What Is a Necrotic Wound?

My dog apparently got bit by a snake on her back paw. She has the nasty necrosis. Part of one toe is gone after almost two weeks. She keeps it clean by licking it. Not sure if that is safe. Should I keep her on antibiotics until it stops? How long will this keep going on? I have so many questions. Can anyone help? Might have to make another trip to the vet. Trying to avoid the cost.

@alisha-- I have not been treated with medical maggots, but my horse has. She had a horrible wound that became necrotic and her vet decided to use medical maggots. It actually worked really well, it cleaned up the wound nicely and my horse was saved from a serious infection.

Medical maggots are not the same as regular maggots. The ones used in the medical field are specially bred in laboratories. Regular maggots cannot be used because they are swarming with dangerous bacteria and viruses. Medical maggots are hygienic and safe to use for this purpose.

The only weird part about using maggots for necrotic wounds might be the sound. The vet's nurse said that she could literally hear the maggots munching away on the dead tissue during the process. That is kind of gross.

I can't believe that doctors actually use maggots for necrotic wound cleanup. I can't help but think that this would be terribly unhygienic. Unless I had a very serious necrotic wound and the only way to save my life was by putting maggots on it, I would not agree to this method.

I understand it might be hard for a surgeon to remove all of the dead tissue from a wound. But isn't there any other medical equipment that could be used instead of maggots?

Just curious, has anyone had their necrotic wound cleaned up by maggots?

What did it feel like? Was it painful or just irritating and gross?

My cousin had a necrotic wound from a spider bite. At first she didn't think there was anything to worry about. But the next morning, she saw that the area around the bite had changed color and it was as though there was a hole in her skin. I guess that's what it looked like to her because of the dead tissue.

She then started to worry that she was poisoned from the spider and went to the ER. There, they cleaned up the wound although I'm not exactly sure how, and put her on a heavy dose of antibiotics. In a few days, the wound started looking much better and normal.

I'm glad she went to the hospital early on. I can't imagine how bad it might have gotten if she hadn't.

Has anyone here ever experienced necrosis from frostbite? I have always heard that it is a possibility, but thankfully, the winters where I live are mild, so I've never really been in danger of it.

When we went to visit my grandmother in New York and I was a small child, she kept telling me to wear gloves when I went outside, because I could get frostbite and my fingers would fall off. This terrified me, so I always put on two pairs of gloves before going out.

I can't imagine suddenly having a dead finger on your hand. It would be even more terrifying to see it actually fall off!

Necrotic spider bites look so gross. My sister got bitten by a brown recluse, and she didn't know it until her flesh had started to rot.

She didn't feel the bite, which makes me think it got her in her sleep. Before long, the little red area started to sink in, and it kept growing. It became gooey, and she could see that it wasn't going to heal.

She had to go to the doctor and have it drained. The doctor packed the wound with gauze, because the gap left after the pus had been removed was deep.

The smell was terrible, too. I had to leave the room while the doctor did all this.

@JackWhack – It's good that your dog was okay. Some necrotic wounds are lethal in pets, like the ones caused by venomous snake bites in specific areas.

My dog had gotten bitten by a snake in the face, and he healed up just fine. The vet said that since most dogs get bitten around the mouth, they usually don't die from snake bites.

However, she said that if certain kinds of snakes bite them on the leg and hit a vein, the leg will turn black within an hour. When this happens, there is nothing they can do to save it. The wound is necrotic, and the poison is in the bloodstream.

She did say that in her fifteen years of doctoring, she has only seen two dogs die from snake bites. I'm glad it is so rare, because my dogs live out in the country, and they encounter snakes often.

My dog got a necrotic wound after a fight with another dog. The other animal had ripped about a one-inch tear into his leg, and I thought that it would heal fine, because dogs are usually very resilient when it comes to wound healing.

However, within a few days, he had started to swell. It began with the area right around the wound and then it spread to his abdomen.

By the end of the week, his wound had started oozing this pinkish brown pus. Seriously, it looked like his flesh was melting right off his body. That's when I freaked out and rushed him to the vet.

She had to put him under and operate to remove the necrotic tissue. He stayed on antibiotics for a couple of weeks, and I had to flush out the area with bleach water often.