Super Glue

[Gazza]

Looking through the posts on Jimbo123p's post reminded me to ask. I have heard of super glue being used in vet and medical operations. Is this just super glue of the shop shelves or is it a "special" medical sort. Not that I would for one second consider using it myself but what are the applications. In the case of Jimbo's dog with a cut lip could it have been super glued instead of the dog being put under and stitched. If so would costs have been less and less risk to the dog. Amazing stuff super glue. Seen it used to bring up figerprints on the inside of a vehicle. Did the job but wrecked the interior of the car.

 

[Apache]

They do make special skin glues for human and veterinary use. The cost price is quite a lot more then the Loctite you buy in Tesco, but I honestly couldn't say how different the products are.

Superglue would be completely contraindicated in a traumatic wound that hadn't been cleaned properly. Often it's the cleaning and debridement that requires the sedation or anaesthetic rather then the sutures. If you trap even a few bacteria in you risk making things very much worse. Glue should only be used in a clean controlled environment IMO.

I only every use glue in small wounds with no tension, eg a small 1cm cut after a cat spay. Great for cut pads (once you've stopped the bleeding).

Skin staples are fine but the wounds needs proper cleaning. That doesn't mean swilling it off in a stream or wiping with an antiseptic wipe. The hair needs to be clipped and copious lavage with water under moderate pressure is required (bacteria have a hydrostatic charge so don't just rinse off the surface). At least if things start going wrong with staples you can just remove them.

All but the most minor wounds need proper veterinary attention.

 

[centralbeltstalker]

hi Apache,

You know you stuff, can you advise of a antiseptic cream (for my dogs) i can carry with me for those small accidents i.e cut paw or small barbed wire cut.

thanks for the info in advance

frank

 

[csl]

It seems to be standard practice now to glue even large surgical wounds in people. When I was gralloched last year I was quite surprised to find the surgeon closed me up using a row of large permanent sutures in the abdominal muscles beneath and then just glued the skin together above. That was a 7 or 8 inch incision and it healed surprisingly quickly.

It is a medical grade of standard cynano acrylate. Probably chemically identical but certified sterile etc.

I wouldn't advise gluing up your own dog to save money though.

 

[6pointer]

Most of the dog injuries we would fix our selves never really had time to go to a vet had to be done on the spot. Wide spectrum Antibiotics from the farmers into the leg muscle would clear any infection from wound from bites or or worse. Dog will lie while you flush wound and put in a stitch flush with diluted dettol.

 

[jimbo123p]

Only place I would use superglue is the nailbed if the nail bleeds after clipping. My current pack all have clear nails. The cocker I lost on Hogmany to pancriatitis had black nails. a bugger to clip. Yes the one inch wound cost me £223 hopefully direct line will cough up all but eighty pounds of that. Jim

 

[scrun63]

Only place I would use superglue is the nailbed if the nail bleeds after clipping. My current pack all have clear nails. The cocker I lost on Hogmany to pancriatitis had black nails. a bugger to clip. Yes the one inch wound cost me £223 hopefully direct line will cough up all but eighty pounds of that. Jim

keep on top of Direct Line. I had lots of problems dealing with them. They didnt keep to their word and delayed things for as long as possible and were generally a pain in the the proverial @rse.
All the best mate

 

[widu13]

Looking through the posts on Jimbo123p's post reminded me to ask. I have heard of super glue being used in vet and medical operations. Is this just super glue of the shop shelves or is it a "special" medical sort. Not that I would for one second consider using it myself but what are the applications. In the case of Jimbo's dog with a cut lip could it have been super glued instead of the dog being put under and stitched. If so would costs have been less and less risk to the dog. Amazing stuff super glue. Seen it used to bring up figerprints on the inside of a vehicle. Did the job but wrecked the interior of the car.

Superglue was invented in the Vietnam era as an emergency wound closure. Since then it has been further developed and diversified into everyday use. Medical superglue is dermatologically tested, the other variants are not. SG vapour is also used to fluoresce fingerprints in enclosed spaces.

 

[Apache]

hi Apache,

You know you stuff, can you advise of a antiseptic cream (for my dogs) i can carry with me for those small accidents i.e cut paw or small barbed wire cut.

thanks for the info in advance

frank

To be honest I am no great fan of any antiseptic creams. They are unable to do what they claim on the whole and you will find them next to useless. We used to be able to get an iodine ointment that I liked but is no longer available. Also see my reply to the quote below.....

Most of the dog injuries we would fix our selves never really had time to go to a vet had to be done on the spot. Wide spectrum Antibiotics from the farmers into the leg muscle would clear any infection from wound from bites or or worse. Dog will lie while you flush wound and put in a stitch flush with diluted dettol.

Ok where do I start on this one? It is vital for any wound that it is cleaned properly. On the whole any antiseptics or disinfectants should be reserved for use on intact skin, Dettol is positively contraindicated. I can live with dilute iodine (should look like larger) or chlorhexidine solution to do the majority of the cleaning to keep costs down and where large volumes of sterile solutions are not available. The final rinse should always be with 0.9% saline (you can make it yourself with 1 pint of boiled water with 1 teaspoon of table salt). The rinse is vital to remove any detergent or disinfectant from the wound.

Using strong old fashioned products like Dettol and TCP cause major damage to the delicate internal tissues and delay healing.

Antibiotics NEVER EVER replace proper cleaning of a wound. If they are indicated (after prescription with a vet) then they must be given at an appropriate dose for a suitable length of time. I am happy letting people with working dogs having a full course on hand for these minor ailments. There is nothing licensed for small animals that a farmer would have that would give more than 2 days cover and that is just not enough.

Not having time to get to a vet is no excuse. Minor wounds (1cm or less) are often best left open to drain if caused by dirty means, with a proper antibiotic cover. Never stitch or staple bite wounds - they can go very nasty.

Superglue was invented in the Vietnam era as an emergency wound closure. Since then it has been further developed and diversified into everyday use. Medical superglue is dermatologically tested, the other variants are not. SG vapour is also used to fluoresce fingerprints in enclosed spaces.

Superglue is much older than that and was invented during the second world war. It seems that the glues used for medical applications are a slightly different chemical composition.

Cyanoacrylate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[bobthedug]

keep on top of Direct Line. I had lots of problems dealing with them. They didnt keep to their word and delayed things for as long as possible and were generally a pain in the the proverial @rse.
All the best mate

Slightly off thread but seeing as Direct Line get a mention I thought I would chip in.
My wifes wee dog was bitten in the eye with one of my dogs. ( I would love to be able to say that my wife acepted that these things happen with dogs however....)
Anyway, backwards and forwards to the vet several times with the wee dog which lost the sight in the eye and had recurring infections. Eventually was advised by the vet that the eye should be removed. Promptly carried out the proceedure and claimed through the insurance which was held for several years and no claims being made. (all other visits to vet weren't claimed as they were less than the excess)
Claim was knocked back as eye removal was carried out more than 12 months after initial diagnosis! And we are talking only a couple of weeks and we were following vets advice re treatment.
Vet was apologetic and trimmed back the bill slightly and as a result we have cancelled all the pet insurance we had. We will now take our chances as all the dogs and cats we have have fortunately been in excellent health.(touch wood)

 

[Apache]

Claim was knocked back as eye removal was carried out more than 12 months after initial diagnosis! And we are talking only a couple of weeks and we were following vets advice re treatment.

Your policy must not have covered the dog 'for life'? It's such a shame when we have problems with pet insurance but they are next to useless if they exclude a condition after a year. The other problem we get are people changing companies because it's getting more expensive as the dog ages (obviously) and then anything the dog has been seen before is excluded.

 

[bobthedug]

Your policy must not have covered the dog 'for life'? It's such a shame when we have problems with pet insurance but they are next to useless if they exclude a condition after a year. The other problem we get are people changing companies because it's getting more expensive as the dog ages (obviously) and then anything the dog has been seen before is excluded.

Vet was very apologetic pointed out the exact same issues as you have encountered. It cannot be easy having to keep up to speed with the "small print" of the numerous companies in existence.
From having witnessed a rather vocal and irate dog owner venting his fury at the poor receptionist, such incidents must be commonplace re "get out clauses"
As a result of my experience, we pulled the plug on all our pets insurance which we have had in place for several years.
When you calculate the cost of that claim we made which was refused, it amounts to less than 3 years premiums we paid into them.
I suppose the whole insurance game is based on risk taking and assessing and we are calculating that our dogs and cats are in good health and have been lucky but from now on cost of any treatment they may need will have to be considered.

 

[widu13]

Superglue is much older than that and was invented during the second world war. It seems that the glues used for medical applications are a slightly different chemical composition.

Cyanoacrylate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for straightening that out. I have either mis-recalled what I was told on my Medics course or they told me wrong to start with

Perhaps it was the medical application during the 60s? Oh well!

 

[Apache]

The problem is the majority of insurance claims go straight through with no queries and pay. No-one ever posts about them. 9/10 go through with no problem of those 10% most can be resolved by a quick conversation between the vets and the insurance company. We maybe get a couple of refusals a year, it really isn't that common. In those cases it's always down to the owner not having read and understood the small print.

 

[bogtrotter]

How many of these insurance company's will insure working dogs and at what cost,with three or four working dogs

there are not many years that one of them does not have a visit to the vet with a work related injury, illness is also possible of course and it has happened, but work related injury's are far more common.

Will any of the company's cover these sort of injury's? none of the normal pet insurances I would think maybe a specialist, National Farmers Union perhaps, won't be easy to find and very expensive if you can I would imagine.

For those of us with working dogs as opposed to pets, I think insurance is a non starter.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Apache]

The claim forms do not ask if the dog is a working dog. I have done many claims for working dogs and never had one refused for that reason. As always check the small print.

 

[Gazza]

How many of these insurance company's will insure working dogs and at what cost,with three or four working dogs

there are not many years that one of them does not have a visit to the vet with a work related injury, illness is also possible of course and it has happened, but work related injury's are far more common.

Will any of the company's cover these sort of injury's? none of the normal pet insurances I would think maybe a specialist, National Farmers Union perhaps, won't be easy to find and very expensive if you can I would imagine.

For those of us with working dogs as opposed to pets, I think insurance is a non starter.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Very few insurance companys will insure a dog if you inform them that it is a working dog. How they would find out if you missed out telling them it was a working dog is another thing.

 

[dean]

i know of a few people that have used super glue on there dogs and they are ok .

 

[MONGOOSE]

My woman brings me home litre bags of saline,iodene and sterile glue from the hospital that gets unused from surgery a sterile mat etc,I keep a big first aid box in my vehicle with everything you can think of just incase my dogs get hurt whilst beating or picking up and anybody else's dog for that matter, the stapler got used twice after some dogs jumped over a barbwire fence and had huge wounds across there stomachs we flushed them out my woman stapled them up the dogs still were taken to the vets they took one look at the wounds said we could not have done better ourselves gave antibiotics and they were off obviously if you don't no what your doing then get straight to the vet ASAP but the dogs were loosing quite alot of blood so thought it was worth the risk, we have glued up many cut pads on paws after flushing etc with no I'll effects.....

 

[limulus]

To be honest I am no great fan of any antiseptic creams. They are unable to do what they claim on the whole and you will find them next to useless. We used to be able to get an iodine ointment that I liked but is no longer available. Also see my reply to the quote below.....



Ok where do I start on this one? It is vital for any wound that it is cleaned properly. On the whole any antiseptics or disinfectants should be reserved for use on intact skin, Dettol is positively contraindicated. I can live with dilute iodine (should look like larger) or chlorhexidine solution to do the majority of the cleaning to keep costs down and where large volumes of sterile solutions are not available. The final rinse should always be with 0.9% saline (you can make it yourself with 1 pint of boiled water with 1 teaspoon of table salt). The rinse is vital to remove any detergent or disinfectant from the wound.

Using strong old fashioned products like Dettol and TCP cause major damage to the delicate internal tissues and delay healing.

Antibiotics NEVER EVER replace proper cleaning of a wound. If they are indicated (after prescription with a vet) then they must be given at an appropriate dose for a suitable length of time. I am happy letting people with working dogs having a full course on hand for these minor ailments. There is nothing licensed for small animals that a farmer would have that would give more than 2 days cover and that is just not enough.

Not having time to get to a vet is no excuse. Minor wounds (1cm or less) are often best left open to drain if caused by dirty means, with a proper antibiotic cover. Never stitch or staple bite wounds - they can go very nasty.



Superglue is much older than that and was invented during the second world war. It seems that the glues used for medical applications are a slightly different chemical composition.

Cyanoacrylate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I realise that you can make a saline solution this way but would you still be worried about any pyrogenic effect due to residual bacterial cellular material after lysing the cells?
Obviously its not being used intravenously but even so would there be an effect on the healing of the wound?