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Sutures & Shedding

Marica

Marica

New member
After months of vet visits, x-rays, blood tests, and not seeing any progression with my gravid female, we opted for surgery last month. We discovered that Naomi was pre-ovulatory and that the follicles were still attached to her ovaries. The unfertilized eggs along with her ovaries were removed, and since none had descended to the oviduct the vet left it.

Naomi's had a great recovery so far, been a great sport through all the injections and seems to be enjoying her towel bedding. During her checkup this past weekend the vet removed a suture to see how the healing was going and decided to leave the sutures in a couple more weeks. We knew she was about to shed, but hoped it wouldn't be a huge issue.

I woke up yesterday to find she had sloughed off her shed down to her first suture and a little ways past on her back. I helped her remove the rest down her back and below her sutures and as close to the sutures as possible. However, a couple sutures were pulled out by the remaining shed. Off to the vet who clipped the shed even closer and used some surgical adhesive on the exposed incision.

By the evening she'd managed to pull out more sutures and we'll be making another trip to the vet this afternoon to have a look. So far about a 3rd of the sutures have come out. The incision area is not moist, but does not look completely healed in my uneducated opinion.

Sorry for the long post and lack of pictures - I'll try to get some tonight. Just wanted to share what we are going through and see if anyone else has had a similar experience.

I did do a 'suture" search and wanted to thank John of JMK Snakes for your post on Casey's recovery, and everyone else who's shared their medical woes.
 
I don't know about snakes, but in mammals sometimes wounds have to be left open. With good care the wound heals from the inside out & the patient is left with a big scar but is otherwise well. Hopefully with Naomi it will work that way. Lennycorn had a snake that got burned (if you use the search function you can find the thread). The snake frankly looked pretty scary in the pictures, but healed. Good luck & I'll keep my fingers crossed.
 
Thanks for the well wishes Betsy, I'm sure she'll be fine. No number of vet visits to re-assure is too many for me.

Yes, I remember that thread. That was quite the amazing recovery! Great care on Lenny's part.

I had thought I'd need to apply an antiseptic ointment like Polysporin, but my vet felt that it was not necessary. I've read a lot about the uses of Neo/Polysporin and am finding it a little overwhelming. However, I thought this article was very informative.
 
That was a good article, thanks for the link. My vet said that he feels like polysporen caused dirt and crud to adhere to the wound and created problems. I had an incisions come open after surgery that had to heal from the inside as Betsy mentioned. It looked groose but healed fine.
 
Good point Wade, hadn't thought about it that way.

The vet decided to leave the remaining sutures in and I'm to trim the shed and sutures as they loosen.

Here are some pics of the sutures post-shed and where the sutures have been pulled out.

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WOW that is quite an incision. It looks good though. I don't see anything that looks angry or inflamed.
 
Marica said:
Thanks for the well wishes Betsy, I'm sure she'll be fine. No number of vet visits to re-assure is too many for me.

Yes, I remember that thread. That was quite the amazing recovery! Great care on Lenny's part.
QUOTE]

That's how I feel I think I live at the vet sometimes with all the rescues I take in lol.

You should see Lenny now, I got to see him in person a few days ago and he looks great for what happened.

Your girl's incision looks good to me, though I only have experience with an Iguana with stiches. I hope she continues to make a full recovery, good luck and keep us updated.
Click to expand...
 
If your girl was human I'd say that wound looks great. Nice & clean, good approximation of skin edges even where the sutures came out, no redness or drainage. She's going to have a heckuva scar but I bet it's going to be fine!
 
Thanks for the comments and well wishes. Chuk, I have never had stitches myself and the thought makes me squeemish too. I've never handled a needle before this either, thankfully Naomi's been such a good girl with her injections. She's got another check up this Friday, but is doing well and the incision and remaining sutures are still looking good.
 
Marcia, how do you go through life without stitches. I've had hundreds. I chopped off my big toe with a shovel when I was 7.
 
Wow, Waed! That must have stung. No wonder you're a little off balance ;)
Only surgery I required had a small enough incision that they used surgical tape on it. And never broken a bone...yet, knock on wood.
 
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