Dr Liesel van der Merwe is a small animal medicine specialist. Send her your questions: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Dr Liesel van der Merwe

Should we allow a dog to lick its wounds? The simple answer here is: not when it has been sutured.

My mother grew up on a farm. When I was a child a small scrape or cut was really not something to cry about. We had some sniffling and then were cleaned up with mercurochrome and a plaster. It had to be quite a big wound to get my parents stressed.

I have brought this attitude to my profession. Often the smaller injuries are better left to heal on their own. Let our pets sort themselves out. Dogs aren’t the only animals that lick their wounds. It’s also a common behaviour in horses, cats, rodents and primates. For many animals, wound licking is a basic instinct to improve their chances of survival after being injured.

However, with wound healing there are definite provisos. One of the most important aspects of a dog or cat bite wound in another dog or cat is debridement. This is the removal of dead and damaged tissue from the wound. With bite wounds, tissue often continues to become necrotic for several days due to crush injury damage to the blood supply.

On Day 1 the wound might look big, but nice and clean with fresh edges. On Day 3 there will be a lot of dead (necrotic) tissue in the wound if left unmanaged. If left in the wound, necrotic skin or muscle tissue will fester and provide a good environment for bacteria to grow and infect the wound.

So how do we debride dead tissue? For large wounds we will do so surgically, cutting away the affected tissue and rebandaging the area to protect it, keep it moist and clean and keep applied wound ointments in place until the wound is either healthy and ready to suture closed, or until it heals over without surgery.

In my opinion dogs or cats can be allowed to lick their smaller wounds, especially those on the lower limbs where they can easily reach. Note that this only applies to smaller cuts which are not very deep or gaping open.

Lacerations on the paws and pads are also very difficult to manage as the pressure of walking, even with special bandages, causes them to split open (dehisce). (Please note: I am not advocating leaving larger wounds unsutured; just the smaller ones. Please check with your vet.)

If the pet cannot reach the area easily then debridement by the vet or yourself is essential. Once again, bigger wounds to the vet but smaller scabby shallow cuts can be managed at home. Studies have shown that enzymes and chemicals in a dog’s saliva can be effective at killing some types of bacteria, but not all. The major benefit from licking is keeping wounds clean. Licking an injured area can clear away any debris, such as dirt, hair and bits of dead skin.

In general, I find that dogs will lick a wound a lot in the first few days and then less as the wound starts healing over with fresh pink tissue. Treatment with anti-inflammatories and other pain medications can support them in this period. Once the dead tissue is licked away then healthy pink granulation tissue forms and the wound will shrink and heal over. One has to be careful of excessive licking which will cause delayed wound healing and even become an OCD type behaviour.

As soon as it is decided to suture a wound closed, we cannot allow the patient to lick, as they will pull the sutures out and open the wound. Even if the surgical incision was not in a vital area, trying to clean up a reopened wound and stitch it back together can be difficult.

We would need to place a bandage or a buster collar. Bandages bring their own special problems when it comes to our pets. The bandage can’t get wet or it may shrink and constrict the limb. The bandages slip because our pets don’t restrict movement and many patients actively try to remove their bandages. 

With cats and cat bites the story is very different. The puncture wounds from the teeth introduce bacteria deep under the skin and abscesses are prone to develop. Licking doesn’t really help here until the abscess bursts open. I recommend all cat abscesses go to the vet as soon as possible, as sometimes a lot of damage is done to the overlying skin by the toxins in the purulent material which may leave a large skin defect.

A study in rats showed that allowing them to lick small wounds does promote wound healing. The salivary gland is considered to be a reservoir of many growth factors in rats which probably play an important role in the wound healing of skin.

So, for those small wounds, if you aren’t too squeamish and can handle your pet, discuss allowing natural healing with your vet rather than insisting on sutures and the collar or bandage.