Wet to Dry Dressings

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Fiona Leathers — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:16:45 GMT

I do have the occasional good idea!!!

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Sal the 1st — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:08:56 GMT

[quote user="Bouncyfi"]

You can buy really good hair bun rings (for ballet) which you can pad with soffban & k-band and it holds the shape beautifully. You can even get the one which have a press stud in the middle so you can unclip them & it looks like a sausage, wrap the bandage round & clip back up.

Works well and can be washed regularly to stop it getting smelly

[/quote]

thats a really good idea!

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Fiona Leathers — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:04:03 GMT

Works well and can be washed regularly to stop it getting smelly

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Sal the 1st — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 10:08:42 GMT

[quote user="Nick Shackleton"]

K-band is dressing used as the conforming layer so not the same as vet wrap or elastoplast for that matter!

I'm sure Smith and Nephew do a doughnut type dressing...... could be wrong thou

[/quote]

co- form is equally usefull for the top layer of the doughnut - have even used them without a top layer and they dont seem to slip as much

you are right they do I used to have a couple in the first aid box- but cant remember the name of it right now. Have always had to make my own for veterinary use

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Nick Shackleton — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:39:15 GMT

K-band is dressing used as the conforming layer so not the same as vet wrap or elastoplast for that matter!

I'm sure Smith and Nephew do a doughnut type dressing...... could be wrong thou

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Phrin Vernon RVN — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:33:48 GMT

Is K-band like vet-wrap? Or elastoplast

Only I made a soffban doughnut at work the other day, to protect a surgical wound over the olecranon process in a large skinny & bony dog - not only did the doughnut squash under the dressing, despite my best efforts, but the whole thing slipped down I got it double checked and everything as I wasn't confident it would stay on.... and it didn't - rubbish!

In the end we gave up on the dressing, and just advised very deep padded bedding.

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Caro Laithwaite VN — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 15:28:37 GMT

I tend to use softban to make them

Hold your fingers of one hand up to the width you want. For wide ones use a mug for this or whatever is correct size.
Wrap several wraps of softban around your fingers/mug ...? to thickness you want
Take this donut off your "base" (above)
Get some k band and now go in and out around the donut to thicken it up and protect it, hold it solid etc with a nice hole in the middle.

If the above doesn't make sense will put up a photo how to if you want.

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Nicola Smith — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 13:26:26 GMT

We have been using them for a cat degloving, used saine soaked swabs, worked really well at lifting all the crud!

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Doolally — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:32:04 GMT

a ring donut not a jam one so you can put it around the wound, or over hocks etc then bandage over and the hole in the donut stops the bandaging material from pressing on the wound and causing pressure sores

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Louise B — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:43:31 GMT

[quote user="Jo Mackenzie"]I'm going to be really dense here (it is Friday evening lol) - what's a donut?[/quote]

A really dense human being Jo - according to Del boy in Only Fools and Horses

It's a homemade dressing that looks like a donut - used to prevent pressure sores forming, etc.

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Jo Mackenzie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:36:15 GMT

I'm going to be really dense here (it is Friday evening lol) - what's a donut?

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Sal the 1st — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:34:03 GMT

yes I use a donut with wet to dry - I thing it helps not to put too much pressure over the wound as well. So the wound is still in contact with a wet to dry dressing to clean and debride it but is not put under so much pressure that it causes problems with healing.

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Fiona Leathers — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:27:15 GMT

From what I remember I think she was advocating the use of a donut ring over the wet-to-dry then bandage as normal - I'll check notes & get back to you!

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Louise B — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:26:53 GMT

[quote user="Bouncyfi"]

Just went to a talk with Georgie Hollis & she said the important thing was not to cover the dressing with cotton wool after as it just soaks the water away from the wet-to-dry dressing and therefore making it useless! Realised I'd been doing it wrong for years!

[/quote]

Beat me to it Fi! Was just about to type the same thing.

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Jo Mackenzie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:26:05 GMT

[quote user="Bouncyfi"]

[/quote]

What should be used as padding instead? Is Soffban ok? Still absorbent but not as absorbent as cotton wool I wouldn't have thought? Or should there be a layer of anything underneath a padding layer?

And thanks for the link Nick, might look at investing in it!

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Nick Shackleton — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:01:57 GMT

Also Tie over dressings are ideal when you have to dress areas where dressing won't stay put.

suture loops of polymide around the wound edges.

then pack the wound with you saline soaked swabs.

Now using umbilical tape tie the swabs in place by feeding the tape through two loops opposite each other. Repeat until the dressing material is held suitably!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wound-Management-Small-Animals-Technicians/dp/0750688319/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269626498&sr=8-6

very good book!

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Fiona Leathers — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:57:10 GMT

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Jo Mackenzie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:31:59 GMT

[quote user="Caro Laithwaite VN MBVNA"]

For cleaning wounds.

Attach a drip line to a bag of saline
Attach a 3 way tap to the line
Attach a 20ml syringe with needle to end of tap.
The flipping the 3 way tap pull fluid down into the syringe, turn tap and squirt syringe/fluid into the wound, repeat as much as needed, saves messing about and is a lot quicker and easier especially for large wounds

[/quote]

Thanks Caro, that's a really good idea!

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Charlotte Fitzgerald — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:53:30 GMT

[quote user="Jo Mackenzie"]

Cool, thanks guys, just having a complete mental blank lol. got a lovely dobermann in with a not so lovely fracture of one femur and partial degloving on he other Not nice

[/quote]

Wet to dry dressings work really well on degloving wounds, helps the granulating process work really well.

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Caro Laithwaite VN — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:49:29 GMT

For cleaning wounds.

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Jo Mackenzie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:24:34 GMT

Cool, thanks guys, just having a complete mental blank lol. got a lovely dobermann in with a not so lovely fracture of one femur and partial degloving on he other Not nice

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Katie Tallett RVN MBVNA — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:16:52 GMT

i have just used one for one of mine and soaked allevyn before applying to the wound (just in warm water) and bandaged as normal. she did, however, have a very dirty hole in her foot and was on ab's so didn't really need to be sterile

Re: Wet to Dry Dressings

Charlotte Fitzgerald — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:58:41 GMT

Hi,

The practice I used to work at was an orthopaedic (multi-discipline) referral centre, when wet to dry dressing were needed, we would use sterile gauze swabs soaked in sterile saline applied to the wound and then your usual dressing materials over the top of this.

Hope that can be of some help.