Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi, my foster dog Lotus had a front amputation on Tuesday. He stayed at the vet until Thursday afternoon. I know some oozing is normal, his has accelerated since yesterday. It started out very light pink the first few days. We are now wrapping it it in layers of gauze held on with bandage wrap and covered with a t-shirt and it's soaking through after a few hours. When I remove the shirt and gauze it's dripping quite a bit and darker red then the first days.Â
Is this amount of leakage normal on day 6? The top part of his wound is looking good, the bottom part looks bad and there is a staple that looks like it's worked itself partially out in the area of the leakage.
I will definitely check with the vet in the morning but is this bad enough that we should go to an emergency vet today to check out? Pics attached.
Thanks,
Steph and Lotus
Hey Steph! I was just putting the finishing touches on Lotus and Takoda's Tripawd Tuesday post when I saw this. Glad you posted here, hopefully Dr. Pam will be able to chime in today with her vet thoughts about that area. It is quite red and angry looking. How is his appetite and energy level? Is the site warm to the touch? Or smelly?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thank you!!
His appetite is good, energy level is low (I can hardly get him to get up). It isn't smelly but it's warm.
We just got back from the emergency vet. They rewrapped with an actual bandage (rather than my DIY one lol). We need to get it re-bandaged tomorrow or tonight if it gets bad. They added an additional antibiotic and sent a culture to a lab to check for infection. They said the results won't be back for 7-10 days though! I'm assuming the other antibiotic takes care of the possible infection? Is that a normal amount of time to wait for lab results?
He did enjoy the car ride and now is very crashed again!
Oh good glad you were able to get in.
Low energy could indicate an infection but at this point in recovery it's so hard to tell. That's great his appetite hasn't gone away. Many dogs don't feel like eating even during a "perfect" recovery without any unexpected vet visits.
Yeah that does seem like a long time to wait but maybe Dr. Pam can enlighten us on current wait times. We haven't dealt with vet labwork in a while (thankfully!). Otherwise it's great they sent it out to be tested and in the meanwhile the abx should knock out, or at least down, any funky stuff happening.
Well, I hope tomorrow you start to see improvements. Please keep us posted.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thank you! Really glad we got it checked out. He's been snoozing all day and the oozing has slowed. I'll update tomorrow!
In the meantime I made him a blog!! 
Lucky Lotus the Tripawd
Ooooh! Hopping over to the blog now.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Sorry to be late to this conversation but yes cultures often take at least 5-7 days and longer if there is a resistant bug in there. The body wrap should help quite a bit....I kept my Mastiff Tazzie wrapped for almost 2 weeks post-op but the smaller dogs might not need to be bandaged that long.
Pam
Aaaaaah, thank you Dr. Pam! That makes sense I guess because they have to wait to see if whatever might be in there actually grows? Hmm, I should have paid more attention in biology class! 😉
Appreciate your input as always.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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