Franklin Animal Clinic Blogs
Imagine a nice fall day in November and you have a fire going in your backyard, next thing you know – your dog is on fire!
This nightmare quickly became a reality for Zoey’s family in November 2019. Her family controlled the fire and Zoey was rushed to an emergency hospital for treatment. The hospital administered pain medications and antibiotics for the looming infection. After this visit, on November 11, Zoey arrived at Franklin Animal Clinic for intensive care of her condition and burns.
Some of you may remember, Ace and Willow. For those of you who don’t, Ace and Willow were burned severely in a house fire in 2017. They have both made a miraculous and full recovery. We learned a lot treating Ace and Willow during their 5 month stay! One of the most important things we learned was that the burns are always worse than how it initially appears. This knowledge was critical in treating Zoey.
Pictured: Ace and Willow, fully healed October 2019
Once we managed Zoey’s pain, it was important to shave all of her fur. Shaving the fur allowed us to better monitor the effected skin and prevent fur from trapping infection. Keeping Zoey comfortable during her daily treatments was our top priority. Her daily treatments included sedation so we could clean her wounds, perform hydrotherapy, laser therapy, and give lots of kisses.
Pictured: Zoey, November 12th, Day 2. Initial shave of fur for evaluation of trauma.
Severe heat from a fire can burn as severely as the fire itself. After we shaved the singed fur we monitor the skin to determine what will survive. As the skin begins to die off, it is considered necrotic and must be removed. Dead skin and tissue trap unwanted infection and prevent new skin from healing.
Pictured: Zoey, November 20, Day 9. Large areas of dead skin have been removed.
The process of the skin dying off and new skin growing takes time and also a lot of energy. During this process, it was important that Zoey received a lot of rest and high calorie food to help provide her body the energy to heal.
As we continued to treat Zoey with PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma), hydrotherapy, laser therapy, and oral medications – her doctor, Dr. Elise Mauer, was ready to think outside of the box and pursued Fish Skin treatment for Zoey.
This treatment was phenomenal and we saw a huge improvement in Zoey’s rate of healing, as well as her general comfort.
Pictured: Zoey, December 4, Day 23. Note the tissue is more pink and fresh skin is granulating in.
Zoey was dismissed from our hospital on December 4th to finally go be with her family. Dr. Mauer and our treatment staff did a phenomenal job taking care of her and clearing the infection. It was time for her to go but her treatments weren’t over yet! Zoey had to continue to return to us daily to every couple of days to change her bandaging and clean her wounds.
Pictured: Zoey, December 24, Day 44. Back for a bandage change and Christmas hugs!
With the dedication of her family and our staff, Zoey has made a full recovery!
Pictured: Zoey, fully recovered!
