When does a cut need the vets??

Poor wee Ben
We were having a great run today, he had major zoomies
Then - no yelp, no limping (and ben tends to be a drama queen) I see his paw is covered in blood
I get them home and wash him in some salt water and I see that he has a gash - about an inch on his leg above his paw. It has stopped bleeding and dosent seem to bother him and it looks like a clean cut
After about 30min he has a wee lick at it and it starts bleeding again so I bung antiseptic on it and bandage it up
It seems to have stopped bleeding now, vets not open till 9am
Would you go straight for the emergancy vets?
Get the vets in the morning?
Or am I overracting and I should just keep it clean and only go to the vets if it starts looking nasty??

as I was once told by my old vet........... when asking about a similar cut.

its a long way from his heart... im sure he will live

if its not bleeding badly, its not flapping wide open, im sure he will be fine untill morning,

I guess you then have to decide, is it bad enough to need sewing up....will he allow this to be done under local, or will he have a GA or sedation,

Thanks Sho, I feel much better Car is in at garage so I was trying to figure how to find a taxi that takes dogs - then what to do with Mia

Its funny cos with me if it stops bleeding and nothing has dropped off then I dont go to the docs - but with the dogs its more difficult - we worry so much about them - and they cant tell us if its really bad

Hmm I think Ben would be OK to get a stitch in without GA, he is pretty calm

I cant see from the picture, but is it very deep? it may be a good idea to make sure none of the hair round it is sticking into it,
if hes really calm, you may be able to clip some of the longer hair around it away, just to keep it clean and tidy then give it another salty water wash,
with some luck tupac will see this and offer better advice,

My lurcher often get cuts like that on their knees where they bash into things running around. When they were young I would take them to the vets I went so often they took pity on me and said thaty if I left it as it is as long as i stopped them from licking it will heal on its own.
If mine had a cut like that I think I wouldn't even bother with the vets.
Last winter one of the lurchers jumped a cattle grid and landed in it. He had a huge flap hanging from the inside of his legs and both knees cut open. The vets stiched the inside of his leg and left the ones on his knees open.

ouch that sounds really painful.

I was thinking of clipping it - I will do when I take the bandage off later
I dont know if I am talking nonsense here but it seems to be skin deep but not into the flesh - if you know what I mean??? it looks deep to me cos its on his skinny wee legs

owwww poor soul. Thanks for the advice tho, I always about bugging the vets by going too much - but also worry about not going when I should. Thank goodness I dont have a baby!

yup I do know what you mean, bless his skinny wee legs,
I often think things look so much worse on white legs,

hiya
poor lad

I'm sure my input is not really needed as good advice already given
if he was my lad....as said,if he will let you clip as much hair away from the wound as possible to stop decontamination,if you can get any 'hibiscrub' (chemist?)it would be good,but if not a saline soloution of a teaspoon of salt to a pint of boiled water and bathe the wound thoroughly(it may start bleeding again) flush it through as much as you can and dry.reasses the wound then,the most important thing is to not let him lick it!!..if it only skin dip and is a clean cut you will have two choices,either to get tacking stitches/ tissue glue or let it heal by secondary intention (no sutres) but may take longer to heal and could involve dressing changes...either way i wouldnt worry too much ...have a look in the morning and bathe it again,you may be suprised at how it looks
be very carefull with bandages a tight bandage is worse than no bandage