Wounds in Animals

Wounds in Animals are defined as a forcible breach in the continuity of the soft tissues of the body including the skin, mucous membrane and cornea.

Wounds from the veterolegal aspect may be classified as:

• Incised wounds
• Punctured wounds
• Lacerated wounds
• Firearm wounds

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Incised Wounds

An incised wound is produced by a sharp cutting object such as a knife, razor, sword, gandasa (chopper), axe, or any object which has a sharp, cutting edge. An incised wound is always broader than the edge of the weapon causing it owing to the retraction of the divided tissues. It is somewhat spindle- shaped and gaping, its superficial extent being greater than its depth.

This gaping is greater in deep wounds when the muscle fibres have been cut transversely or obliquely. Its edges are smooth, even, clean-cut, well defined and usually everted. The edges may be inverted if a thin layer of muscular fibre is closely united to the skin, as in the scrotum.

They may be irregular in cases where the skin is loose or the cutting edge of the weapon is blunt or heavy. Length of the incised wound has no relation to the length of the cutting edge of the weapon. A curved weapon, such as a scythe or sickle, first produces a stab or puncture and then an incised wound; and sometimes the intervening skin may be left intact.

While describing an incised wound it is always necessary to note its direction. At commencement the wound is deep, and it gradually becomes shallower and tails off towards the end, but no direction is noticeable if the weapon has not been drawn while inflicting the wound.

Haemorrhage in the case of incised wounds is usually much more than in other wounds, as a clean-cut blood vessel bleeds considerably more, and bleeding may be so severe as to cause death, especially if a main artery has been cut.

Punctured Wounds (Stabs)

These are termed ‘penetrating’ wounds when passing through the tissues. They enter a cavity of the body, such as the thorax or abdomen. Such wounds are produced by a piercing or stabbing object, such as a pin, needle, knife, scissors, pickaxe, arrow, etc.

A punctured wound caused by a sharp-pointed and cutting object has clean-cut edges which are almost parallel but slightly curved towards each other and have sharp angles at the two extremities. An object having one cutting and one blunt edge will show a certain amount of bruising and raggedness at one end of the wound.

The wound is generally wedge-shaped, if it is produced by an object with a thick, broad back and only one cutting edge and circular or slit-like opening if produced by sharp-pointed and cylindrical or conical object.

The aperture of a punctured wound in the skin is usually smaller in length than the breadth of the weapon used. It is sometimes larger as the weapon enlarges the wound, if it is with drawn with lateral movement.

The depth of a punctured wound is much larger than its length or width, and may be equal to or less than the length of the blade of the object causing it.

In some cases the depth may even be greater than the length of the blade owing to the fact that the force of the blow may depress the tissues of the part struck, allowing the point to reach the deeper tissues such as in the abdomen.

There may be very little external haemorrhage and yet profuse haemorrhage may take place internally owing to some vital organ having been penetrated.

In the case of a perforating wound, there are two wounds, one, the wound of entry and the other, the wound of exit.

The wound of entry is usually larger with inverted edges and the wound of exit is smaller and has everted edges. The edges of the entrance wound may be found everted, when the weapon used is rough and rusty.

In some cases two or more punctures may be found in the soft parts with only one external orifice. This shows that the object had been partially withdrawn after it pierced the tissues, and thrust again in a new direction.

Sometimes it is argued that a punctured wound may have been caused by a fall on a sharp-pointed piece of an earthenware pot or broken glass.

In that case the edges of the wound are irregular and more or less bruised, and fragments of such article may be found embedded in the soft tissues.

Lacerated Wounds

These are tears or splits produced by blows with blunt objects and missiles, violent falls on sharp and hard projecting surfaces, by machinery and railway accidents, by the wheels of a vehicle, by the claws, teeth or horns of animals and by projecting nails.

These wounds do not generally correspond in shape or size to the object producing them. Their edges are torn, jagged, irregular and swollen or contused. The tissues are torn and the skin around the seat of injury is ecchymosed and the underlying bones are likely to be fractured, while the internal organs may be injured.

Foreign bodies such as earth, grease, machine oil, cinder, hair, fibres etc. are frequently found in the wounds which are, therefore, predisposed to infection.

When produced by a blunt weapon such as a club (lathi), crowbar, stone, etc., a lacerated wound is usually accompanied by a considerable amount of bruising of the surrounding and underlying tissues, and has everted and irregular edges.

When a heavy weight like a wheel of heavy or a truck passes over any of the extremities it tears the skin and crushes the muscles and soft parts beneath it, releasing considerable blood fat in them. Crush syndrome or fat embolism may occasionally follow.

The direction of shelving of the margins of a lacerated wound indicates the direction of the blow applied to cause the wound.

Haemorrhage in lacerated wounds is, as a rule, not extensive owing to the-that the arteries are not cut evenly but are torn across irregularly so as facilitate clotting of the blood. In lacerated wounds of the head, the oral arteries often spurt as freely and forcefully as when cut cleanly.

Firearm Wounds

Firearms generally produce two wounds or apertures, viz., one of entrance and the other of exit of the projectile. The wound of entrance is usually smaller than the projectile because of the elasticity of the skin, and is round when the projectile strikes the body at right angles and oval when it strikes obliquely.