When Greyhounds race they get extremely stimulated and aroused. When they are excited like this their bodies are flooded with epinephrine (adrenalin).

When they are flooded with epinephrine they can sometimes bite the dog racing next to them. This is called redirected biting and all dog breeds can do it. It’s nothing personal, they just don’t know what to do with their excitement.

I thought my recent experience was a freak accident, but it happened, I never want it to happen again, and if only I had known it could have happened, I may have taken precautions earlier.

My dogs are exercised on a large field, they run up the field just like greyhounds. One dog in particular 'has' to be in the front, and the other dogs try to 'grab' her if they can get close enough.

We already had an occasion last year where one girl had a hematoma on her side from one such grabbing, and we did see another hanging on to one's tail a few weeks ago, but this time it was much worse and Lou has had two emergency operations to sew her up.

It was bizarre as we didn't see it, and she didn't cry out either and continued to run round the field, it wasn't under several hours later when we saw blood dripping from her we realised something was wrong. Only conclusion we can come up with is that one dog grabbed her, and due to the speed they were running at, the other has hung on and she has literally ripped a hole in Lou's side.

This wound looked farworse than it appears on photo as the skin around it died and had to be cut away. She was left with a large wound with a drain.

So now a couple of my girls who chase each other will have to wear muzzles like greyhounds.

I must add that my dogs are NOT aggressive, they have the odd tiff like any dogs living together, but they are not separated in the house and we don't have fights.

So, this turned into a nightmare, the skin around the wound which you can see is black and bruised turned necrotic, so operation number 2 followed four days after the first one to remove the dead skin and sew her up again. Unfortunately there was just not enough skin to stretch over the area, and it opened up three days later.

So plan B, she had a minor up under GA for the application of a 'tie over bandage'.
Several loops of sutures are placed around the wound, a sterile dressing is then applied directly to the wound. This protective layer is then secured in place by lacing umbilical tape through each of the suture loops. The tape is then tied to itself to provide a firmly attached bandage. The wound is then stuffed with manuka honey, which had to be changed every 3 days.
They also did a skin culture and changed the antibiotics she was having.

Lou made a full recovery from her ordeal and after operated number 3, she was running round the fields again two weeks later. The fur grew back and she is none the worse for her ordeal.

So almost twelve months to the day, we are in the same situation, wound has healed well this time, and we are taking no more chances and Lou now has a bite resistant dog coat - see more on link below.

This information is not meant to be a substitute for veterinary care. Always follow the advice provided by your veterinarian.