How can I make my dogs scratch heal faster

How Can I Make My Scratches Heal Fast?

Scratches are superficial wounds on the surface of the skin. While scratches are generally mild wounds that don't cause long-term damage to the skin, allowing your scratches to become infected prolongs the healing process and increases your risk for scarring. Keep scratches clean, dry and bacteria-free to make sure they are only fleeting marks on your skin.

Clean the scratch with water and soap 3. Since scratches open your skin to infection, it's imperative that you keep them clean, even if they don't seem deep or serious.

How to Heal Scars & Wounds

Apply a thin layer of antibiotic ointment over the surface of the scratch. This creates a temporary barrier between the scratch and dirt and germs, while killing any bacteria that could cause infection and slow the healing process.

Cover your scratches with a bandage only if they're on an area of the body that is susceptible to dirt or friction. Scratches heal well when exposed to open air, unless your clothing constantly rubs at the area and peels away the new skin healing over the scratch.

How to Heal Blisters Fast From a Baseball Bat

Keep your hands away from the scratch as it heals. As the scratch heals over, a scab often forms to protect the open skin below. Peeling or picking at the scabs might be tempting, but it slows the healing process and leads to scarring when you don't allow the skin cells to generate and heal. Picking at scabs also transfers bacteria from your hands to the open wound, increasing your risk of infection.

Watch the scratch for signs of infection. The time it takes for your scratch to heal depends on the depth and severity of damage, but if your scratch begins oozing a discharge becomes red and inflamed, feels warm to the touch or is painful, contact your doctor. The scratch is likely infected and needs antibiotics to clear the infection before it becomes worse 1.

Why Does My Dog Lick My Wounds?

Its happened to most dog parentsyou get a minor skin wound, and the next thing you know, your dog is licking the cut. Have you ever wondered why your dog licks your wounds? Is this an instinctive behavior to clean the wound or somehow soothe you after being hurt?

Why Do Dogs Lick Your Wounds?

Wanting to care for a wound is instinctive to most animalsand to most people, as well. It doesnt take much training to teach a child that an open sore needs to be attended to, and in fact, many children will instinctively stick an injured hand or arm in their mouth immediately after the injury occurs.

This is true for many mammalsdogs, cats, primates, and even rodents attend to their wounds by diligently licking them.

So yes, most dogs do instinctively try to clean a fresh wound by licking it. Some lick more intensely than others, which can cause significant damage to the wound. Other dogs just clean the wound and move along. So although it is instinctive to most dogs to take care of a fresh cut, the degree to which they approach the task varies widely.

Does Dog Saliva Heal Wounds?

The belief that allowing dogs to lick wounds will help them heal is deeply rooted in human culture. It started in ancient Egypt, continued through Grecian times, and carried through to common folk culture. But is there science to support this? Yes and no!

Dog saliva and human saliva contain some ingredients that can help heal wounds. Wounds in the mouth tend to heal faster than those elsewhere in the body.

This was studied by Menno Oudhoff of the University of Amsterdam, who found that saliva contains proteins called histatins, which have the ability to ward off infection. Histatins can also prompt cells from the surface of the skin to help close over the wound quicklyall good things to promote healing.

Another pharmacologist from the London School of Medicine and Dentistry found that the nitrite in saliva, when it comes in contact with skin, breaks down to nitric oxide, which can help protect cuts from infections. And researchers at the University of Florida discovered a protein called nerve growth factor in saliva, which also speeds healing of wounds.

Perhaps even more importantly, gentle licking of wounds can help remove dirt and debris that may slow healing and cause infection. The mechanical action of the tongue loosens the foreign matter, which then sticks to the saliva and is removed from the wound.

So there are plusses to licking wounds. But there are also some minuses, including infection.

Does Dog Saliva Infect Wounds?

Unfortunately, dog saliva can infect wounds. There are a number of bacteria present in animals mouths that can cause infections in people, some of which can be severe.

One example is a bacteria called Pasteurella that grows well in areas without air, such as deep wounds. When this bacteria is introduced into a cut, the infection can be severe enough to require amputations, and in some cases, it has been life-threatening.

Quite a few cases of severe complications have been reported, including a woman with a small burn that was licked by her dog. She ultimately lost all of her fingers and toes as well as a leg secondary to the infection that was induced.

Another man developed acute kidney infection from an infection introduced into a hand wound by his dog. There is even a case of a man who developed meningitis after his dog licked his ear when he was recovering from a perforated eardrum.

So while there are many good compounds that can be found in saliva that help heal wounds, there are significant potential complications to allowing your dog to clean your wounds.

How to Keep Your Dog From Licking Your Wounds

Typically, the best way to prevent your dog from licking your wounds is to simply care for them yourself. If you receive a minor wound, cleaning it out immediately and covering it will usually prevent your dog from being able to access it.

If it is a more significant wound, medical attention should be sought. However, most dogs are less likely to attempt to lick a wound once it has been cleaned up, disinfected, and covered; the fresh wound smell and the blood seem to be the major attractants to many dogs.

As sweet as it may seem that your four-legged family members want to help take care of you when you are hurt, its possible that their help can cause much more damage than good, so you shouldnt allow them to lick your wounds.

Dogs even have the potential to cause very serious damage to their own woundshence the cone of shame (e-collar) sent home with most patients after surgery. Every veterinarian has seen wounds severely traumatized and infected from a dog licking their own wounds.

So the next time you get a minor wound, the best advice is to allow a qualified human to take care of it, and let your dog be moral support!

Featured Image: iStock.com/retinal_experiences

How To Heal A Dog Wound Fast

So youre here to learn how to quickly heal your dogs wound. Well let me start this article by saying that this is not a guide on how to treat serious flesh wounds that your dog might sustain for any variety of reasons. This is a guide for scrapes, abrasions, and minor cuts that your dog might suffer from. If the wound looks serious, you should always get the advice of a trained veterinary professional. That being said, if the wound isnt serious, take a look at the article below to find out how you can help your dog heal their wound in no time.

Step One: Clean The Wound

Preventing Infection Will Help Your Dogs Wound Heal quickly

In order to allow your dogs wound to heal fast, it is going to have to heal healthily. The healing process is just all around more efficient when the process is allowed to be conducted free from interference. That means that if your dogs wound is trying to heal, but it becomes infected by a disease or bacteria, it is going to slow the healing process down significantly.

As such, any time you notice that your dog has a wound, you will want to clean it with an antiseptic or antibacterial spray that is specifically designed to be safe to use on pets. That or rely on something like apple cider vinegar that can be used to naturally and safely clean your dogs wound.

If you do this the wound will be able to begin closing free debris or bacteria. If you dont remove the debris or bacteria then the dogs skin can heal over top of it, trapping the foreign substance under the skin and throwing the entire healing process out of whack which will substantially slow your progress.

Step Two: Bandage the Wound

A Band Aid Helps The Dogs Wound Heal Faster

Once you have the wound clean and free from any sort of contaminant you will want to go about bandaging the wound. Its even a good idea to get some sort of ointment or antibacterial creme (that is meant to be used on pets) to help nourish the skin with what it needs to speed up the healing process.

The bandage speeds up the healing process for a couple of reasons. First of all, it keeps any future debris or bacteria from irritating the wound that you just so purposely cleaned. This means that step one wasnt all for no reason. Additionally the bandage will keep the dog from being able to introduce new debris otr bacteria into the wound.

Its inevitable that your dog is going to bite or scratch at their wound. Its just something that dogs do. But since their mouths arent clean in any sense of the word, when they bite they run they risk exposing the wound to untold numbers of bacteria and germs that can lead to infection and significantly delay the healing process.

The same is true for scratching or itching at the wound. The bandage keeps any debris or germs that your dog has picked up on their feet from getting under your dogs skin and causing significant problems for the healing process.

Step Three: Check the Wound and Apply Clean Bandages

Clean Bandages Keep The Wound Clean And Healing quickly

As the days go by, you will want to check on the wound and make sure that it is healing properly. It is also a good idea to apply new antibacterial cream or healing agents as well as clean bandages to the wound frequently. This will help keep the wound free from infection, but it will also make sure the skin is being provided with the tools it needs during the healing process. By supplying your dog with what it needs to build new skin tissue these ointments can significantly speed up the healing process.

The worst thing you can do is take all the time to clean your dogs wound and apply bandages to then just let the bandage sit there while the wound is healing. Your dog is for sure going to try to mess and chew on the bandage so you will want to put fresh bandages over the wound as the old ones will get exposed to all the germs and bacteria that are in your dog's mouth.

If your dog wont stop biting and messing with the bandage, its not a bad idea to put a cone on them. A cone is a good way to prevent them from messing with the wound while it heals in a way that is painless for them. Even if it is a little uncomfortable.

There you go, thats all the steps you need to take in order to ensure that your dogs wound heals as fast as possible. Remember the most important thing when it comes to making sure the wound heals quickly is to prevent any sort of infection from taking hold in the wound. So be sure to thoroughly clean it and bandage it to keep it from debris and pathogens. If you do this the wound will be able to heal in a protected environment that isnt slowed, downed or delayed. The body can just focus on healing the wound. Instead of trying to heal the wound and fight infection at the same time. Since the dog can focus all its energy on just healing the wound, the process takes place much more quickly.