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Bandaging rabbit elbow area

22 10:03:51

Question
One of my housebuns is headed for surgical excision of a ~1cm lesion in the skin outside his R forearm, just below the 'elbow'.  If vet has trouble resecting the skin over the resultant wound I may have to apply some protective cover.  Other than vetwrap I'm stumped to think how best to rig some cover that will survive inquisitive bunny teeth (and inappropriate materials being ingested, yikes).  Such a small and active area, front paw.  Any experiential ideas or creative suggestions immensely appreciated.

The lesion looks pap-like but biopsy will reveal if it is that, fibroma, or something more sinister.  Pre-op xrays confirm a sound rabbit (6 y/o); vet uses sevo; and the lateral view happened to expose the booboo arm, so we are happy to see no visible intrusion into or weakness of the radius/ulna, FWIW.

Answer
Dear Sharon,

Yikes, is right.  The only thing I can think of that would work might be a flat dressing attached to the skin with adhesive, but the bunny might well worry at that.  :(  The good news is that most rabbits have such a tremendous amount of loose skin on the flanks and over the front of the chest that I would be really surprised if the vet can't close the wound, using subcuticular sutures, and then a line of glue to make it smooth and uninviting to bunny teeth.

One of our vets had a method in which she attached sutures in a ring *directly into the skin* as holding loops, and then would tie a flat dressing onto the wound every day after debriding the wound.  Since you don't have to remove the bandage daily, maybe actually suturing something like Tegaderm onto the area with tack sutures would work.

But I'm thinking unless the mass is absolutely huge (at 1cm, I don't think it qualifies), the vet won't have trouble closing the wound.  I hope all goes well and that the thing is benign!

Dana