Abscess won’t heal

Poor little lamb, he’s feeling extremely sorry for himself and is very wobbly on already wobbly back legs. The vet made an elliptical cut, removed all infected tissue and said there were several tiny encysted abscesses under the swelling of the bite wound, so antibiotics would never work.
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The vet said he stopped breathing several times during the operation and that he was very ‘flat’ throughout as well as afterwards. At first she wanted to keep him in but then phoned to say he was getting very stressed so he’s home. Starving but unwilling to eat and flopped onto the lawn and I had to pick him up and bring him inside.
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Aw poor lad, glad he is back home with you, I'm sure he will be more himself after a good nights sleep. So it was just the original bite causing the problem, no foreign body ?
 
Poor lad and poor you!

I usually think that once the surgery and immediate recovery are over, they make better progress at home in familiar surroundings with people that they know and trust.

It certainly is a big operation site.
 
Aru said:
Hope all went well with your boy!
And yes it really does help to know a bit more about what we do with anaethetics in the hospitals. Its less scary when you know a bit more about them so il throw a brief summary here.
Our senior anaesthetics get bloods, fluids and specially modified drug protocols depending on what old age conditions they have and how they present. All if the above is not alway required for every animal or at each clinic for the record!
Theres usually 3 steps to anaethetics.
Using a mix of premeds-anxiety and pain relief meds usually-taking away the pain and fear makes a lower dose of the other anasthetics.the lower the dose rate the less likely you are to have issues with blood pressure etc and it also makes putting in ivs less scary for the animal.

induction agents-given intraveneously by dose required for each animal,these causing a swift and stress free introduction to the anaesthetic sleep.sometimes we use these on their own for very short procedures.

gas anaethetic and oxygen given via an e.t tube that can be increased or deceased by breath.The tube also allows us to breath for the animal if required.

We leave an iv in give fluids throughout surgeries to maimtain the blood pressure.The iv also means any required drugs can also be given asap if there are any issues during the surgery.
These steps tend to produce reliable controlled anaethetics.
We have multiple monitors.
Breathing alerts that alarm if breathes drop below a certain rate.
Pulse ox that means oxygenation amounts and heart blood pressure rate monitoring etc
And most importantly a nurse whos hands on watching the animal checking rates and making sure everythings going well while the vet works. People are much more relaible then machines.Machines produce errors sometimes or give incorrect results as it the nature of technology a nurse being hands on is priceless.
Most small animal anaesthetics methods and drug lists are very similar to human medicine. There is a risk involved in everything in life but there are multiple steps present to try and catch issues before they are big issues.

Hope that helps any of you out there that are worried.
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This is really interesting and useful, thank you Aru :) I always had bloods and fluids every time Islay had an anaesthetic, and I always had to be a neurotic owner and tell the vet that greyhounds don't take anaesthetics very well....

The induction meds you mention, would that be when the vet puts the dog under very quickly then can give them another injection to bring them around again equally quickly? I've seen that used when they stitch up the greyhounds, it is amazing :)
 
Multiple infected cysts under the original bite wound, so I suppose many foreign objects! I think that must mean that the original bite left behind multiple bits of stuff, fibres from the dog’s ball, mud, leaves, who knows? Vet said she’s never seen anything like it. They said they’d never seen anything like the ‘thing’ on his left ventricle either :rolleyes3: I’m glad I saw an older vet who agreed that it needed opening up and rolled his eyes at the amount of antibiotics he’d been prescribed.

I’m just glad he’s home, although he doesn’t know where to put himself, bless him.
 
Out of interest what was it that made you change your mind about getting it done? I'm often faced with owners who really don't want a GA for their older dogs (sometimes due to cost simply not being worth it especially for the working dogs, sometimes due to fear of GAs for the pets). As a younger vet I don't tend to push too hard to make people do what they don't want to as they'll just ask to see one of the 'men' in the future who will just give them the antibiotics without discussing GAs and testing. I always offer what I think is the best option but don't go on about it when it's been clearly stated as not an option. I have several on my books that are having 'palliative' care when really doing more would get them out of pain and in better health so wondering what I should do when next faced with one to get better quicker results for the animals!

Glad he's made it home! Bet he sleeps well tonight but hope he starts to pick up soon :)
 
I didn’t have a choice, really, rara. The abscess wasn’t healing and I thought there was more to it than a simple abscess. I can’t lie, the idea that he might not make it crossed my mind, a lot, but how else were we going to sort this? The vet who agreed to cutting it out said he’d have a tube down his trachea, there’s lots of monitoring. Seeing Vet on the Hill last week and the amount of times animals stop breathing but him being able to get them back helped!

One of the ‘men’, rara?! Jeez, do you live in the 1950s?!

Little lamb has been even more confused than usual tonight, sleeping in odd positions/places, but is finally interested in food and followed me to the kitchen. Yay!
 
So glad he's on the mend, hope he perks up in the morning. That's a huge area they've had to operate on given the original bite area. Suzie says she's sending over some of her biscuits to make him feel better :)
 
He’ll bite the hand for biscuits! Back to usual perkiness this morning, but with lots of whining, probably last bit of anaesthetic wearing off.
 
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I don't think it's rara living in the 1950s, it's some of the clients!

I too find it interesting how people decide to anaesthetic or not, I wonder whether because I did loads of vet work experience a fair few years ago (not adding it up!) and everything was tubed and very well monitored so I would always think that (and I presume the vet on the hill did similar for you).

Pleased to hear he is doing well, and hopefully it will heal up and not give any more bother :)
 
He was tuned throughout, stopped breathing several times, I think the vet was panicked given how she spoke to me afterwards!

Dementia dog has taken to whining with separation anxiety, him being 2 feet away from us in the hall, us being in the sitting room. Bless! He’s perky, hungry, usual self.
 
cinnamontoast said:
One of the ‘men’, rara?! Jeez, do you live in the 1950s?!

!
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Rural north essex! I'm the only female but also the youngest. We're actually owned by a lady who spends most of her time abroad so many of the clients don't know her (she is a vet), it does make me smile when they say the receptionist said it would be OK for XYZ on the phone :) No, that's actually the boss :p I'm building up my bank of clients but most days will take a call for someone who wants to see one of the boys (which we happily accommodate) or when I go to call them in they say oh I thought I was seeing one of the partners (we have no partners....).

Thanks for that :) I'd never have considered people didn't realise that GAs were intubated with the capacity for ventilation and monitored closely (the only ones we don't intubate are rodents and camelids), will remember that!
 
Glad hes on the mend cinnamontoast!
I wouldnt worry to much about the breathing. They will have kept on top of it and taken breaths for him because we monitor for things like this and then take the steps required to keep on top of it.

But we always let owners know about issues so they can give the likes of the emergency vets/new vets if you move the heads up etc . Easier to anticipate and have the drugs ready to fix or avoid breathing issues if you know to expect the problem :)
Sounds like it was definately a good idea to cut though!
 
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