Update

I picked Buster up from the vet yesterday after work. I wasn't prepared for what the metal sutures would look like. I assumed it would be similar to regular stitches (start at one end of the incision and then kinda sewn through to the other end)...but each of the metal stitches is tied off so there are metal ends sticking out from EACH stitch and the incision is pretty long so that's a lot of ends sticking out. Once I touched the metal ends, I felt a little better about it. They looked like they would be really stiff but they're softer than they appear. Still not what I expected though. And there's a small open area to encourage draining. I don't deal well with looking at regular stitches so this is taking some getting used to. They would prefer I don't put a shirt on him to allow the area to breathe, plus the shirt might get stuck to the metal pieces. The vet also put him on a additional antibiotic. He's now off the muscle relaxer (last dose was the morning of 7/30) and he seems to be doing well without that.

I'm very impressed with how he's doing walking! I think he made a lot of progress over the past week...it just wasn't apparent because he was so bandaged up that he didn't feel like walking. He is walking SO much better now! His appetite was the best last night that it's been since his surgery. And he was quite a fighter last night when it was medicine time - he seems to really be getting his energy back! He also got up on the couch this morning. That's the first time he's done that in a week and a half (and that time he was heavily medicated from the pain patch). He seems to have learned to use the little step I set up to help him up and down from the couch. I'm hoping he does well today while I'm at work. I'm worried about him messing with the area or the stitches. He seems to be doing ok for now though. I hate to put that e-collar on him if I don't need to.

Incision closed again and crossing our fingers!

I dropped Buster off at the vet at 7 this morning, then stopped to take care of something on the way to work. When I was pulling into the parking lot at work, the vet called me. She was already done! She said when she got in there ,there wasn’t much more dead tissue but she removed everything she saw and got down to some good healthy looking tissue. She also cleaned up the edges of the incision (to make a fresh edge). She felt comfortable with closing him up! YAY!! He doesn’t have a drain but they left a small opening at the bottom of the incision to encourage drainage (I’ll need to apply warm compresses to that to keep it open). She closed him up with metal sutures (apparently out of all the ways to close a wound, that’s the least likely for your body to have an adverse reaction to). She’s also going to put him on an additional antibiotic just to be on the safe side. She said for what it is, she’s very happy with how it looked. So now we’ve just got to wait and see what happens. It might heal up or they may need to open it again and go back in. Just hard to say at this point. From what I understand, this is somewhat rare. She consulted with one of the specialists at CVS about this yesterday also (actually the same doctor I saw when I went there prior to deciding to have his leg removed). She said the part that’s a little concerning as that due to all this, there’s a little bit of empty space in his body under the incision…so that may or may not cause a problem but there’s not really anything they can do about that. So I should get to pick him up after work today and assuming all goes well, he won’t need to go back till Monday.

so it's not really an infection.....

Infection = I've had that word in my head since this all started last Thursday. The tech at the emergency vet initially told me that was what it was. After talking to the vet again today, I'm clear on the fact that it's not an infection. The culture shows no signs of bacteria. It's something kind of rare that happens for no known reason where the tissue fails to thrive and dies off. My vet has researched and talked to her vet friends and no one has an answer as to why this happens. It just does sometimes. She's so upset that this has happened to Buster and that he's having to go through even more. I know she's doing everything she can to make him better and he gets such excellent care at the vet's.

He went in Monday and Tuesday for a bandage change and cleaning/irrigation of the area. Today, she said she was very pleased with how it's looking. She said for what's going on, it looks really good. She plans to sedate him and go in and cut away as much dead tissue as possible either tomorrow or Thursday. Once she can do that, she'll have a better idea of the status and what to do from here.

Stupid infection.........continued

Friday morning, I planned to call the vet as soon as they opened (7am) - but my vet called me at about 6:50am (the emerg vet had faxed their office the report). She couldn't believe all that had happened. She agreed with everything the emerg vet had recommended and told me to bring him on in and they'll do the first cleaning today and he can hang out there today. So I took him on to the vet and picked him up after work. They put him on a new/stronger antibiotic (Clavimox) and cleaned the area. She was really surprised the infected area was so large.

Saturday morning, I took him back for it to be cleaned again. When I picked him up, the tech said the vet said she felt ok with skipping Sunday (I would have had to take him to the emerg vet since my vet is closed). So I'll take him back on Monday morning and then pick him up after work. The tech said hopefully it will continue to do well and he might not need to go every day next week...maybe we can go to every other day.

Poor little guy! He still seems to be feeling pretty good. I think he's a little bothered by all the bandages.

It's so discouraging this infection happened. Tomorrow should have been the day that the staples would come out - that would have been big milestone on the road to recovery. Instead, he has a stupid infection and we're having to deal with an open wound. I just want him to get better and get past this. It's so sad when he looks at me with his sweet little baby face...he seems so confused by what's going on and why all this is happening to him. I feel so awful about the infection - like it's somehow my fault. Bless his little heart, he's been such a trooper through all this. He's so good at the vet's, even after all this. They always comment on how good he is and how sweet he is. Gidget's been wonderful too. She's usually quite hyper and very curious so I was concerned about how she'd do with him while he's recovering but she's been great...I guess she knows that her brother is a little sick so she's got to be careful around him.

Hoping for good news at the vet's this week!! Hopefully we'll get this thing closed up again this week and be back on the road to recovery!!

Back from the emergency vet

I got to pick up Buster and got home a little after midnight. The doctor said they had to pretty much open the entire incision. They cleaned it out and cut away the bad tissue and then "laced it up". I need to call my vet when they open and then take him in daily until they can close it. After it's closed, he'll need a drain to help it heal properly.

He was still coming out of anesthetia when I picked him up but he seems to be feeling ok this morning.

Gidget is not quite sure what to think of all this...

Nasty infection :(

This morning, I noticed a tiny wet spot on Buster's his shirt (he's been wearing shirts per the vet's suggestion)...it was about the size of a pencil eraser or maybe smaller. I peeked under his shirt and saw a little wet place next to his incision. I called the vet and she said it sounded fine, that some drainage is normal and to keep an eye on it and let her know if it changed.

I got home after work and when I walked in the door, he got up out of his bed to go potty (they use pee pads) and I noticed that half of his shirt was wet. So I freaked out and picked him up to see what was going on. I was having a hard time lifting his shirt up because it was wet and I was worried about the staples (the incision is LONG) but what I could see did not look good....so I just wrapped him up and we jumped in the car and headed to the emergency vet (regular vet's office was closed). I got to the vet and they took him back, cut the shirt off to examine him and finally I got to go back and talk to the vet. Bottom line is that he has a bad infection - apparently it's common for infections to appear suddenly like this (it had been there for a few days "brewing" but just suddenly became visible). She said in these cases, the infection grows underneath and then comes through very quickly where it finds a weak place (in his case, beside his incision where the staples were going into his skin). Of course I had no idea the names of all the meds he's on so I had to go home, get them, and go back. He's there right now and I should be able to get him about 11:00 tonight. They're going to sedate him, open the area, clean it as best they can, and remove the tissue that's bad/dead/dying. They can't really close the area because of the infection and they need to be sure the infection is gone before they close it back up so I'll have to take him in daily to have it assessed and re-bandaged. Hopefully after a few days, they'll be able to close it. The other concern is that there's not a lot of skin there and what is there is already pulled tight so if they have to cut away much because of the infection, that may lead to other problems.

Poor little guy! He's been through so much. He seemed to be feeling ok though which made me feel a little better. He was very alert and sat up in the car (propping himself up with his one front leg).