Thanks all for your replies.  -  The vet was giving him buprenorphine while he was an in patient. But our local vets are very touchy about sending narcotic painkillers home with a pet (It's a general trend in the area actually, which is North East England), as they're paranoid the narcotics will be abused or sold.   So, better painkillers are out the question really.

What the vet has done has put a gauze lattice over the skin that has broken down, and there is very good growth of new healthy looking skin. 

He suffered such severe soft tissue damage, because as he fell down the stairs, he caught his leg in a banister/railing, thus wrenching the whole leg and had really severe muscle damage and appalling bruising. 

bluegreyhound said
Eeek - that sounds horrible.  Poor Paddy!  Our greyhound Eva had her left hind leg amputated last week due to bone cancer.  Thankfully it's been far less traumatic than what you and poor Paddy have been through.

Eva was only given Loxicom (aka Metacam) once we brought her home (the day after the amp), and has managed ok on that.  Goodness knows what your poor boy needs with that amount of tissue damage.  However, if he's eating and seems happy then perhaps the pain relief is ok.  

I guess the other stuff is he's on is antibiotics?  I think I would be most worried about keeping the wound clean.  Have just poked our four legged hound and there are some places where the bone is very near the surface (greyhounds don't have much padding).  

Have you been on the Greyhound Gap forum (www.greyhoundgap.com)?  Lots of experienced greyhound people on there so somebody else might have seen a similar wound.

Above all, contact the vet if you are really worried about anything!

 

Thanks for the tip - Useful reading. His skin is paper thin, maybe the vet didn't take that into account and didn't leave enough tissue between the skin and bone? - Either way, he is healing slowly, the skin over the bone is naturally thickening, there's still a lot of discharge, but it's clear apart from a touch of blood if he overdoes it, with no smell, so there's no infection.

The vets have redeemed themselves somewhat.

It turns out, there was a piece of muscle and cartilage about the size of the slug, and it was pushing it's way through the skin, hence why the skin broke open.

They removed the dead chunk of muscle, there and then in the consultation room, while he was sedated. They now want to see him daily to check to see if there is any more dead tissue to remove and also intensively care for the wound.

Even better, they upped his pain relief to an injection of buprenorphine a day, while visiting, and tramadol + meloxicam at home.

Thank goodness we found out the source of all the problems!

They all love Paddy, they say he's one of the easiest and gentlest dogs they've ever had to work on. All the nurses come into the consultation room and say hello to him when I visit the vets!

Greyhounds really do have such lovely natures - but I have to say Paddy is unusually gentle and affectionate, even for a greyhound. He actually gives the vets and nurses he remembers a wag, even when he's in pain, bless him. He's good with small animals, which is almost unheard of in ex-racers!

He's adapted very well and now the wound complication is being sorted. He's finally on the mend proper.

Thanks guys for all your support and advice