Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hello,
We have had Rusty for almost 3 weeks now. He was given up at 7 1/2 years old. The rescue group performed his amputation due to hemagiosarcoma. He is doing well as far as that goes and is cancer free at this point but he has an abscess at the amputation site. Has anyone else dealt with this kind of problem before and if so, what did you do and how did it go? I was unable to speak with my vet directly yesterday and she is out for the holidays now. All I know is she drained it and gave us Baytril for 14 days. An abscess sounds serious. He just came off of 14 days of another antibiotic for an infection at the site. She did say that there may be a stitch left in there that he is reacting to but she couldn't find any.
Any responses greatly appreciated! We are very new to this and could us all the help we can get.
thanks,
Pam and Rusty
pb1221 said:
...An abscess sounds serious.
Hopefully Tazzie's mom – a veterinarian – can chime in here, but this may actually just be a seroma which is perfectly normal after amputation surgery.
We wrote about and posted pictures of post amputation seromas in the blog. In a recent post, we also answered the seroma question.
We hope this is all it is and thank you for joining the discussion. Be sure to keep us posted.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hello,
Jerry is right a seroma is much more common than an abscess, but Baytril is a heavy-duty antibiotic so I'll bet your vet is treating the latter. An abscess is full of pus rather than serum, but both are treated with drainage. An abscess often needs surgery to cut out dead tissue and to place a drain tube. Dead skin and muscle can also slough from the wound, making a big mess!
I would follow your vet's direction here. Most abscesses respond well to antibiotics and drainage.
Pam and Tazzie
Thank you so much Pam! We are very fortunate to have your support here in the forums.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Pam & Rusty -
Do I understand the post correctly that Rusty just came off of Baytril for the infection/abscess?
Dr. Pam - If above is the case, maybe a culture is in order to get the specific antibiotic? We did that when Calamity developed the abcesses at the site of her bottom screw when she still had her hardware in.
I could be totally wrong here when it comes to an amputation where there is no hardware and an abscess pops up. Calamity got repeated abcesses when she still had her hardware.
Janie & Calamity http://www.trix.....gspot.com/
Hi there,
The way I'm reading the original post is that Rusty was on a different (un-named) antibiotic for 14 days and now the vet is trying the "super" broad-spectrum antibiotic, Baytril, for another 14 days to see if it will knock out the infection. I'm not a vet, but if the Baytril doesn't work, it would certainly seem that a culture of the fluid would be the next best step.
Your friends, Blazer, Kitty Kimber & Mom (Vicki)
I think the dog has just been put on Baytril recently. A culture is a good idea if the infection does not respond to the meds, but the dog needs to be off of antibiotics for 3-5 days or the culture is usually negative.
Dogs with hemangiosarcoma seem to have more problems post-op, maybe due to the fact that this tumor involves blood vessels.
Pam and Tazzie
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