TRIPAWDS: Home to 25032 Members and 2170 Blogs.
HOME » NEWS » BLOGS » FORUMS » CHAT » YOUR PRIVACY » RANDOM BLOG

A slight set back

Hey everyone, it’s Ryan again.  I just wanted to give everyone a quick update because we’ve had an interesting week.  It started on Monday with the amputation being done without any complications and Eddie was able to come home that same night.  Tuesday, Eddie was doing as expected, he lounged around most of the day and seemed to be sore, but we expected that from the beginning because, let’s face it, it was a big event and procedure.  I had to work my shift (24 hours) on Wednesday, but Sarah did tell me that she noticed some swelling around the surgical site and extending to his underside, but again, this was something that was expected.

And then I came home Thursday morning to find what appeared to be blood all over Eddie’s bedding, the carpet, wood floors and so on.  I took a look at Eddie’s site and found the swelling that Sarah told me about.  I also noticed some drainage coming from the site, but to me, it didn’t look like much.  I monitored Eddie for the day and when Sarah got home from work, we decided that he needed to be seen as soon as possible.  Because the DVM that did the amputation is closed on Thursdays (he teaches at the local Military college) we ended up going to the local emergency vet clinic.  The emergency clinic gave Eddie a thorough check and decided that the surgical site was infected.  The clinic gave us some antibiotics and gave us the option of either having the site opened, drained and re-stitched at their facility on Thursday night or, at the suggestion of the clinic vet, go see the vet that did the amputation as soon as possible and have him decide on a course of action.  We decided to return to the original vet and have him take a look.

Fortunately, Sarah was able to take Eddie to be seen this morning and the vet was very positive.  He said that he had given Eddie a long acting antibiotic at the time of the surgery which should last about 7 days, which will be Monday.  He looked the site over and said that, even though the site is draining, everything looks OK (because the stitches are intact, there’s no gapping at the incision and a couple other reasons).  He told us that the extra antibiotics would help and to keep giving them as prescribed and to keep an eye on the site.  He said to come back if we noticed any gapping at the incision or if the stitches get damaged, come back, but other than that, come back as originally scheduled.

Thanks again for keeping track of our story and we’ll keep everyone updated on Eddie’s status and condition.



6 Comments so far

  1.   Angela on March 8th, 2014          Reply

    Sorry to hear about the bump in your road! This recovery process can be so challenging! Glad to hear the vet is positive. Did they have you do ice compresses the fist day? We had to do that with Cody to keep swelling down. Just a curiosity. Keep us updated 🙂

    Cody and Family

  2.   benny55 on March 8th, 2014          Reply

    Awww poor Eddie! A whole lot for a puppy to handle.

    Check out seroma on the site and that can also give you things to look for. Seromas can be nasty looking things. As long as the drainage isn’t smelly and a couple of other clues you’ll read about for seromas, Eddie should be okay. Guess they took his temperature and that wss okay.

    I’m sure he’s staying quiet and not movng around too much. I kow this is jard, but Eddie’s sparkle will be back in no time. He’s so lucky to have you!

    Please keepmusposted,okay! We sure love Eddie!

    Hugs!

    Sally and Happy Hannah

  3.   maximutt on March 8th, 2014          Reply

    Well shoot, I hope Eddie is feeling better real soon. We’ll be keeping him in our thoughts for a speedy recovery!

  4.   fourminipups on March 9th, 2014          Reply

    Hang in there Eddie.

  5.   jerry on March 9th, 2014          Reply

    Whew! Sounds like the vets are on this, all good news from what I can gather. Infections suck, but most times they’re cured right away if you catch them early enough. You did, kudos to you for being on top of it.

    Hugs to you & Eddie, we hope a great week is ahead for all of you. Keep us posted.

  6.   biffngab on March 11th, 2014          Reply

    That cold/ice compress idea is a good one in general, and doubly so to relieve the discomfort of infection. We read your initial adoption post too. Eddie sure is lucky to have you. Every dog should be so lucky!

Leave a Reply