Hello! I thought I would start a new topic for this rather than updating my previous thread on Trevor's post-op lethargy, which seemed to have been due to soreness but maybe now also due to infection. 

Trevor (3 yo Goldendoodle) had a front forelimb amputation on 2/14 for chondrosarcoma in his proximal humerus. We're at three weeks post-op today and not quite where I thought we would be. Despite some hope and a bit of energy resurgence after seeing a rehab vet last week for our initial evaluation, he's still been pretty lethargic and had difficulty with mobility. Our rehab vet said he was still very sore and learning how to move and balance, and started us on some at-home gentle range of motion and stretching exercises. He's remained on Carprofren (though off Gabapentin now) and we use a warm heating pad on his back legs and hips. We were seeing incremental progress with mobility and energy - and engagement, since off the Gaba - but then things dipped again the past several days. Less interest in food, almost no interest in food yesterday. Very low energy, as if he were heavily medicated, but he wasn't. 

We have been examining his incision site daily. He's had lots of eyes on it, almost every other day, between photos sent to the surgeon (at 14 days post op), our regular vet (twice - he had to go back in there for bloodwork for a med refill and another issue), and the rehab vet one week ago. Everyone said it looked "great." His hair is growing back in rapidly, though, so maybe that obscured what was apparently some swelling in progress. My husband and I both looked twice at the area yesterday and discussed whether it was swollen or not, but since he was due to see both the rehab vet and regular vet today, we decided to just continue keeping an eye on it a bit longer. 

Last night, very suddenly it seemed, it began to discharge fluid, through the shirt he was wearing, and he was licking at it. He's been in the doughnut collar (Zen collar) when not supervised, and in a t-shirt all the time, and he is mostly supervised. This was a rare moment when I turned my back to do something else, thought he was asleep in his bed, turned around and saw blood and pink fluid seeping through the T shirt. He was licking and panting and agitated. It seemed to have all come on so fast. Stressful car ride with towels as compresses. The discharge wasn't massive but it was fairly steady.

We took him straight to the ER and they said he had a high fever. They got him on antibiotics right away, stabilized him and did a culture. They detected a pretty deep abscess. He stayed there overnight and there was talk of maybe having to do a CT Scan and also put in a drain. We were given an estimate for another surgical procedure, and were not feeling optimistic when we left.

The surgeon (his original surgeon) saw him this morning. They're sending him home today with a bandage for compression and cleanliness, and antibiotics. Better news today. What was a 10 cm pocket last night is now 3 cm. She thought it was resolving well and there was no need to do an exploratory procedure or put in a drain. She also said not to cancel our rehab appointment today, that he can still go in for his bodywork; that vet is down the street from the hospital, so that's great news - I was so worried this was all going to set us back to square one. 

This recovery has been so exhausting. I'm relieved at this news this morning and think we're lucky. I'm dismayed that this happened because I've been supervising Trevor almost non stop, always making sure he doesn't lick, keeping him clean, changing his shirts regularly, getting people to look at his incision. It feels like this just snuck up on us, but with the size of the abscess he had, it seems it was brewing for awhile, right under our noses. 

I find myself wishing I'd been even more vigilant about the wound area - and yet I don't know what I could have done differently either, since I felt I was constantly calling or seeing vets about various things, so whatever was brewing maybe wasn't all that obvious. I do now think some of his panting and lethargy these past several days was infection related and not so much the sore muscle issue. 

SO hard when dogs can't tell us what's wrong!! ugh.