Hi all,
I am at a loss and and am looking for any help you can give - thank you in advance.
We adopted our greyhound, Benny Goodman, on Feb. 20th. Today is Mar. 12, almost three weeks later. He's been having medical issues since the moment we picked him up and we are super stressed out and exhausted. He is our first greyhound. I've grown up with English setters all my life, but Benny is my first dog of my own.
When we picked him up, I sat next to him in the backseat on the way home and could see that his 3-day old neuter incision looked red and swollen, but never having had experiences with neuters before, didn't think that was too much of a problem since he was new out of surgery. 5 days later, we were in the ER with an incision so swollen around the stitches that it looked like a hair scrunchie, and it was open and weeping pus. He was lethargic and sleepy - cant imagine how bad he felt. 10 days of clavamox and twice daily warm compresses helped. Still not totally healed, though, almost a month out, and had to pull hair and gunk out of an open part of the wound the night before last. Looks better today. Still coning him at night or in the kennel when we can't watch him.
Towards the end of the clavamox, I gave him a dose of interceptor - the adoption agency gave it to me to give to him in order to continue his medication that he had been on with them.
Benny was feeling better so we decided to let him run a little bit for the first time off leash in a fenced in area. There was also a guy running his toy car all over the place and although we avoided him, he followed us and ran the car around the outside of the fence to taunt the dog. Benny lost his mind and was sprinting around jumping and barking. It happened too fast to see what was going on, but all of a sudden Benny was limping, holding his paw up, and a few hours later, the toe was super swollen and a dark purple bruise has formed. Another visit to the ER, they can't determine if there is a break or not, so they gave him the carprofen for 3 days - foot is now fine, still a bit swollen but no limp and bruising is gone.
But now, the dog has bad diarrhea. We discontinued the carprofen at the onset of the diarrhea and moved him to a bland diet - chicken and rice, with added water to keep him hydrated. Called the ER vet and they said that it may or may not be related to the carprofen but unless the dog is knocking on death's door, just keep him at home. I am freaking out because just now had a small but very dark and bloody, mucousy poop. This is entirely new from his previous liquid brown diarrhea that he's had the past 48 hours.
My partner and I are exhausted - we've only had him three weeks. We have an appointment a week from today with a regular vet that we scheduled weeks ago - they can't see us any sooner.
Is this just bad luck, or is something going on with the dog that is underlying? He is so sweet and gentle - I've never known a dog like this before, to the degree that I keep wondering if he is feeling really bad all the time. I've only ever known my own dogs to be so calm and gentle and patient when they are feeling really poorly.
Any help you can provide would be so so appreciated.