Skin grafts in small animal practice

Abstract

Extract

Aveterinary surgeon in small-animal practice is frequently presented with a patient where there has been considerable skin loss, or an attempt to repair some defect will produce such a situation. Examples are seen in the case of a cat with a huge skin slough over an abscess, a dog with a tumour near the eye, or a dog with skin loss on the dorsum of the metacarpus. In the first case (the skin slough), healing may proceed to a certain stage over a period of several weeks and then cease. In the second case (the tumour near the eye), if the tumour is excised and an effort made to close it simply, an ectropion probably will be produced. In the third case (the skin loss on the paw), re-epithelialization may stop before the wound is completely covered.