Identifying wound infections for veterinary nurses

Incidences of traumatic and bite wounds are high among both referral and primary care practices, and as veterinary nurses this is an area of veterinary medicine in which we can utilise a wide variety of skills that can be applied to various stages of the healing process, and have a profound effect on healing outcomes. Therefore, it is important for veterinary nurses to have a solid understanding of the full healing process including the distinct stages of healing, which factors can impede these processes, and the different techniques involved to optimise wound management.

There are numerous factors that can impede healing and lead to a prolonged inflammatory response with one of the major components, especially in heavily contaminated traumatic and bite wounds, being bioburden and biofilm formation leading to infection. All wounds should be considered contaminated (Patel, 2007); however, there is a difference between contamination, which should be easily rectified through good wound management techniques such as lavage and debridement, and a wound that has reached critical colonisation where the animal's host immune system has become compromised and the body's natural innate immune response can no longer deal with the level of bioburden without more invasive intervention techniques (Patel, 2007).