Drs Peter Roger & Johan Marais treated Lion’s Den again on 26 February 2015. Although Lion’s Den covers the wound/hole with mud, we were worried that maggots might infest the wound again and that Lion’s Den would be worse off than a month ago. We received the question before of whether maggots are doing good work by cleaning the wound. Maggots are used in certain wound cleaning processes in a controlled environment as they live on necrotic (dead) tissue, however this is not the case in the wild. It is a self-perpetuating cycle as the maggots secrete by-products as a result of eating the dead tissue. This secretion creates more dead tissue in turn so that the maggots can continue living on the tissue. In a case like this, maggots are not beneficial to the whole treatment process.
Lion’s Den has had this wound for the last 18 months. She had had 25 treatments and about 300-400 screws in her wound. It was right into the sinus canals and closed very well, and although we only have this little wound now to deal with, it seems the wound is not getting any smaller and should maggots get in it can cause more damage.
I order to deal with these pests Lion’s Den was darted. Dingle Dell didn’t want to leave her side and we had to chase her away in order to attend on Lion Den.
The mud and dead tissue were removed from the wound and then the wound was washed with fresh water. Dr Marais took X-rays to have a closer look inside. We filled the wound with calcium alginate, added some medical grade honey before closing it with dental acrylic and using orthopedic wire to secure the dental acrylic.
The wound was sealed with Super Glue and silicon in order to prevent puss, which in return is good for the healing process inside and will hopefully prevent from more maggots.
We hold thumbs that Lion’s Den will not try to remove her new cast too soon and give it some time to heal from the inside.