Will a dog licking your wounds heal them

Will A Dog Licking Your Wounds Heal Them. A cone or collar is the traditional way to keep a dog from licking a wound. A dogs instinctive way of healing a wound is to either rub it or lick it. Sometimes its fine but other times you need to stop your dog from licking a wound because overlicking can cause more harm than good. Once you have cleaned out your dogs wound and used bitters on it to prevent it from licking you can try these techniques for even more success.

The same applies to wound licking before the rise of modern medicine it was the best tool nature could provide to help your dog heal its wounds. This has some truth to it but unfortunately the healing properties of dog saliva are overblown. Thats all they can do. If your dog has an injury to their face youll likely see them scratching at it. Your dog considers you as a part of their pack because their pack is their family. The idea that dogs saliva can help heal wounds is one of those old tales passed from generation to generation believed by some disbelieved by others but never tested.

Indeed a dogs saliva is bactericidal against the bacteria Escherichia coli and Streptococcus canis although not against coagulase-positive Staphylococcus or Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Today scientists are beginning to discover that dogs saliva–and our own–may indeed contain powerful antibacterial medicine. A dogs instinctive way of healing a wound is to either rub it or lick it. Unfortunately licking can reopen the wound and lead to infection. Sores in the mouth seem to heal quickly and with less scarring than they do elsewhere on the body. This instinct reduces the risk of infection as it helps mammals keep their open wounds clean. Thats all they can do.