94 WOUND TREATMENT 



soon as the wound and environs can be dried of blood 

 and moisture. Collodium serves the double purpose of 

 protecting against soiling and of supporting the sutures. 

 On the limbs where bandaging is feasible, smothering 

 such a wound with iodoform or bismuth subiodid, pure or 

 mixed with boric acid, is a still better plan than the 

 application of a wound varnish. The powder should be 

 held against the wound with cotton. As bandages are 

 apt to bind or become disarranged, the dressing can 

 be renewed every second day without, however, disturb- 

 ing the sutures or the powder encrusted around them. 

 The redressing amounts to a renewal of the powder 

 that falls off when the cotton is removed. The delicate 

 fibers that will eventually mature into a firm union of 

 the two edges are not to be disturbed by any handling, 

 for if these are once broken there will be no primary 

 union, even if there is no infection. 



During these days special efforts are made to provide 

 against mechanical injury due to the patient's lying upon 

 the wound or rubbing it against the stall, or from move- 

 ments of the limbs and body. This can usually be done 

 in large animals by simply preventing decumbency for 

 eight days. It is impossible to protect a wound against 

 the strong movements of a horse's getting up and lying 

 down, no matter where the wound is located about the 

 limbs and trunk. 



The standing position for horses, and strong thick 

 wraps for small animals, is the best we can do to provide 

 against mechanical injury. 



Between the seventh and the tenth days the sutures 

 may be removed. Sutures that are doing no good because 

 of having cut through one edge should be removed at 

 once, but otherwise hasty removal is inadivsable. Ten 

 days is often soon enough to remove sutures of the skin 

 over the large muscles (buttocks and shoulders). At 



