Is it ok for a dog to lick its wounds?

[Boone]

I am sitting a dog right now that got a little cut on its hind quarters. It looks like she s****ped up against a stick or something, its about the size of a dime. I cleaned it out and now she is constantly licking it. Is that ok or should i discourage it?

 

[TLCandME]

My opinion - I like to keep things simple unless the situation demands I do more. An E-collar sucks and the dogs hate them and I'm not going to keep vigil over a dog to keep it from licking - you know.... work, kids, cruiser, etc. If licking the wound is obviously making it worse then I might reconsider the need to be more pro-active in preventing the licking. So.... in my house, I say lick away unless I see that licking is clearly slowing down the healing process. However, I would not be expecting that it would.

 

[patride71]

My dogs are pretty rough and tumble and have had some pretty bad gashes over the years.
Unless it is really deep and appears to require stitches, then I let them lick the wounds. I still keep an eye to see it is healing and not getting infected though.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[wob]

It's a dog. Dogs lick wounds. As stated above, if it's really gnarly and needs stitches, by all means, get it stitched and make the dog wear the ridiculous collar. Otherwise, leave them be.

 

[Boone]

ok cool. Just wanted to make sure since it's a dog i'm sitting and not my own.