Treating Severe Wounds on the Cheap: What to Do When They Can't Afford the Surgeon or Ideal Plan

By: Jenny Groover, DVM, DACVECC, NRAEMT

Description: We all see those terrible wounds that we know will cost thousands to manage but owners cannot afford. In the patient that is systemically stable, these terrible wounds don’t have to be a death sentence. This presentation will go through photos of several case examples showing how to manage severe wounds on a budget. We will discuss strategies for managing bite, burn, surgical, snake bite, and road rash wounds. Hydrotherapy, cheap topical ointments, modified bandaging, and modified drains will be covered.

By the end of the session, attendees will be able to:

1. Understand which types of patients are candidates for attempting less ideal wound care
2. Learn cheap therapy options and how they may affect the healing timeline
3. Learn how to maximize secondary intention wound healing in different types of wounds

Speaker Info: Dr. Groover graduated from Rice University in 2013, majoring in Kinesiology as well as Biological Sciences and concurrently worked as a Nationally Registered Advanced EMT. She obtained her DVM from University of Florida in 2017, completed a rotating internship at Michigan State University, and then completed an ECC residency at University of Florida in 2021. After becoming a Diplomate of ACVECC in 2021, she started an ECC service at Fetch Specialty & Emergency Veterinary Centers in Brandon, Florida. Her service offers extracorporeal therapies such as therapeutic plasma exchange and dialysis as well as mechanical ventilation. Her interests include ultrasonography, toxicity management, acute kidney injury, and ventilation. In her spare time, Dr. Groover loves swimming with her Jack Russel Terrier, playing board games with her friends, kayaking, skiing, and scuba-diving.