Question:
Pagan was spayed July 18th. I can still feel staples under the skin. It is definitely metal and definitely has a corner. The bottom one you can see easily, the other one you can feel, but only see when you stretch the skin over it. One is at the very end of her incision and the other is about 1cm from the top end of her incision. My main concern is that she crawls on her belly in the grass and dirt, and afraid she might catch one on a rock or whatever and make a tear in her skin. Is it possible they are just not dissolving, used the wrong kind of staples, or just happen to be scar tissue that feels like a small bent piece of wire? I made a lot of complaints to the vet over the incision size and the way it was stitched, etc. so a little embarrassed to bring up something else unless necessary. Someone tells me it takes x amount of months for staples to dissolve, I will be content with that LOL

Not a great picture, but you can see the bottom one pretty good- mainly because it stays reddish there from her scrubbing it on stuff


Answer:
I never even heard of dissolving staples, only sutures. Sorry, I'm no help.


Answer:
That's what someone else told me- that there are no dissolving staples. They are staples, though. If you could feel them, you could tell, too.


Answer:
I've never heard of using staples internally nor dissolving ones. The only thing I can figure, is that you're feeling the knot of the sutures that were used. Those can feel quite hard, especially if the animal is having a reaction to them.


Answer:
I'd never heard of internal or dissolvable staples either, but I went looking and found this - I hope it's helpful:
http://www.tcplasticsurgery.com/media/26-28Grys_staples%5B2%5D.pdf#search=%22dissolvable%20 surgical%20staple%22


Answer:
Interesting! Unfortunately the article does not reference how long it takes to dissolve. Jenna, did you call the vet and ask?


Answer:
I will call when they are open tomorrow.

I did ask this on another forum, and finally one person knew what I was talking about. Apparently the filament they use sometimes is quite thick and stiff like heavy fishing wire- and it takes longer to dissolve at the knots. However, from what I have been able to find out, it should be somewhat dissolved after 8 weeks, and that much I cannot attest to- it seems the same as it has felt the last six weeks or so. The fact that whatever it was was not going away was what was concerning me. That and the redness on that one spot. It does not feel feverish or swolen anywhere, though, so I do not think she is having a reaction to it- just slightly uncomfortable since she insists on scraping along on her belly hamming around.