Drake's Healing Progress - After Mass Removal From Both Left Legs

[Guest eaglflyt]

Wonderful news!!! I'm praying that his back leg doesn't reopen and that his front leg closes completely in the near future! Hooray for Drake! : )

[Guest greymama002]

that the healing continues and the bandage can stay off!

to Drake!

[Xan]

Yeay!! Bandage off (knocking on wood), and healing in the front leg!

It is a mystery about the front foot not healing, but I'm still holding out lots of hope for the sugar treatment.

 

Hugs to you and Drake!

[Guest FLT]

Update:

 

Rear leg stayed closed even while we were away in Florida - and although he has some significant atrophy in that leg from lack of use for 3 months it is nice to see it starting to look better and I am pretty confident it's going to stay closed at this point. He is limping to favor the rear leg quite a bit.. probably needs some rehab.

 

Front paw did not appear to have any healing in the last 6 days since the prior bandage change per Dr. Prostredny, and in fact he thinks it might have gotten a little bigger again although he noted it was very hard to tell. Without asking me, he put in a couple of mattress sutures to try and draw the skin closed a bit over the wound but says that the skin is so thin he thinks they will rip out.

 

(personal note - could you please discuss the situation with me before putting sutures you think might rip out in my wide awake dog's paw?? I'm more than a little annoyed on that one!) I brought him home and gave him Tramadol, because he was obviously in discomfort from the procedure.

 

Dr. Couto was out of town and said he'd get me the info about the sugar treatment today (he needs to talk to the surgeons about it to confirm what they do).

 

Drake's next appointment is Wednesday - so hopefully I'll come prepared with the info so we can get trying it.

Edited August 24, 2009 by FLT

[Xan]

Just did a quick search of natural wound treatments, and that Manuka honey just shines out (anti-inflammatory, pain relieving, scar reducing, antibiotic properties especially superior where resistant bacteria are present, and supportive of tissue regrowth). I hope you can get started on that soon for Drake's poor foot.

 

I'm with you! I was shocked to read the vet just slapped in a couple sutures, on an awake dog, with the nearly full conviction that they'd rip back out! Doesn't that A. HURT, and B. just make the wound that much worse?? Hello!

 

Super news about the back leg staying closed, though! I imagine it's stiff, as well as weak, from being held tight and unused for so long. Hopefully, it will begin to loosen up and gain some strength now.

 

Hugs and scritches to Drake!

 

 

[Batmom]

I'd expect he lidocained before he put the stitches in.

 

If you'd BTDT and it hadn't worked, yeah, reason to be a little peeved. But probably worth a try. I remember more than one such incident with my angel B, when vet said "this isn't gonna work" but it did. If it does work, protects the healing area better than anything else.

 

Hugs and best luck.

[Guest FLT]

He told me he did not lidocaine, because it burns.. he figured that a couple of stitches wasn't going to hurt much more than being numbed up for it..

 

I'd like to see someone stitch him up without any numbing agent!!

 

Also.. he had better ask me about it before you do anything else! He's going to get a discussion he will not want on Wednesday - I was so shocked today I honestly was without reaction until after I drove away.

 

I hope that the stitches help, or if they do rip out that they actually stimulate some healing in the area because of the extra damage.

 

Thanks for the input :-) I'll send another update after Wednesday afternoon's appointment, or if anything happens in the meanwhile (hopefully not!)

 

Drake is relaxed and comfortable on Tramadol - I am very glad that it works well for him, and without some of the side effects it sometimes has on other pups.

 

FL

 

 

I'd expect he lidocained before he put the stitches in.

 

If you'd BTDT and it hadn't worked, yeah, reason to be a little peeved. But probably worth a try. I remember more than one such incident with my angel B, when vet said "this isn't gonna work" but it did. If it does work, protects the healing area better than anything else.

 

Hugs and best luck.

 

[Guest FLT]

Update:

 

This afternoon's appointment went well. I made sure to talk with Dr. Prostredny about my displeasure about the sutures being done without consulting with me first and he was very apologetic and embarrassed by his error. He quickly saw my point of view (even though I did deliver that message much more tactfully than I thought I would be able to manage). Before we ended the appointment he circled back around to make sure that "we were okay" - and I think he would have offered up another surgeon if I wanted to switch, which I did not. I feel very confident that he will not do something so unthinking again.

 

Drake's front paw continues to hold the stitches (yay!) - and the skin is drawn over the wound pretty well because of the stitches and he hopes that it will continue to hang in there and do some healing that way. Our next appointment for wound check is on Friday.

 

I still haven't gotten info from Dr. Couto about sugar - he's having a busy week and did write me back to let me know they were slammed. I expect he'll get back to me sometime this week anyway.

 

I am worried about how little Drake is willing to use his rear left leg.. it's very very stiff and he doesn't want to put it down most of the time. Now that his front paw is sore again he is trying to hop around on just the right legs, so we've been giving Tramadol twice a day to keep the discomfort down. I got another round of pills so I have them on hand to give as I see fit.

 

We appreciate all the continued good thoughts. We are now 14 weeks post surgery (tomorrow) - maybe by the time we get to 5 months we will be able to think about taking the bandage off his front paw, poor guy! When I started this thread I had NO idea it would be SUCH a long term thing!

[Guest eaglflyt]

Bless Drake's heart ... and yours. I hoping the healing continues quickly and that his leg strength and mobility improves steadily. Hugs to both of you!

[Guest FLT]

Update: Drake's stitches continue to hold (fingers crossed!) and his wound is looking okay. Dr. P isn't sure if it's healing or not, but time will tell. He has left an area open to allow drainage, but has the skin pulled across "most" of the defect.

 

I did finally heard back from Dr. Marin regarding sugar treatment, and it turns out that their surgeons actually only use it in infected wounds - so we should have done it a month ago, and now that theoretically his wounds are not infected now it is too late to use it. That said, if it gets infected again I'll be all over it.

 

Dr. Marin wrote the following in her email:

 

"I talked with one of our surgeons yesterday and he said that they use sugar just in infected wounds. The wound should be irrigated with a saline solution, then filled with sugar and covered with a moist gauze, and then cover and wrap with an elastic bandage (not to tight); the procedure has to be repeated every 24 hours."

 

Next appointment is Tuesday afternoon at 4:30pm.

 

Cheers,

 

FL

[sweetdogs]

Ack - sorry about the sugar treatment (but cool to know how they use it). You can still use manuka honey though.

 

Dr. P sounds like a great guy - glad you've cleared the air (especially since the stitiches seem to be working).

 

Next up for Drake is some physical therapy - maybe massage? even acupuncture?

[Batmom]

Fingers crossed that the stitches continue to hold and help the area heal.

[Xan]

What Sweetdogs said!

 

Thanks for keeping us updated! Poor Drake.

 

As far as PT, how soon can you start something? I'm thinking about what a habit it can be to avoid using the leg, and how that can be ingrained long after the leg is useful. Wabi never did learn to use her one goofy leg, mostly because of habit, and despite enabling surgery and PT. Your situation is different, since he had been using the leg before, but still.... :

 

Sending always good healing thoughts!

[Guest FLT]

Xan - good thought on the PT. I'll have to figure out what we can do, considering he really can't use the front paw/leg all that much either. I've been doing some gentle massage on it, but am not sure if it's helpful (although Drake says it feels good).

 

I think that Drake may have pulled those stitches out last night while we were out. Got home to find he had bled/oozed through his bandage, something he has not done for a couple of weeks. ::sigh:: Oh well - maybe it will stimulate some healing anyway. He's not gushing or anything, so no need for an urgent trip back to the vet. Just will put another layer of bandages over the existing one as needed until we get him in on his scheduled visit Tuesday afternoon.

 

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

 

 

[Guest FLT]

Update: This afternoon's vet visit was eventful. I of course figured that the stitches had come out, but in fact they are still in place. His front paw is just doing a lot of draining again. Good news that the stitches are still there!

 

I made sure to point out that his back leg is getting WORSE and not better, that he is not using it much at all, and in fact it was starting to swell in the last couple of days. Dr. Prostredny took a good look at the leg and asked my permission (very carefully, I might add) to use a tiny, tiny gauge needle to aspirate some fluid from the leg and send it out for cytology and for culturing to see what is going on. He made sure to say that by putting even a tiny hole in the leg, it may go back to the draining thing and we'll be back in bandages... but I need to find out what's going on, and make some improvements. Drake just doesn't get along well on only 2 legs.

 

The fluid he removed was bloody (not entirely blood - but had some blood in it) and he found it very weird, and isn't sure what's going on. ::sigh::

 

Next appointment is Friday morning at 8:30am, hopefully at least the cytology report will be back - although of course culturing takes longer.

 

Ugh.. I really didn't know this thread would be around for so long when I started it! 2 weeks of healing, blah blah blah.. yeah right!

 

Thanks to all for your continuing good wishes. :-)

 

[45MPHK9]

thinking good thoughts for you and drake.

[Guest Flint]

Poor Drake. Hopefully your doctor can figure out what's going on and make him more comfortable. I'll send lots of healing thoughts your way.

 

 

[Guest kydie]

[Guest Energy11]

Many hugs to Drake from us!

[Xan]

Oh man! It just keeps going, huh?

 

Maybe this fluid will give the docs some new, useful, info to go on. Poor guy. He's so lucky to have you in his corner!

 

Have you considered the Manuka honey treatment, in addition to what you're already doing? I wonder if it might not help turn the tide, at least on the front foot. *grasping hopefully at anything*

[Guest eaglflyt]

I'm still thinking of Drake and you ... and praying for him to recover fully soon!

[crazygang]

Shame you're both going through this painful situation for so long........sending well wishes from across the pond

[Guest FLT]

Update: Decided to add Metacam back into Drake's pain meds at dinner last night and he was obviously feeling a lot better with that on board. For his vet visit today Dr. P agreed that Metacam was a great idea to continue with, and I'm going to keep him on both that and Tramadol for a bit before seeing if I can take the Tramadol off. If he doesn't look right he'll stay on both.

 

Front paw stitches continue to hold, skin is still pulled most of the way across the defect but it doesn't really look like it's healing - just holding. Less drainage this trip anyway.

 

Rear leg cytology results came back as "blood" - so they aren't sure why there is free floating blood in the leg. Cultures don't appear to be growing anything yet, but results are not yet final. Dr. Prostredny said he has no idea why there is blood in Drake's rear leg, but wonders if there really is hemangio in the front maybe he also has a little bit in the rear leg and that might be leaking blood. Of course there is no way to tell without opening up the rear leg surgically and we are not going to do that just yet. I'd like to get him fully healed (front and back) from the FIRST surgery 15 weeks ago before opening anything back up!!! Dr. P didn't recommend surgery either, but noted that he is running out of things to test and that he (and all the other experts we've consulted) is scratching his head over it all. Drake remains an enigma.

 

On our way out we met another greyhound (very briefly because he was called back just as we came in) who had obviously had a relatively recent amputation of the rear leg due to osteo. He looked good! Still had stitches, but was moving well. Owner and I exchanged admiring glances at each others hounds and I asked her if she was on Greytalk. She hadn't heard of it, so I quickly told her the URL and hope she'll find her way here. If I'd be thinking I'd have written it down for her. Hopefully she'll pop in though.

 

Drake's next appointment is Wednesday morning.

 

Xan - I know that my house is so unclean as to be dangerous to consider unwrapping Drake's open wound up on a regular basis here - so I'll probably wait another few weeks before thinking about broaching the Honey idea on the front paw. I am really hoping the wound will get the idea to close up with the skin so close together now. ::fingers crossed:: There is no way we can do a daily trip to the vet.. both monetarily as well as for our sanity.

 

Oh, I did ask Dr. P if I could start taking Drake on VERY SHORT walks. I think maybe getting that rear leg moving a little might help with re-absorption of that blood - or at least it's worth a try. Dr. P doesn't want to risk the front stitches, but agrees that maybe a very short walk might be okay. We'll try that every couple of days over the weekend to see how it goes. (He said, no more than a block). I know Drake will enjoy the change of scenery!!

 

I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!

 

FL

[Guest FLT]

Update: Drake has been taking both Metacam (liquid, once per day) and Tramadol (75 mg twice a day) and I've been encouraging him to do some very light exercise to move the rear leg more. Something, be it medications, exercise or just time, has helped and the swelling is down a great deal in the back leg and he appears to be more comfortable using it - although when he first gets up from a long nap he favors it much more.

 

Today's vet visit went well (and we didn't have to wait very long for a nice change!). The cultures were finalized as negative on the rear leg, so that's good news I think (except that they came back negative from this lab before when only a week or two later Dr. Couto's lab identified 2 bugs from the same leg - but all we can do is keep on trying to find answers here). Dr. Prostredny said that the stitches continue to hold, but that the front leg continues to drain. He's concerned that maybe there is a bug growing in the front that it is continuing to drain so much (especially as it wasn't really draining much a while ago and now it's worse again) - so if it's still draining on Monday at our next visit he will take a sample from the front paw and send that one for culturing. I'm in favor of going with another month of antibiotics, but it would be nice to know which type to use if possible.

 

I asked how long the stitches can stay in, and he said that he wouldn't want to go any more than 3 weeks - so he'll be taking them out sometime next week - probably Friday. It will be only then that we'll find out if they did any good for getting the skin to heal over top of the defect, or if it's just being held in place only by the stitches.

 

So the good news - Drake's rear leg did show signs of improvement in reduced swelling and increased use. Bad news, front paw is draining a lot again.

 

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend, and that this "short" week is a good one.

 

Cheers,

 

FL

Edited September 9, 2009 by FLT

[SIGreyLady]

Keeping you and Drake in my thoughts and prayers.