page_title: Veterinary surgery
section_title: Wound repair
hierarchical_section_title: Veterinary surgery / Common veterinary surgeries / Other common procedures / Wound repair
caption_attribution_description: Udder sutures in a cow (after aluminium spaying) Walon: operaedje des tetes ås vatches&#160;: rakeudaedje, après stritchaedje a l' aluminiom (portrait saetchî pa L. Mahin). العربية: جراحة الثدي عند البقر: الخياطة
context_page_description: Veterinary surgery is surgery performed on animals by veterinarians, whereby the procedures fall into three broad categories: orthopaedics, soft tissue surgery, and neurosurgery. Advanced surgical procedures such as joint replacement, fracture repair, stabilization of cranial cruciate ligament deficiency, oncologic surgery, herniated disc treatment, complicated gastrointestinal or urogenital procedures, kidney transplant, skin grafts, complicated wound management, and minimally invasive procedures are performed by veterinary surgeons. Most general practice veterinarians perform routine surgeries such as neuters and minor mass excisions; some also perform additional procedures.
  The goal of veterinary surgery may be quite different in pets and in farm animals. In the former, the situation is more close to that with human beings, where the benefit to the patient is the important factor. In the latter, the economic benefit is more important.
context_section_description: Bite wounds from other animals (and rarely humans) are a common occurrence.  Wounds from objects that the animal may step on or run into are also common.  Usually these wounds are simple lacerations that can be easily cleaned and sutured, sometimes using a local anesthetic.  Bite wounds, however, involve compressive and tensile forces in addition to shearing forces, and can cause separation of the skin from the underlying tissue and avulsion of underlying muscles.  Deep puncture wounds are especially prone to infection.  Deeper wounds are assessed under anesthesia and explored, lavaged, and debrided.  Primary wound closure is used if all remaining tissue is healthy and free of contamination.  Small puncture wounds may be left open, bandaged, and allowed to heal without surgery.  A third alternative is delayed primary closure, which involves bandaging and reevaluation and surgery in three to five days.
  Wounds occurring in the udder and teats of cows are more difficult to repair, due to the difficult access and sensitivity of the organ, and because deep anaesthesia may not be applied to cows.
caption: Sutured wound on the teats of a cow
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