notice it until I got home.
It looked like he got burned when they shaved him for his catheder or ultra sound. But it seemed to be healing and he was on antibiotics. Well, a couple of days ago it began to swell, and I called the emergency vet and they said put a neosporin on it and put a tshirt or get an elizabethen collor for him. I read up on my own and found out when a swelling occurs you shouldn't put healing cream on it until it drains.
Last night it began draining, so I called the vet tonight to get his antibiotics refilled and they are not admitting it happened when he was with them!! I could come in and be charged for the visit and meds, but we believe they should pay for the cost of helping him get over this since it happened at their offices (which they now deny). We are praying the truth will come out. We aren't after anything special, just the care for this wound so it will heal. COdy is still recovering from being severly ill and doesn't need this other infection. I made an appointment with my regular vet on friday when he gets his liver values checked.
So, to make a long story short, my friend who is a nurse- a wound care nurse is going to come and look at it. When I sent her pictures of it, she said it looked like a burn.
Has anyone here used Colodial silver on their dogs? I researched it and it says it is harmless but extremely effective. BUt would love to hear from any of your experiences.
thanks sharon

Sharon,

Got a pic? I'm pretty good at IDing clipper burn. That said however it's possible that it's just irritation from being closely shaved. It happens sometimes with zero negligence on anyone's part just as a byproduct of being clipped very short. Most vets use a 30 or 40 blade which is very tight. Serious clipper burns are usually with hot blades which is unlikely unless they shaved half the dog.

I notice cold blade clipper burns normally happen on parts of the dog that aren't used to being shaved like in the case of a new haircut, thin skin sensitive areas like bellies, in between toes, around the potty path, and armpits.

It usually heals up on it's own just fine in a few days unless the dog is chewing on it.

If you search leerburg there was a topic not too long ago on colodial silver. Personally I like bag balm as a topical.

Sharon,
I am so sorry to hear that Cody has that large scab!
I just bought a product that is fairly new on the market.
It is called "Vetericyn" Not sure if you have heard about it, but if you Google the name, I am sure you could read up on it and see what you think.

It is something that appears to be kind of revolutionary because it does kill all kinds of bacteria,even MRSA, and yeast type infections. But the best part is that it is completely non-toxic, and won't harm the healthy tissue so it speeds healing faster than conventional cleaning and debriding agents.

I just bought some at our local saddle/tack shop. Apparently they use it often for horse wounds and such.

I would just recommend that you look into this stuff as it looks really very interesting and could be helpful to Cody.
Good luck and I hope you can get some help for him soon!

Sharon, here you go, check this out:
http://www.vetericyn.com/technology/why.php

Maybe I can help you.
I'm not sure where the "burn" is, but if it's on a shaved area it's probably clipper burn.
If it's on a not shaved area, it could be a chemical burn from either the stuff that was used to wipe out his kennel -- it may have been damp after cleaning and he was too wiped out to move -- or it could be urine scald, which is also a chemical burn.
I think that the "silver" you are referring too is silversulfadiazine, silvadene ointment, it is TERRIFIC, was developed during the vietnam war to deal with napalm injuries. Very expensive, the best. You can put it right over the burned area, like frosting a cake, it will not harm cell development. Also usually don't need systemic antibiotics if you are using silvadene.
I don't know what happened to make your dog ill, why he went to the vet in the first place, but I remember a dog in our practice who was frightfully sick, no one knew why, and a week later a large patch of hair/skin began to fall off, turned out he had been lying in pool chemicals.

re-read your post, sounds like it's the area around the IV -- so probably some of the fluids that were run IV ended up going around the vein, and there will be some dead tissue there. Usually this is a self limiting process, it looks really gross, but it's not a big deal. WHen animals are very sick their veins become super fragile and this sometimes happens. It almost always straightens itself out without much of any treatment, even though there can be quite a bit of swelling and tissue sloughing off.
Is the dog better otherwise?

Dear Betty: Cody's burn looks just like clipper burn. Yesterday my friend who is a wound care nurse came and brought some of her products, colloidal (spelling may be wrong) silver. We dressed his wound and he was a very good boy and let us. Friday tomorrow he will be seen by our regular vet.
Cody's back yard is isolated from any kind of chemicals, we do not use any even pesticides back there. He has no access to the garage from the yard. We are puzzled. He is doing much better now and on Friday we will check his liver values. I hope they are near normal. They were checked last tuesday 2/2 and were 2229 around that number(old, brain not working!)
Thanks for your encouragment and concern.
Sharon

Betty: the burn is not near the iv site. He has a catheder and an iv in his leg, not near his stomach going up to the chest area. But good thought. It looks like they were shaving him from the tummy up and gouged his chest area with the clippers and burned him. He had xrays and I know they shaved him when they gave him his ultra sound. The emergency vets took good care of him other than that. He was in the hospital 4 days, and no one every mentioned this scab on his stomach, according to them it was never there. My husband wrote them a letter. WE hope this comes to their attention so they will be careful with other dogs they handle.
Thanks again.