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Suture reaction

I have a 14 month old black lab female who had a spay surgery 7 weeks ago. Her surgery went great and the incision healed well and looked great up until a week ago when we noticed a dime size blister looking area at the base of the healed incision and a ping pong size lump right beside it. We took her to the vet twice now and they feel it is a suture reaction to the internal sutures where they tied the knot of suture material. It doesn’t seem to bother her, but is not really resolving. The lump is now smaller, but she still has a little bit of a purplish shiny area over the base of the incision. The vet indicated it could take up to 6 months for the sutures to dissolve and it is a wait and see game in hopes that the suture reaction will not get any worse while the body sees the suture material as the enemy. We can now feel the suture knot just under the skin which is also new so maybe the body is trying to push it outward. Has anyone else had this experience with a dog and if so how long did it take for the suture reaction to subside?

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Answer #1

Ditto to Phrannie, this is all very true. I would watch that lump and keep a close eye on it and note any changes and inform the vet asap if any thing changes. It can take months for all the sutures to disolve. or in some cases we had to go back in and open the female and use different suture’s. There is nothing the vet did, some dogs just react to them this way.

Answer #2

I’ve heard of it, and the Vet is giving you the straight scoop. The body will either push it out, or it will finally disolve. The fact that the lump is smaller, and the shiny skin, sounds like the body is absorbing the “reaction”…slow process, I know.

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