Update:  Unfortunately the infection in Sheldon's elbow has gotten worse.  Yesterday there was some more necrotic tissue found right on the pressure point of his elbow, probably due to it not getting enough blood flow.  He's been lying on it most of the time.  This caused one of his sutures to become undone.  He was sedated and the vet further debrided the dead tissue and cleaned out the wound and packed it with a calcium alginate dressing.  The hope here is to allow the wound to heal openly through a process called secondary intention with the alginate dressing that is further wrapped with gauze and vet tape.  Meaning they don't want to suture it closed (primary intention) and trap any infectious bacteria inside.  The goal is to allow the antibiotics time to clear the infection and allow proper healing.  The alginate dressing will absorb the excess fluid and it forms a protective gel to promote further healing.  Pretty interesting as these dressings are made from seaweed!

He's also got a fairly elaborate padding arrangement made from pipe insulation wrapped around his lower forelimb to try to elevate and prevent the elbow from directly taking on his weight or impact when he lies down.  One of the vet techs actually ran out to Lowes to get it!  The dressing / padding arrangement will need to changed by the vet every few days.  We go back tomorrow for the next check.  I'm glad they will do it as they can also monitor the progress.  It's going to take time but we're hopefull we can get this under control.

We're still awaiting the new culture results but he's now on a new antibiotic called SMZ TMP in addition to the Baytril he's been on for about a week.  This may be tailored again pending the new results.

Also I'm not sure if this will affect his next chemo appointment next week - I'll need to discuss with the oncologist if we want him to still have the chemo with all of this or not.

The amputation was a walk in the park compared to this.  The bright side is he still seems to be handling it in stride - my true warrior!

Update:  today’s bandage change showed no further damage and the wound appears about the same.  It’s still going to take some time but at least it appears stable.

He’s been on the amikacin now for 4 days with another 3 to go.  I’m getting pretty good doing the injections!👍

Good news is that his urine test results are still normal and show no signs of kidney damage.  So we’re good to continue with it.  I’ll take that as a small win.

Our oncologist recommended postponing his next chemo treatment which was supposed to be this week until next week.  We'll see how this week goes.

His next check and bandage change is this Thursday.  Fingers toes and paws crossed for some progress.  Stay tuned…

Cheers!

Rob