Identification of antimicrobial susceptibility of bacteria recovered from dogs and cats with contaminated and infected traumatic wounds

Abstract

Traumatic wounds in dogs and cats are frequent in a clinician veterinarian’s routine. Most of them occur due to either bites from other animals or car accidents. As a result, many wounds become contaminated or infected and do not respond to treatment. The objectives of this study were to evaluate animals with traumatic wounds that present such complications during treatment as increased secretions, change in the color of these secretions or unsuitable healing, to identify bacteria in those wounds and their susceptibility to antimicrobials, and to verify if antimicrobial therapy instituted earlier in the treatment was adequate. To reach this, 18 animals (17 dogs and one cat) with traumatic wounds that presented an unsatisfactory healing process after topic and systemic treatment were used. In these cases, a swab from the wound secretion and bacterial culture in blood agar were performed. Twenty bacterial isolates were obtained. Gram negative bacilli were found in 70% of the cases, and Pseudomonas was thepredominant gender (30%), followed by Proteus (20%). Among the gram positive group (30% of the cases) Staphylococcus and Streptococcus were found with the same frequency. A very low susceptibility (7 % to 53,33 %) of bacteria isolates to the tested antimicrobial drugs was found, emphasizing the need for carrying out these tests in bacteria isolated from animals with contaminated and infected wounds that do not respond to topic and systemic treatments.