Don't panic and keep an open mind. Long story short, my dog almost lost her leg to infection following surgery. She lost skin down to the bone. She lost all her pads and you could see ligaments etc. inside. It was as bad as it gets. I was seeing 2 vets for bandage changes (depending on day of week and clinic etc.) and they had different ways of dealing with the same issue, including some new fancy types of dressing for open wounds. What worked the best as a dressing was honey. Any honey will do, but raw, unfiltered, organic honey would be best. (you can read up online, often used for burn patients and the types of injuries/skin loss that cannot just be stitched back together) I'm not 100% sure how it works, I do know that it changes the PH in the wound environment. I do know that it has properties that prevent bad bacteria growth and promote growth of good new healthy tissue. It also keeps things from drying out too much. Honey on a nonstick gauze pad, enough to cover the whole area, change pad daily (as it heals more, bandage changes can be less often, but still no less than every 3 days). Some dead tissue will come away with bandage changes, but if tissue left behind has pink/red edges it still is health and has blood supply. Good luck.