Greyhound Cuts ⁄ Canine Surgical Skin Repair

By David G. Wolf, NGAP Director
Posted: June 22, 2016

Greyhounds have very thin skin and it doesn't take much for a small nick to turn into a large tear. We will describe the techniques that we use to repair tears. When doing a repair, cleaning the area appropriately and shaving an inch or two beyond the cutting area as close as possible are paramount.

If the tear is small and in an easily accessible area, the area can be sprayed with ethyl chloride which numbs the surface, before the skin is shaved, cleaned, and squeezed together for stapling. This will generally work well for tears up to 1" in length as long as it is a straight cut.

There are some places where the only way you can do a repair is by putting the greyhound under an anesthesia protocol. As long as we only need to suture the surface skin, we will use a combination of Dexdomitor and Torbugesic which will induce sleep for up to an hour without intubation or gas. Straight cuts longer than one inch in length and 'Y' or 'T' cuts usually need to be sutured rather than stapled. 'Y' and 'T' cut repairs are often more involved. The skin in the 'Y' section may have to be cut away because it is difficult to shave those areas. Sometimes, sutures have to be done in the format of the cut.