Injury Bite Wound on face

Onetwo said:

Yes you need to douse it in warm water with a wash cloth and open it up over and over until it heals from the inside out! If you can get a curved syringe it helps to clear out that down into the pocket!

Its a pain in the butt but you just need to do it 2-3 times a day and clean it out really good. NO amount of antibiotics is gonna get rid of it completely without you cleaning it out a lot!

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Do you know where I could easily get a curved syringe? I guess I can always ask the vet for one tomorrow, right now I have a normal tipped syringe. I will try to reopen in a little bit or at least try to (after Tiger eats her probiotics/veggies).

Any suggestions for preferred cleaning solution? I know saline is good for flushing, but I'm still a little iffy on using betadine as well for stronger cleaning effects. Is that safe to use in a wound if I dilute it? If my dad actually checked his phone he would have brought me some home from his work but we're probably going to buy some if it is safe for flushing.

So today's update. I got Tiger Lily another week of Baytril. And I bought some Betadine (10% solution that I diluted 1 part iodine to 10 parts water,which I may dilute a little more) and saline to flush her wound. I did get it to reopen and she was not happy about it. My vet gave me a curved syringe to make it easier. So now she has a clean wound and is throwing a tantrum as she is very angry with me (she won't leave her pigloo, she just drags it around her cage to food). So I will continue flushing her wound 2-3 times a day for the next 10 days and see how well that goes and hopefully she will be healed up!!

Sounds good!

As for flushing, I prefer saline.

foggycreekcavy said:

As for flushing, I prefer saline.

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I couldn't decide which I wanted to use so I got both to use! I first flushed the wound with saline then the iodine as I like the anti-microbial properties of it then I flushed again with saline (I might be a tad OCD)

Infection is the enemy here. And your little girl sure got a nice chunk outof here! goodness gracious!

I would skip the iodine as I've heard it can kill off the healing flesh since it is so sensitive. Infection cannot take hold if there are antibiotics in the system.

Get it nice and wet with boiled and cooled water and a nice clean wash cloth. It will start opening and you will be able to gently peel off any scab and get down in there with qtips and the curved syringe and the saline and get all the stuff out. Bleeding is good FIY! Then I fill the inside of the cavity with a drop of neosporin. DO this 2-3 times a day until it heals from the inside out. The pocket should get smaller every time. I think it took my piggy 6-8 days until it was just a normal scab and no longer needed cleaning out. Your time table will vary based on how well your piggy heals and how deep and large it is. Please feel free post pics of the process!

Onetwo said:

I would skip the iodine as I've heard it can kill off the healing flesh since it is so sensitive. Infection cannot take hold if there are antibiotics in the system.

Please feel free post pics of the process!

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I really used the Iodine first because it had been a few days since the wound had been completely flush. From what I've read sometimes the antibiotics can't reach the infected site alone, hence the flushing. And I totally have pictures.

This was Day 1 of her wound:


This was yesterday (Day 5 of her wound) when the abscess ruptured, the picture is upside down, but the whitish part is the bottom of the bite and the brown scab is the top.


This is Day 6, her 2 scabs have come off as 1 and are hanging on by a thread (I'm going to let her pull it off or it to fall off on it's own). This was right after flushing with saline:


So basically in the past week the wound has gotten larger, but I am continuing the antibiotics and probiotics for the next week. And will be flushing 3 times a day: once in the morning, once when I get home from class, and again before I go to bed. Luckily I don't have much of a social life so I won't be missing any cleanings! And this stuff doesn't bother me, yay being a Biology major who is also Pre-Vet!

Oooh, poor baby. I hope she starts looking better soon.

So it is day 7 now and I ended up cutting off the giant scab hanging on by a thread this morning. But other than that the wound isn't white and doesn't smell as bad anymore (still stinks a little). The deepest part of the wound is the top part everything below it is fairly shallow. I think she is healing up nicely, no pus has come out since Friday.

O! It looks so much better! Definitely looks like healthy flesh is growing in and it is filling up from the inside out the way it is supposed to be! I know its gross, difficult and the piggy makes you feel like you are killing her, but it is for the best! Good luck and great job!

It looks like healthy tissue is growing. Keep it up! Are you flushing the top wound as well?

Onetwo said:

O! It looks so much better! Definitely looks like healthy flesh is growing in and it is filling up from the inside out the way it is supposed to be! I know its gross, difficult and the piggy makes you feel like you are killing her, but it is for the best! Good luck and great job!

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This stuff totally doesn't gross me out! If it were on a human now that's another story! And thank you Tiger totally thinks I'm killing her and currently hates me but she will thank me later! I'm so surprised with how good it looks from yesterday to today!

foggycreekcavy said:

It looks like healthy tissue is growing. Keep it up! Are you flushing the top wound as well?

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The wound in the picture is actually the top and bottom wound, they kind of merged together so yes, both are flushed! 3 times today!

Wow what an improvment! I'm sorry you guys are going through all this. It's so sad when you have to care for an injured pig, especially when they don't understand you are trying to help. It may sound silly but I think after a while they understand you are trying to help and not hurt. Good luck with continuous recovery!

Looks great! I'm so glad.

Thank you all! And yes @Agrimony my pigs never fully trust me when I try to help them! I remember when my old pig had a fistual/abscess she was the best, never fought with meds took her critical care like a champ. I think the difference between her and Tiger is that Tiger feels completely normal and has her normal fight in her, where as my old pig was very weak, so honestly I am glad Tiger is being difficult!!!

I will continue to post update pictures as her wound makes progress. And in case anyone is curious about Penelope (the pig who bit Tiger). I expanded her cage to have a "Catwalk" over the main part of Tiger and Charlie's cage, so they can all see/smell/hear each other, but cannot be in contact. And funny thing is Penelope seems happier alone, she popcorns A LOT more than before and loves running laps along the 1x7 part of her cage. So I don't know if I will ever be putting them all back together at this point in time.

Day 8: This first picture was taken a few hours after I had flushed her wound out. I got out a bunch of the scabs so it had exposed fresh beautiful tissue and started to seal back together into 2 holes instead of 1.


This was after the 3rd cleaning, I kinda made it one hole again because there was still some gunk I needed to get out, but her wound is now mostly just fresh skin with no pus or brown nasty dying flesh. So slowly but surely making progress!

Looking good!! Keep at it! I would clip more hair away from the wound to help you keep it clean

soopermum62 said:

Looking good!! Keep at it! I would clip more hair away from the wound to help you keep it clean

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I will try to do that, but every time I've tried she turns away violently and I don't want to hurt her with the scissors. I don't have clippers small enough to use near her face and no one in my house is willing/able to help me.

It looks like it's healing up well! When I have abscesses to deal with I usually use an antibiotic ointment called Staphicept (I think) that's really effective at keeping germs at bay. You can get it at Walgreens, Rite Aid etc., but it's a bit spendy (like $12-15), but it's been the only thing that I feel confident putting on after deciding to let a wound close up and heal, which is always hard when you need to keep it open to keep flushing it.