Like 75% of my posts this is in reference to a story I’m writing. In it, one character has his hand mauled by a dog. Later, after he has received medical attention, the person doing so says something like, “There’s something more wrong with him than just the mauling. I’ve treated the lacerations and crushing injuries, but…”
I don’t like the italicized phrase. What should I replace it with?
Avulsions (tearing of flesh) and contusions (bruises) come to mind.
Are you specifically looking for crushing type injuries? To a bone?
comminuted fracture (bone breaks into several pieces - crushing?)
I think crush injury is the more typical usage than crushing injury, at least around here, usually used for an area of soft tissue that has been compacted by a blunt force. I’m not sure that it would be a major component of a dog mauling, although there would be some. Rather, I would expect that sharp teeth with a lot of pressure to result in lacerations, puncture wounds and contusion.
Avulsion is usually used with orthopedic injuries where the force on a muscle and tendon has caused the tendon attachment point on the bone to fail and break off. A comminuted fracture is, as noted above, a bone broken into more than two bits. An open or complex fracture has bone exposed to air, usually by having the jagged end pushed through the skin.
For serious dog attacks the most severe injuries tend to be tears, as the animal pulls or shakes the skin and muscle away from the bone. An acquaintance of mine got the skin stripped from the elbow to the wrist from a dog attack, and quite a lot of the muscle got torn with it.
Nasty stuff.
What Blake is describing is called degloving.
Google image search if you’re not planning on eating any time soon.
Not gonna click that link, thankyouverymuch.
From my personal experience, I’d go with lacerations, puncture wounds, and contusions. Lots and lots of puncture wounds.
However, based on your description (just his hand? neat trick, that), I’d think Blake’s got it with tearing/stripping from shaking. Surely you’ve seen a dog shake a soft toy - imagine what would happen if it did that to your hand, which can’t move freely being attached to the rest of you.
Although large dogs do have tremendous bite pressure, I don’t think they generally try to crush things in an attack. Sharp teeth are much more effective at puncturing and tearing than crushing.
I don’t think I said it was JUST his hand. It’s just that the injuries are by far worst there. In the scene, the character passes out when his hand gets ripped up and is not really aware of what other injuries he sustains.
Ah so. I think it was just the way you phrased it in the OP. No biggie.
I’d still say punctures, lacerations, avulsions, and contusions would be typical injuries from a mauling.
That also agrees with the damage I see in news accounts of dog attacks.
However, if you google for dog attack info, you do see mention of crush injuries, including broken bones and nerve damage, so it must be more common than I think.
I’m guessing that the dog in question is probably unusually large and strong (and probably isn’t actually precisely a dog), so crushed bones, even if rare, would probably be a component.
Well, geeze, if you’re talking a Warg attack, ya oughta say so! 
A veteran of many Rhymer threads, ladies and gentlemen! You can tell by the look of horror on his face.
Is the dog going to choke on his amputated fingers? Can we add amputation to the list of dog-mauling related injuries?