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Choke Collar Danger

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The healing of Magnum the Lab ; massive wound around the neck.

This is one of our client's dogs who went missing from their home for 12 days. He got hung up by the choke collar and could not come home. He was half starved, severely dehydrated, and by some miracle managed to get loose and come home.

Scroll down for the pictures of the healing that took place in about a 2 month period of time

Day 68 - July 28 2009 Day 1 - May 21 2009

Day 1.... May 21 2009

May 21 2009 - Here is Magnum on the first day he came out of the woods. He had been there for 12 days hung up by his choke chain. Thankfully it snowed and rained several times during this time and somehow he managed to stay alive without a real drink, no food, and the chain severly choking him. He was brought to us at Trailrunners to care for him.

Day 1... May 21 2009

We decided to not want to take him in for stitches because of possible infection in such a deep and dirty gash. So we used a proven alternate therapy. What you will see as you scroll down is the rapid healing of this massive open wound.

Day 3... May 23 2009

Now on day 3 you can see the new flesh growing. As we care for Magnum, feeding him optimum nutrition, cleaning and sanitizing his wound every few hours, and changing the specially treated dressing, we are beggining to see new flesh form. The change in one day is quite amazing to see. He is getting more perky and he has his appetite. He is also on antibiotics. We are also laying hands on him and praying for him.

Day 4.... May 24 2009

Here you can see that the flesh is actually growing back together. It is awesome to watch first hand how quickly new flesh is forming, you can see significant changes and growth even in the same day.

Day 4 .... May 24 2009

Here Magnum is resting between dressing change and wound cleaning.

Day 6 ....

Here you can see that the skin is growing back.. The wound is staying very clean and more flesh is growing back every day. the wound has totally closed at the top for about 3 inches, you can see where it is coming together.

Now it is day 8... You can see how the flesh is still growing back and closing up as it heals, there is virually no deep cut at all compared to the top picture from 8 days ago.

Day 8...

Look again at the top picture and compare it to this one.. you can see how the deep cut in the left side of his neck is almost totally closed and the skin grown back over it.

Now is day 11...

Day 11, it is closing and healing some more since day 8

Now it is day 30 and there is much healing that has taken place.

On this one you can see how the wound closes just like a zipper as it heals.

Now it is 8 more days. 38 days total since injury occured. The wound is closing like a zipper.

Here we are at day 68. The wound has closed and is disappearing. going back to day one it is a huge change.

Day 68 - July 28 2009 Day 1 - May 21 2009

Please note: A choke collar needs to be used for training and taken off the dog after that. IT is not an ornament or a collar to leave on a dog. This is just one example of the countless horror stories of people who have left a choke chain on a dog, and then the dog gets hung up on something. Most don't survive.

As well with choke collars, there are better training methods available today so that these outdated collars should not be necessary. If you still do use choke collars for training do so with care, because with a hard yank it is possible to damage the dog's trachea with it, even if it does not break the skin. And remember that when you are done training , take off the choke collar.