Lab Question

Last week while walking to get the boat after a hunt my pup took a chunk out of the underside of his bottom lip from what I can only assume to be a broken beer bottle (dry lake bed is littered with trash) and so after stopping the bleeding and getting up all my decoys, layouts and gear we then proceeded to the vet to get it handled. Vet said the only option would be to put him under and stitch it considering the spot it was in, so the pup was left and was administered aid and picked up later that evening with 10 stitches. Earlier this week he seemed to have pulled a stitch or two I guess from eating which he has been on soaked and softened food since last Friday but he does tend to take it down pretty quick so that could be the cause. But so a stitch or two was pulled so he was taken back to the vet to be looked at and they now say that as long as its not bleeding or showing signs of bothering him it will be fine and should just heal in place like it is. A. slightly irritated that I spent money on something last week that HAD to be done that this week now will heal on its own and B. because I don't want to have to go through this process all over again if it were to ever get re-injured from not healing properly. My question is for the other gun dog owners here with this being my first lab if I was to just let it heal naturally where it is am I possibly looking at any other issues by doing this or should everything be fine? Slightly paranoid as I said before this is my first gun dog and I know if it was me I would want the little flap fixed but convincing a dog that the stitches are there to help and that he cant be his normal playful self until it heals is a chore in its own.

With my. Labs when there hurt there going to the vet. I am not rich but when it comes to them I will pay what ever it takes to keep them safe and healthy. I know it's aggravating when they pull stitches and bandages. But that's my 2 cents.

By the way beautiful lab

It doesn't look infected to me and it looks like it's healing. But I'm no doctor. I would still have the vet look at it.

Wounds heal faster and better if the two sides of the wound are closer together (touching each other). This allows primary healing to occur.

If a wound is not appositional (touching), the wound heals by second intention- which means that it heals by forming granulation tissue and closes back up.

I would have closed that wound with sutures had it been presented to me, like the first vet did. However if the patient licked the sutures out or scratched them out I would probably leave it alone and let it heal on it's own like they did.

I don't think that cut is going to be a problem in the long term. Once it heals there will be a small flap there but I don't think it will cause any issues and shouldn't be a source of pain or irritation.

Hope this helps-
beautiful pup by the way.

Thanks for all the responses guys I really appreciate all the input. My guy ended up pulling the last few stitches over the weekend and went back to the vet on Monday to get this all settled. Vet called after I dropped him off and said that the flap should heal fine, and that we will give it 3 weeks and see where we are at and if the flap is still there and something that cosmetically I dont want on the dog then we can either have it snipped off or sutured back. It does seem to be healing well on its own now though, just not sure about the flap!

Doubt I would've gone to the vet about that. Would've suspended training with dead birds until it healed but wouldn't worry about hunting him that way. If my kid had bit his lip- I would've told him to shake it off, and lord knows I bit threw mine as a teenager 4wheeling and left it alone. That's my metric. If me or my family Would be expected to drive on- the dog had dang sure better be able to also. If it's something I'd take my son or me to the doctor over- you better believe the dog would see the vet about similar. When they are 9-10- and it takes them about an extra hour or two to get going in the morning, stiff, sore, and wanting a little more, battle tested- you always love seeing those dogs in camp. I remember when my 2.5 year old came over a levy coming back with bird at 14 months old and launched headfirst into a corrugated metal stand pipe. He just sort of slid down the side of the pipe and swam in circles on his side for what seemed like- a real long time. Shook it off found the bird and came on in. While he was on the way my buddy looked at me and said "do you think it knocked any sense into him." I was more concerned it had killed one of his 2 brain cells. Especially on the blacks and chocolates you can see the white hairs grow in around all there nicks and cuts once they scar up. It sucks knocking the new off- but they're a lot tougher than you think

I'd caution for real about training with dead birds while he's cut in the mouth. The nastiest infection I've seen on a dog was from getting stuck with a wing bone in training and a piece
Broke off in the dogs hard pallet.

Yeah no he definitely wont be doing any training with birds again until its fully healed. That in itself was one of the things I was most irked about was the fact that this was gonna push back off season training but I have until September so a month or so off for him to heal up wont be the worst. And yeah this was a situation where his momma had the final say and when she said for him to go to the vet theres really no swaying that!