Originally Posted By: dweste
While the group is poised to respond to the alpha dog questions, let's put another question in the hopper.

I have survived a dog attack. The critters are dispersed and dispatched as the situation and my opportunities allow. But I have a painful dog bite that includes a fairly deep laceration my forearm and another to my ankle, neither of which seems to have opened an artery.

I am not likely to find any medical care other than self-help. What first aid stuff do I want to have in my kit to deal with those wounds? What should I do?

Thanks.


Now this is just hypothetical and the internet, not to mention it would be illegal for me to suggest that anyone can try this for themselves to test it's effectiveness on non-serious cuts, scrapes, punctures or boils within the borders of the US, it's territories and protectorates or in any situation other than a life threatening emergency far from and days or weeks away from any possible professional medical help but if you were writing a fictional story and one of your characters was wounded or injured as described, you could write about them...

...stripping off some bark from a live White Pine tree and how the inner bark works extremely well in promoting healing, preventing infection and drawing out any existing infection. You might describe how they bind or tape the inner bark over a thin layer of gauze or sterilized cloth and over the wound (after cleaning out the wound and stopping any bleeding) or applying it directly if they must and changing the whole dressing twice a day if they can.

You could even write about them using an even more effective method of mashing the inner bark up and spreading it thickly (1/4 to 1/2 inch or so) inside a folded piece of sterilized cloth and binding or taping that over the wound in what used to be called a poultice and changing that poultice every day or two... if you were writing a fictional story.