jerry said

You are correct: activity can cause seromas to appear or grow larger.Sounds like his will be fine though.

As for the skin irritation, I don't have experience with that but I know others here do.

Try not to worry about his appetite, it'll come back.

Turns out he doesn't have a seroma , just a little seepage from the incision. There isn't a bubble of fluid under or around the incision. However, we took him back to the vet because he developed a fluid pocket on his tummy that I was concerned about. See my update below. His skin irritation is discussed below too. The appetite did come back!

krun15 said

Is Meeko licking the shaved area?  I don't remember Mag having any issues like you describe so I can't be much help there.

Mag didn't have a seroma from her amp, but she did get one when her first tumor was removed about 6 months earlier. We only had a little bit of seepage and it didn't have to be drained.

No, he is not allowed to lick the shaved area. He did try a few times when the irritation first popped up but he hasn't tried lately and it seems to be going away. Turns out Meeko doesn't have a seroma !

lez4u2 said

I used cheese (his favourite) to get him to take them and by the end of the meds he was refusing cheese!

Cheese is what I turned to also!! It works like a charm at the moment but I am not blind to the fact that he may figure out the cheese trick just like he figured out pill pockets LOL. If and when that time comes, I'm sure I'll figure out another trick to try.

AngelAbbysMom said

We totally tempted her appetite w/ canned food - she especially loved the Newman's Own Organic Beef & Liver stuff.

Canned food worked!! We got all kinds of flavors - liver, lamb, venison, duck, chicken, beef, you name it. We were able to get him back on his dry food by tempting him with the yummy canned stuff.

GerrysMom said

I'm too late to add I guess that a vet recently told me that she knew canned pumpkin is good for constipation (in dogs), but didn't know it was good for diarrhea too, until I brought it up (learned that tip from Jerry's pack).  Pumpkin - a miracle food, apparently.

Yay Meeko the therapy dog!!!  Gerry got registered with Pet Partners earlier this year.  I think we're finally going to start visits this week.  We got delayed by some weird health issues with Gerry this summer, but we finally beat all that nonsense!  We've got several tripawds on here who do animal therapy stuff.

Not too late at all!! Its always helpful to add things to the toolbox to use later on as an option. Its good to know pumpkin can be used to settle their stomach. Meeko likes pumpkin. In fact his current dry food is chicken, pumpkin, and sweet potato.

Congrats to Gerry on registering as a therapy dog!! Good luck to you both on starting your visits this week. Which type of facilities will you be working at...nursing home, childrens hospital, rehab center, etc.? Its so rewarding to see how happy patients get when you and your dog visit with them. It brings such a smile to their faces

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So as a general update on Meeko (because I've been so tired each night this past week that I haven't update since Wednesday night),overall he is doing very well. Thursday night his appetite was back full force and he was eating his normal dry kibble. It took some canned food to tempt him but it seem like once his tummy juices were flowing he was wanting to eat anything that he normally would.

Friday was my first day leaving him because I had to work 9am to 6pm but my mom came to doggysit for me until my fiance got home from work. She said she struggled to keep him from overdoing things. He was up standing a lot trying to play and walk around. She made him stay down for the most part to rest. Things seemed great Friday night (day 4 post-amp).

Then on Saturday morning as I was doing my morning routine with him, I noticed a small fist sized lump on his tummy (same side as the amp). It felt like a small water balloon below his skin. I attributed it to fluid build-up but was concerned about how far away it was from the amp site. Not only was there a fluid lump but a decent amount of redish/purplish bruising traveling up the lower part of his tummy. I had to go to work so my fiance took him to the vet and he saw the same vet who did his surgery.

Turns out Meeko was running a 105 fever!!! My poor boy was coming down with an infection. The vet said the fluid build up and bruising is normal. Both travel to the area of least resistancy. To fight infection, the vet put him on a second antibiotic, Metronidazole. He's getting 750mg twice per day. He is also on Cephalexin which is the original antibiotic he was prescribed right after surgery.

By night fall on Saturday his fever was gone, back down to 102.1 and then 101.8. (I check it at home). The vet told me to ice the incision and the fluid pocket twice per day so I started that last night. Meeko seemed really out of it last night. The trip to the vet took A LOT out of him.

Then today, Sunday, he woke me up telling me he had to go outside. We went out and he peed and pooped. He came in to eat breakfast, drink a lot of water, took the Rimadyl, Tramadol, Cephalexin, and Metronidazole.

Today he had no fever. I've been closely monitoring his temperature. He slept a lot today presumably still worn out from the trip to the vet yesterday and because he probably is fighting off the infection. The incision is doing well. The bruising and swelling near the amp site has improved so much since he first came home 5 days ago. The bruising on his tummy is fading and the fluid pocket is a lot smaller today.

I feel good with his progress, despite the bump in the road with the infection. Oh, and I almost forgot to add about his skin irritation from the shaving!!! It got really super irritated. Red and itchy and he was covered in red pimples which were filling with a pusy fluid. The vet said to buy Betadine solution, which is a surgical solution used to clean the skin before surgery. It is iodine based and is an antiseptic. I was instructed to dilute the Betadine solution with warm water until it was a light tea colored liquid. The Betadine straight up is a dark brown liquid.Then I soaked a clean cotton rag in the diluted solution, rang it out, and layed the rag over his irritated skin. The wet rag sits for 10 minutes on the skin and then is removed. Its not about rubbing it or scrubbing it into the skin, its merely about contact with the skin the vet said. I then took pure water and wiped down the area to rinse away any residue. Then I put the fan on so it blew the damp skin dry. 12 hours later the redness was gone and the little pustules were scabbing over and disappearing. To anyone whose dog develops skin irritation, I highly recommend this treatment after having it approved by your own vet