Tripawds Three Legged Dog & Cat Forum Archives

…about the infection and extra staples, but YAAAAAY for doing well overall!👏👏

Hopefully smooth sailing from here on out, especially  after the incision  heals free from infection.

HAPPY ONE MO TH AMPUTATION  Annabelle!  Extra treats for you....or maybe even a scoop of ice cream🍨🍧

Hugs

…staples out last week. 

She still has 4 staples.  She initially went in to get all staples removed on January 18th; however, during removal, an infection was found.  No sign of an infection was visible on the surface. She was prescribed antibiotics & had to wait another 2 weeks to cure the infection & allow more healing.  She also had a urinalysis & culture performed, which was all negative; her frequent need to pee must’ve been related…

…with the surgery.  On January 29th, she went in to get all the staples removed, but she wasn’t quite healed enough at the lower portion of her incision, so the vet put 4 staples back in.  We had a scare when we got home as she seemed to be bleeding more than described by the vet; we called them &amp…

… they had us monitor it to ensure the bleeding stopped & it did shortly after.

Still some recovering to do, but almost there.  Her incision looks like it’s healing well, but we’ll find out for sure next week when she gets the 4 staples out 🙂

…will be especially helpful to keep things dialed down. 

As for the weather, since she won't be spending too much time outside, a t-shirt over the incision should be enough to keep dirt away. And dirt really isn't all that risky for the incision. The biggest risk of infection lays underneath those

…does have that mechanism of action that can be helpful. That's another thing to ask for.

Sometimes we'll put Lidocaine patches at the incision. That's something that could be explored. And then again asking about where can I go for acupuncture? Where can I go for laser? Where can I go…

…a couple of days when you're not seeing progress, definitely need a recheck. Because either you're right, the pain meds aren't right, or maybe an infection is setting in or something different is going on, but something that would would prompt a veterinary visit so that slow return.

I really

…vet immediately & plating was performed the next day. Culture was taken the night we came in & after surgery he immediately started oozing infection & stitches opened. He spent 11-12 days in ICU with multiple bandage changes daily, and was sent home with a large wound present & we…

…as an option. He had this surgery Nov 29th. We were told we’d know how it takes in 4-6 weeks. 

Back to bandage changes every other day for the incision again. By this time we’re on a first name basis with the staff we are in so often. He was splinted this time after surgery & I feel like that…

…he’d get back to normal. We were told (and have researched) that oral antibiotics aren’t necessarily helpful in his case as biofilm can line the infection site and prevent meds from being absorbed which is why the beads were such a better option. 

We get through December, and he would break a splint…

….

We went in today for a broken splint & him not wanting to use the leg (usual sign that his splint gave). They kept it off this time as the incision is about completely healed & just wrapped the middle portion of leg rather than full foot to armpit. He hasn’t been on his foot fully in 5 weeks…

… shows the fracture having more gray inbetween the bone rather than callus build up which I would assume be turning white- leading me to believe the infection is not cleared and in that main break area. Would more oral antibiotics help here? Would splinting help again? Does anyone use the prosthetic type

…for checking in Sally and Rene, very much looking forward to listening to the talk with Dr. Grubb - thank you for thinking of us! 

As for the incision infection, no concerns there - when we went in to have Dr. C take a look at his back leg limp he mentioned the incision is healing very well. He

…get that recording to you by tomorrow, stay tuned.

Just a quick thought, and you probably answered this before, but he doesn't have any signs of incision infection does he? His behavior doesn't sound like it but I thought I'd throw that out there.

That's a good cannabis product. But I believe the

…it comes to that infected spot.  Sending  the Vet pictures is exactly  what  needed to be done and then follow their  expert opinion.  To have an infection like this is, unfortunately not too unusual.  As far as the cone, even when dogs never have shown any interest in their incision,  we still strongly…

… recommend  it.  Amputation incisions  and required stitches can be a bit of an irritation and owee and they want to chew at it.Of course, while you are with him he can be cone free. …

… I wonder if a soft cone (inner tube type) would be less stressful to him?

He's on an antibiotic  now, so that should clear up the infection.  Keep an eye on it and if the smell gets yucky or it gets more puss, let the Vet know.  They may end up doing a culture  to make aure he is on the

…! The wound itself healed fined I think, so I'm guessing it was another type of infection maybe?

But the shots worked almost instantaneously thank God, because he could barely stand.

As for Kylo, he's playing a lot more with his…

…him so much!

Thanks!

jerry said

Oh my gosh poor Iggy. I'm really glad his vet was able to treat it and he's getting his mojo back. Was the infection from the actual incision? Good job taking care of the wound. Ack, that's so hard!

I don't know what to say about Kylo, that's odd. First, is…

…. Is he going off to be by himself, or just doesn't want to be near Iggy but is fine by you?

Also, it may be that with the recent vet visit and infection, Iggy just reeks of veterinary hands and clinic. Dogs smell so much more than we do. Is Kylo the kind of dog who hates vet visits? Maybe that's

…my gosh poor Iggy. I'm really glad his vet was able to treat it and he's getting his mojo back. Was the infection from the actual incision? Good job taking care of the wound. Ack, that's so hard!

I don't know what to say about Kylo, that's odd. First, is Kylo showing any pain…

…. Is he going off to be by himself, or just doesn't want to be near Iggy but is fine by you?

Also, it may be that with the recent vet visit and infection, Iggy just reeks of veterinary hands and clinic. Dogs smell so much more than we do. Is Kylo the kind of dog who hates vet visits? Maybe that's

…Drakey is on day 5 and I iced his incision site for 3 days. And today started warm compresses. I used a plastic bag so I did not get the sutures wet.  Drake has not licked his site either.…

…look darker like bruising.  It is not that swollen and I have been watching it every day. Im concerned because he had the amputation due to an infection in the bone.  He has had MRSA
in the past as well. I cannot see signs of pus.. but it's hard to tell because there are some blood tinged

…have chronic infections.  If the skin near the infection is intact (ie: not cuts/incisions), cool compresses will help to reduce the swelling if Honor will tolerate them.  Reducing the swelling will also considerably reduce the pain. 

…in providing follow-up care and coordinating with Dr. Wendland at CSUVTH.

At each bandage change by our veterinarian, I took pictures of the incision to send to Dr. Wendland so she could monitor Bridget’s progress until Bridget returned to have stitches removed and be fitted for her prosthesis.
…

…this process takes some adjusting to when you’re already feeling sad that she’s having to endure it.

It was unfortunate that she developed an infection (that required culturing to find the right antibiotic to treat it) but getting picture updates to Dr. Wendland helped her guide us through what

…looking forward to getting his sutures out on Thurs. and him not having to wear a cone.  Well, the day before yesterday, I noticed one of his two incisions looked very odd and had all this solid stuff stuck over/in it.  I sent the surgeon at UF a photo and she told me it was cement that had leaked out…

…life because it probably wouldn’t heal (also meaning cone).  I asked what would happen if we just left it as is and was told very high risk bone infection/sepsis.  As you can imagine I was in complete panic and I don’t think I have ever felt so close to having a nervous breakdown.   So yesterday, we

…all, just a quick update (and a question) on Summer.

Her incision looks great. She had her first chemo (Carboplatin) yesterday. They said she did great, went to sleep on her little orthopedic hospital bed and…

…3 weeks, just prior to receiving her 2nd chemo dose. But the oncologist said the antibiotic is something they give proactively to help prevent any infection. Thoughts?

…became painful and swelled without any known injury or cause. It quickly progressed and became purple and bloody and then 5 days later…necrotic. Infection was presumed and everything was tried to save the foot. Seven days after symptoms began his leg was amputated (femur disarticulated) to prevent…

…further spread of the bacterial infection causing necrotizing fasciitis as these infections unchecked will result in sepsis. He is off antibiotics and his incision has healed. His recovery has been fairly smooth and he seems to be

…days to start to work effectively as a painkiller.  She is now only on Onsior and Paracetamol. Her temperature is normal and there are no signs of infection and her incision site is healing well. Our vet said this dosage of Gabapentin was the right at the top of the range for Aura's weight and could take

…deterioration and amputation was necessary.  Anyway, I had her for two weeks before her surgery while she put on some weight and recovered from an infection, which was great as we all got used to her!

She's doing really well. She wasn't really using the leg anyway so her mobility is already good.  As…

…use her paws on the outside of the cone to hold the things we are giving her to chew.  It's not foolproof though, sometimes she attempts to lick her incision through the cone and I feel that that friction that might cause is not good for her wound or if she were to attempt to bite through to scratch.  So

…As "Mischief" said, we often see dogs end of with the amputation  anyway when trying to first save the leg.  It often requires multiple  surgeries,  infections, pain and often just not successful.  

Amputation  is one surgery,  about two weeks recovery time and done!  The painful leg is gone and Bitsy…

…to settle in, shake off all the hospital meds, etc.  

Did they send you home with a cone for her? You want to make sure she can't  get to the incision and mess with it.  

Also, you may want to hold off on actually  ordering a y Rehab equipment , but rather set up an appointment  with a Trhab…

…s  normal with all the meds, etc.

MJ is probably  shocked to see how much fur is shaved off.  Maybe  put a little tre shirt on her to cover the incision.   You can tell him she needs to see him because  she's worried about him.  And that he needs to be happy when he sees her so she can know he is

…super fast sneaky boy, despite his missing leg.  A case of easier said than done with willful kitties I guess.

Incidentally, Tuxedo also had an infection in his incision.  It took around an extra six weeks to clear that.  Hopefully you will not have that long of a healing timeframe.  But my…

…recommendation would be to if at all possible, keep him inside, esp while he still has an open wound and active infection.

Best wishes

-Dawna, Tuxedo, Lilly, and Angel Dazzle 

Thanks Dawna for your reply. I fully understand the choices you've made. But

…super fast sneaky boy, despite his missing leg.  A case of easier said than done with willful kitties I guess.

Incidentally, Tuxedo also had an infection in his incision.  It took around an extra six weeks to clear that.  Hopefully you will not have that long of a healing timeframe.  But my…

…recommendation would be to if at all possible, keep him inside, esp while he still has an open wound and active infection.

Best wishes

-Dawna, Tuxedo, Lilly, and Angel Dazzle 

…I devoured every page of information I could find.  

The first 2 weeks of healing didn't go perfect. She was incessant at trying to lick her incision sites, both her amputation stump and her patella repair. Even with her Gabapentin, trazodone, and metacam combo. She got her snout around the soft…

…and hard cone collar we had got for her. So we put her in a modified newborn onesie to put a barrier between her and her in incisions. And I wish we hadn't!! She developed an awful rash behind her repaired knee and on the her stump due to licking through the onesie and getting…

…fact it was most likely moisture dermatitis caused by allergies, her brain was telling her to itch and itch and itch instead of there being an actual infection from the surgery.

She was sent home with a new med combo, we dropped the metacam for Tramadol, added Apoquel and a steroid cream (theraderm)

…sarcomas.

Historically, if we wanted to do that surgery, we would have to do either an intercostal thoracotomy where you make this huge incision and split the ribs apart to get access to where the lungs are located. Or especially for patients if they have multiple nodules or nodules on both…

…gives me access from the inside out to visualize all of those nodules. Then again, using long but very narrow, small instruments through little baby incisions in the chest wall. We actually go in and do that same surgery.

The lung nodules are still getting resected. It’s often either a partial…

…lobectomy, meaning one of her lung lobes is almost entirely removed in surgery, but it’s also able to be accomplished through these little baby incisions to minimize the pain associated with it.

TRIPAWDS: It’s my understanding that when you do a lobectomy that you are also reducing the…

…because it was moving quickly.

We talked as a family and decided that we would amputate her leg and then send it off. Because if it was an infection they had told us, she would be on antibiotics for up to a year. And then it may not even work. She may still need to have it amputated. So we just…

…to do the amputation when we talked to her over the phone.

She said, “She is only a year old. It’s probably not cancer. Maybe it’s an infection.” Or there was another thing it could have been. She wanted to see us on person and for us to maybe go a different route.

I said OK. So we…

…usually in the hospital for multiple nights. Just because of the pain and morbidity related to that.

TRIPAWDS: You don’t have a very large incision and ribs being spread and that sort of thing.

DR. THOMSON: Right.

TRIPAWDS: Eleni, what was Whiskey’s recovery like? Tell us about…

…that.

ELENI: She felt no pain and was trying to jump on and off the bed and run around. Which ended us in our local vet to re-staple her incisions from just jumping up on the bed when I couldn’t get to her fast enough. She came home the next night I believe it was after her surgery and she was

… I'm so sorry to read about the lung infection. At least they caught it and are following up with the cytology. While I'm sure the waiting and delay are making it hard for everybody, at least it…

…dog is different, Reece has been able to do without the collar because the t-shirt has kept her from messing with her staples. It has also kept the incision site clean. We're using one t-shirt per day because Reece is one of those little girls who is very good at getting dirty. 

She weighs about 26

…later today. I will watch Truls carefully afterwards, just to make sure he doesn't get up to any mischief. I'm more worried he will lick his healed incision obsessively. But it should be fine, been a week since they took the stitches, should be mostly healed.

Ohh a question. Now that Truls has healed…

…hehe. He is a happy guy. 😀

EDIT/UPDATE:

Hmmm upon reflection, nope. :/

Truls had a few cone free hours today...hhmmm nah. He licks the incision. Not a crazy amount, but enough to make me uncomfortable. Although my bar is really really low. But I am not going to take any chances. He is…

…finally healthy again, not gonna risk any infection or such.

Sorry Truls, cone stays on for a couple more days. Rather safe than sorry.

To clarify, the incision itself has healed. But there are

…for Truls first post op visit. Today is removal of the stitches and a new blood test.

Frankly I'm excited and nervous.

I'm very sure that the incision has healed nicely. There is no redness, no ooze or nasty fluid and no smell.

As for Truls behavior, I was pleasantly surprised today to hear him…

…hungry he is.

Anyways, I'm a bit nervous for the blood test. His red blood cells have been quite low in the past, but then he had cancer and an infection. The blood test today should show that is much better! But I'm a bit like....what if it's only a bit better. What if he still has some…

…underlaying problem.....

I know, don't speculate. We did almost every test in the book and the cancer and infection was all we found. Think positive. 🙂

Looking at the facts, how is Truls. Definitely eating like a champ! Wants to clean himself, but the "evil"

… and that can be in a form of icing or doing cold compression right immediately after surgery.

If they do have a laser, they can laser that incision site. They can do things like tense therapy for muscle relaxation.

TRIPAWDS: That’s that little machine with the sticky pads?

Dr.…

…help heal that wound as fast as possible and get them up and moving.

TRIPAWDS: So wound healing is a part of therapy too, right? Even that incision needs some kind of extra TLC?

Dr. Esquivel: Yeah, absolutely. And we don’t want to develop a lot of swelling area. We want to increase the…

…circulation to the area. Even just simple massage and things like that and icing can definitely bring that swelling down. We want to watch for infection or dehiscence of that incision site. That just puts us behind and it’s extra stress on the body and things like that.

It’s nice to have

…the worries  swirling around in your head.  We get it!

So your main concern  would be why the weight loss, blood work not up to par and why the infection  (for which he's taken antibiotics), and, of course, handling the surgery/anesthesia,  etc.   Hopefully the "age" is less of a concern  to you now…

…just fine on three.

Have you been able to get anymore clarity  on those items?  Was the blood work up due to his weight loss?  Is that how an "infection" was determined?  Where do things stand now in that regard?  Were there any food changes  that may have caused the weight loss?

Just thinking …

…. For some animals age is really just a number.

More clarity, nope I'd say things are still kind of unclear. His blood values are because of the infection, his weight may be caused by the cancer. The smaller clinic I went to first said that the cancer is "stealing calories". I got the impression that…

…s expected that he would lose weight as the cancer grows. So that is a explanation, we just don't know for sure if that is the actual cause.

The infection was determined from the blood test. Based on his most recent blood test (about 10 days ago ish) the antibiotics are helping to fight the infection…

…the first escape attempt, he mostly slept in my bedroom closet.  Everytime I checked on him he was coneless.  Since he never bothered much with his incision when I was there, I let him have his way (until after finding out about the infection) Around day 3 he got under my bed and refused to come out no

…the first escape attempt, he mostly slept in my bedroom closet.  Everytime I checked on him he was coneless.  Since he never bothered much with his incision when I was there, I let him have his way (until after finding out about the infection) Around day 3 he got under my bed and refused to come out no

…settled down and has been sleeping for a bit now. The unknown factor of the high white blood cell count is giving ME heart palpitations too. The incision site looks good and there’s no oozing or anything like that so I don’t know where the infection would be—could one arise elsewhere in the body after