When should stitches be removed?

[metalman488]

Last week, I had some chicks hatch and two of them were born with a hole in their stomach, so I decided to grab Neosporin, a needle, and some regular sewing thread and attempt to stitch them up.

This week, I had to put one down the next day because the stitches burst and I didn't find out fast enough, but the other one seems to have healed completely and is running around like nothing was ever wrong. (Its name is now "Stitches".)

My problem is that I know that I am supposed to take the stitches out, but I'm not sure when. I've looked around on here and on google, but I can't find anything that helps much. Anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance.

 

[metalman488]

For anyone who is curious, I ended up leaving the stitches in because when I went to remove them, I couldn't find the stitches anymore. I also could not even figure out which chick it was as the stitches were my only identifier. All of those chicks are doing great, so I guess it's ok that I left the stitches in, but I doubt that was the right thing to do.

 

[jennyf]

Wow, you are awesome! I've worked with shelter dogs where dogs would come in with stitches that weren't removed and eventually they just got reabsorbed, even if they weren't "dissolvable" sutures.