PrairieProf

Good idea, but it would be pretty hard for me to manipulate the full-size bed and box spring in a tiny bedroom without assistance. It's just a basic metal under-frame at least -- not a particularly high bed. Beth is an excellent leaper, and does seem to take care with that foot. Hopefully she is OK getting off as well as getting on.

The vet just cleared Beth to get on the furniture again! She is going to be sooo happy to be able to lie on my bed (which my friend has dubbed The Giant Marshmallow) again, her favorite place. Still going to try to prevent her from running into the bedroom to get on it with a flying leap, though. The foot is looking good except for that rubbed knuckle top -- even there the scab is getting smaller but it still looks so red and shiny and hairless. I'm not that much expecting it's going to grow hair again after the repeated abrasions, which will draw visual attention to her duck foot.

I'm so sorry you didn't have more time with your wonderful boy.

Glad she's so much better! What happy news. I don't have any experience with the not-eating situation, but just to throw in one more suggestion since no one else has made it -- Hill's A/D? It's designed for animals recovering from illness, and is supposed to be nearly irresistible, as well as densely nutritious. Also very squishy and easy to force-feed if you need to. I've used it for cats before.

Good thought, and it's something we can do easily if we need to. She is doing so well now!! She continues to walk just fine without the wrap on. Some more scab came off this morning from the area(s) between her toes -- crumbled under my fingers as I was dabbing some antibiotic ointment on. It came off so easily it must have been really ready. The worst-looking area is where the deep abrasion was on the top of the knuckle from the wrap, but it's scabbed over and I know it's just a matter of time (though I'd be surprised if it actually grows hair back there).

Kristin, what aspects of the toe would you envision acupuncture for? Beth's regular vet does acupuncture, and she had it when she had minor neck problems a couple of years ago.

Well I have an exciting update: The vet cleared Beth to walk outside without her foot wrapped, just wearing a toddler sock and her Pawz boot to keep the still-healing areas protected. We did it for the first time this morning and all seemed fine after! I am really happy about this (and actually pushed for it a bit) since the wrap has endlessly re-irritated an abrasion on the top of her remaining middle knuckle, no matter how much I pad. So I think that will finally be able to heal up now. And it's nice to know that her good walking outside is not a function of wearing the wrap -- she seemed just the same without it. I'm letting her out of the crate at home some (still not into the bedrooms, as she tends to do running leaps onto the bed). Last night I sat on my couch with her lying on one side of me with her head against my leg and my cat snuggled on my lap -- that was sooooo nice, just to be next to her and able to pet her as I watched TV. One thing I'm not so happy about is the fact that there is a rounded lump on the top of her foot right above the amputation site -- at first I thought it was just edema but I've realized it's pretty hard. You don't see it when she's standing, but when she's at rest it makes the foot pretty misshapen. I asked the vet about it this morning and he said he's not worried about it -- could be scar tissue, could be related to the end of the foot bone poking up. Too soon to tell if it will go away. I will say it doesn't seem to bother her at all -- I can press on it quite hard. But I know this isn't standard for a toe amp. But since the vet doesn't seem to think it indicates a problem, I'll try not to worry..... I asked him today too about putting Beth on some kind of arthritis supplement -- she doesn't have any signs now but I'm expecting she will develop problems in that foot. He thought that was a good idea (though he didn't seem to regard it as particularly urgent) and recommended Dasuquin -- any thoughts?

The vet tech reported that when she took Beth out during the day, Beth got "big air" twice before they even reached the grass! She said she'd never seen a dog go straight up in the air with all four feet like that. (Is it a sighthound thing, BTW? I know a Deerhound who does it too.) I'm glad she's feeling better, but we're not quite ready for full nutball Beth to reappear! Guess I'd better give all the techs and kennel attendants a lecture on the "greyhound grip".....

Sweet and beautiful boy!!

I'm happy to report that Beth's foot is really looking a lot better, even to my eyes, though it has a way to go to complete healing of the granulation areas (maybe a week or two to my unpracticed eye). I got nervous Saturday night when I realized that the scab had rubbed off on our late walk and it looked pretty raw underneath, though I realized it was healthy granulation tissue. But it's dry now and progressing. I've started to let Beth out of the crate a little bit to walk around my living room (I keep the bedrooms and stairs shut off). I have hardwood floors so she never does indoor zoomies or anything, and the foot looks healed enough that I can't see how some unwrapped walking would hurt it. I'm assuming it would be good to get her used to walking on the unwrapped foot in a gradual way, too, since at some point we'll transition to her doing that outside. Big cute-but-scary moment this morning: as we were doing our mini-walk before going to the vet, we were crossing some grass and Beth suddenly did one of her trademark giant leaps in the air! She hasn't done that since her original injury. She landed hard on all feet and didn't hold the amputee foot (wrapped, of course) up afterwards. Nice to see her acting like herself, but of course not recommended for healing -- fortunately the tech reported to me that her foot still looked OK after!

I guess it's good that she does use it ... though it would heal faster if she didn't! Just brought her in from our last outing and she just wanted to keep walking but I wanted her to poop so we ended up going further than ideal -- back to a small bit of blood on the wrap, sigh. If nothing else she keeps endlessly re-irritating that rubbed knuckle, even though we have it well padded.

No major news for the past couple of days . . . Beth is continuing to show progress but it's a slow process. She got the remaining original stitches taken out yesterday (some had been taken out earlier when she got the subcuticular sutures put in). The crate rest protocol will continue over the days ahead -- the granulation areas are healing but they have a way to go. There's very little exudate on the padding now when I remove it after she's been outside, so that's a promising sign. Beth is being amazingly great about it all and actively loves her time at the vet -- you never saw a happier, waggier hound than when we go through the door there every morning. I hope she doesn't get depressed just stuck with me for the rest of the weekend now! She walks well and trots too, and isn't taking breaks to sit down any more though our walks have been very short. But her foot is still clearly really tender -- last night I tripped on my pathway and spooked her and she took a leap, then held up her foot. I am surprised now at all the old comments I've read about dogs who were running around the day their stitches were removed. This is a much bigger healing process than I expected. The foot looks so odd when she stands on it with the big gap where the toe was -- I know some people have said their dog's foot reshaped itself to sort of fill in the gap. If you've seen that, how long did it take? My vet was sort of "it might, it might not" when I asked him about it. Edited to add: A couple of hours later -- does she get extra style points for this one??

Same here!

I am so sorry for your loss. What a beautiful, sweet, happy-looking boy.

I don't think your dog looks fat either -- maybe could use better muscle tone; she doesn't seem to have a lot of definition. But I'm going to disagree about the weight goal. My dog raced at 57, looks great 57-59 and OK at 60, but at 61 and over she's getting on the side of too heavy. My vet has a scale in the reception area so I check her a lot, and know now what weight = what look. I'm definitely in the camp of keeping them within a couple of pounds of racing weight. (But I'm pretty fanatical about my own weight as well, so factor that in.)

OK, Beth is officially in love with the Jess, vet tech who took her home for the weekend! She was there when we came in this morning and Beth repeatedly tried to jump up on her and was all smiley and waggy and excited (she rarely gets that way for me!). Jess also said that yesterday Beth could hear her voice but not see her and she started whining and scratching at the crate bars. I'm definitely a little bit jealous, though I'm glad they hit it off! Jess was the one who unwrapped her foot this morning and she said it looks great. Even I am seeing progress, however modest, I must admit. Meanwhile my vet is away yet again until Friday ... this time taking his daughter to college orientation (the other week he was taking her on a graduation vacation). Why the heck does he have to be such an attentive dad?!? And four more kids in line after this one.

So glad there's some positive news -- and that the vets really made an effort to get the antibiotics on hand.

Back home from another day of vet boarding -- at least Beth gets to be in two different places to do her crate rest, so it's not quite as boring for her, and she has lots of different people to interact with there, which is what she likes best! Things look pretty much the same from my perspective. It's frustrating to look at the foot; I'd like to see more signs of healing. But I had a good chat with the very experienced tech who explained that the shrinking of the most visible wound (where the stitches ripped on the inside of the remaining middle toe) would be the last thing I'd see, only after all the granulation underneath has taken place. And I can see that area is still sort of concave. But she said that in the "apex" between the toes (the main amp site) where the stitches also ripped and it had to be left open, there is granulation and signs of filling in from underneath, and she thinks the healing is on track. And I guess every day that passes makes it less likely there are going to be further complications or skin tearing, right? So it's just going to be a lot of patience. The knuckle abrasion is getting better, and the foot as a whole is starting to regrow hair so it doesn't look as plucked-chicken-like. At least Beth is happy, eating well, and being a cooperative patient.

Got her home just now -- I left her at the hospital until 5 p.m. The foot does look a bit better -- drier, healthy in general, though there's still a pretty good pit in the area where the deepest tear was, and the top of the remaining middle knuckle is still irritated (and worse after the wrap to get her home). I see the lump of edema on top of the foot is still there too, whether or not it was at the hospital. I hate how it looks worse when we get home than five minutes earlier when we were there with the vet -- kind of juicy and more open -- stresses me out so much! The vet said he took out some stitches and they cleaned it up. He is full of praise for what a great, relaxed dog she is and how much they enjoy having her in the hospital -- much commentary on her roaching! We'll be continuing the day-boarding at the hospital this week; I need nine hours a day to have a life and not feel I have to constantly keep an eye on her.

Welcome! Another QCGA person here. I remember Little Bear's and Mary's pictures from the website! Very happy to have you here on GT.

I don't really have much to add, but here's a picture from this weekend of Beth (who lives with a cat) meeting a new cat for the very first time while staying at a vet tech's house. I think she is a little shocked the kitty is coming up for such close contact; my own cat is fully over her initial nervousness about Beth but chooses to keep a certain distance. Beth has also behaved politely (VERY interested but not predatory) with cats she encounters up close outside while she leashed. (My neighbor has a cat who goes outside occasionally who is so dog-friendly she runs right up to Beth and starts rolling around on the ground in front of her! Not the smartest move, kitty.) When Beth sees a cat outside at a distance, she gets very excited and makes noises that seem prey-driven to me -- it's like up close, she recognizes the cat as a fellow pet; at a distance, it's just a small animal she'd like to chase.

Oh, how incredibly stressful and frustrating. Poor Albi! Hope things turn upward from here. Going through a smaller version of post-surgical complications with Beth I have just the tiniest taste of how upset and worried and angry you must be.

Thanks Lindsay. What you suggest is pretty much exactly what we're doing, so that's encouraging -- wrapped only for the briefest possible walks and crate rest with no wrap and a muzzle with stool guard (we have it tied around her throat with a strip of gauze) the remainder of the time. The wrap seems to create pressure or rub sores like crazy now (though it didn't all the time we were wrapping the original toe injury) so that's another reason we can't leave it on. Fortunately she can't really rub the muzzle between her toes, and she's tolerating wearing it much better than I expected. I mentioned the Granulex to my vet(s) and it wasn't something they'd used, but I have Bactine at home and may try it if you say it helps dry the wound. Wrapping and unwrapping the foot so many times a day is really exhausting and emotionally draining for me. It helps to day board her in the vet hospital so the techs can take responsibility for the foot and for keeping an eye on her with the muzzle for that part of the time. The open area is not that large in absolute terms so I hope hope hope it won't take that long to heal, but even minimal walking seems to pull it open -- hopefully less and less. It seems so far away right now that my dog will ever be able to take a normal walk again with an unwrapped foot, but the tech reports her foot looks "great" so we'll see what that actually means when I pick her up tomorrow.

Thanks, I'm going to go! Though even after an epic sleep last night, I still feel like I could sleep all day. I guess it's nice for Beth to have the mental stimulation of a new place when she can't have physical activity.

Jess the vet tech sent me a picture of Beth at her house -- guess she's not missing her mom too badly! I'm sure this cat's friendliness made her very happy. (Jess assured me Beth went into her crate with her muzzle on shortly after -- she'd just had a potty break and a snack before this was taken.) I myself would not let Beth have immediate unleashed/unmuzzled access to an unfamiliar cat, but Jess said her cats are very dog-savvy. Nice to see Beth really truly is cat safe. Edited to add a pic from Sunday morning, just returned from a potty outing. She looks so happy -- she hardly smiles like that at my house. Jess says she's doing great and her foot looks great -- hope she's right about the latter!