How To Clean Dried Blood Off Stitches

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shortandfurry PetForums Senior

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I'm starting to doubt my care of Jasmine this week ... it's now been 2 weeks (2 1/2?) since her foreleg amputation. We were advised by the vet to keep the wound covered to stop her scratching it, and that it would leak a bit initially. We have done, and boy it did!
Now we're at the stage of hoping it's nearly healed and waiting for the stitches to dissolve (or get the vet to remove them).
Her wound is intact, she's never burst a stitch, and it seems to have pretty much stopped leaking now. It does however have quite a bit of dried blood and that clear fluid you get from wounds (lymph I believe?) all sort of crusted to it and a small amount around it as well. No pus thankfully.

We've tried to clean some of it off with warm salty water and cotton wool but it's stubborn stuff and she gets grouchy if we pin her down for long, so we've not really managed to make any headway with it.
I don't want to rub or scrub at it for fear of disturbing the wound. It might look icky but it's sealed and healing (as far as I can tell)

... should I keep trying to soak it off? Should I use soap instead of salt water? Or wait til the stitches are gone and let her clean it herself?
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When did she last see the vet for a wound check? If it is fairly recently and they had no concerns then I would leave it and let nature takes it cause. x
shortandfurry PetForums Senior

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It was about a week ago I think? We were concerned about a slight fluid pocket but it disappeared overnight I think it was even ickier at that point but the vet said it was fine.
We'll take her in next week to have it checked over again and hopefully get the stitches out.

Poor girl's desperate to get back to her normal roaming. I had her out in the garden yesterday but she tried to go over the back wall into the field erm nope, sorry, you're not going over there just yet!!
I've emailed Mynwood about a jacket, her little P@H harness is pretty rubbish.

idris and Soozi like this.
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Hi Hun! I would still bathe the wound with salt water as it is good for healing wounds and just leave well alone as long as you don't see any signs of infection, don't try and clean any crusty bits off they are there for a reason and to protect it's all part of the healing process. If the stitches are due out soon you will find that once they have been removed healing seems to speed up.Jasmine is doing really well she's a brave girl can't wait to see her in her Mynwood! Love and hugs! XXX
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body is healing well itself, I'll just leave it tbh. You can inadvertently start a wound bleeding again if you pick scabs off too early