Mast Cell Tumor on knee problem ideas please!

[D Osborn]

Ok, So I am REALLY frustrated.
Belle, a friend's golden has a large mast cell tumor removed from her knee.
So, I kept her, and it started to heal, but the skin started turning black, so the vet took out the stitches, and I took her home to her family.
So, it broke open.
I brought her home, we are bandaging it and wrapping it, but there is very hard to keep a knee bandaged. The wound is 2-3 inches in width, 3-4 in length.
She is on antibiotics, and some sort of gel to help healing.
Any ideas? The vets have been great, the techs are trying really hard. And we all know these sites don't heal fast, but I really want her to go home to her family, and if we could figure out a bandage we might be able to do it-
Thanks!!

[mostlygold]

There may have been too much tension on the sutures and the skin didn't hold. You might want to talk to your vet about splinting the leg to keep the knee from moving. I had to do this for my older Golden 2 years ago when she had a large sarcoma removed from her front "wrist" area. It kept the leg immobile and allowed the area to heal.

[D Osborn]

Hmm-might work if we just splint her knee? I will mention it tomorrow.

[JoAnn Stancer]

When we have a open wound at the clinic I work we found putting natural honey on the wound followed by a bandage would heal the wound much faster then not putting anything on it. Knees are hard to bandage and unless you bandage the whole leg it's hard to keep a bandage from slipping. By chance did they do a histopath on the mast cell and make sure they got clean margins? If the margins weren't clean it might be why the skin died. Good luck.

[D Osborn]

We put a sugar dressing on it for a few days,it looked great, and then the wound crashed and burned. The margins were 2 cm, not ideal, but as good as he could get. I feel sorry for her, but it does not seem to bother her much. I will remember the honey thing. I remembered the sugar from horses
Thanks!!

[JoAnn Stancer]

Your welcome. It is hard to get wide margins on a knee, harder to heal since they use it for walking. Is she licking at the wound? Do you have a cone collar on her. Maybe your only other option is to put a cone collar on her with the honey and no bandage and crate her so it can heal.