Need help figuring out weird post-bite scabbing

[rhapsody]

About a month ago, little Sophie managed to bite Missy really bad during intros - poor gal ended up with two puncture wounds about a centimeter apart on her back. The wounds got inflamed so I flushed them with saline solution until they scabbed over, and I also gave her meds for about a week. The inflammation went away, but for some strange reason, the two "scabs" never fell off.

Tonight after a couple of beers, I was playing with Missy when I started obsessing with the still-there scabs - booze tends to make me really focused. If they really were scabs, they shouldn't be there for that long, right? So I soaked the area with saline solution and started poking and prodding at the two scabs. Turns out, the two scabs were actually connected under the skin, much like a curved barbell earring. I trimmed down one end of the "scab" since both ends were too thick to pull through, and by gently pulling on the other end for a while, I managed to pull the whole thing out.

Interestingly, the "scab" had a hard waxy-like consistency - it wasn't crusty like a typical scab at all. And I've never heard of under-the-skin scabbing before. What the heck was it?

In any case, Missy endured my prodding like a trooper. There wasn't any bleeding, but the skin looks very raw around the two entry wounds, so I flushed it with saline solution again.

 

[lilspaz68]

About a month ago, little Sophie managed to bite Missy really bad during intros - poor gal ended up with two puncture wounds about a centimeter apart on her back. The wounds got inflamed so I flushed them with saline solution until they scabbed over, and I also gave her meds for about a week. The inflammation went away, but for some strange reason, the two "scabs" never fell off.

Tonight after a couple of beers, I was playing with Missy when I started obsessing with the still-there scabs - booze tends to make me really focused. If they really were scabs, they shouldn't be there for that long, right? So I soaked the area with saline solution and started poking and prodding at the two scabs. Turns out, the two scabs were actually connected under the skin, much like a curved barbell earring. I trimmed down one end of the "scab" since both ends were too thick to pull through, and by gently pulling on the other end for a while, I managed to pull the whole thing out.

Interestingly, the "scab" had a hard waxy-like consistency - it wasn't crusty like a typical scab at all. And I've never heard of under-the-skin scabbing before. What the heck was it?

In any case, Missy endured my prodding like a trooper. There wasn't any bleeding, but the skin looks very raw around the two entry wounds, so I flushed it with saline solution again.

Sounds like an abscess, what colour was it?

 

[rhapsody]

To be honest, it looked like really brown earwax. It wasn't "cheesy" or moist like the abscesses I've seen around here. And it looks like the flesh was healing itself around it.

 

[lilspaz68]

To be honest, it looked like really brown earwax. It wasn't "cheesy" or moist like the abscesses I've seen around here. And it looks like the flesh was healing itself around it.

I wonder if it was congealed blood mixed in with old cheesy pus...yummmmm.

 

[jorats]

I still think it's a type of abscess. Once I took out something that resembled an elastic. Very weird stuff abscesses. Also could have been a keratin cyst.

 

[rhapsody]

I wonder if it was congealed blood mixed in with old cheesy pus...yummmmm.

Oh man, that is just nasty! :sick2:

Granted, the wounds were like a month old, so maybe the abscess pus just dried up and stayed? After the wounds scabbed over, the swelling went down, so I thought the matter was resolved. In any case, it didn't seem like there was an active infection still going on last night. Did I do right in working that stuff out of her skin?