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

[Guest FLT]

Drake's foot is doing okay today.. unfortunately he isn't using his left rear leg at all now.. I think he must have slipped while trying to potty and may have finished tearing that ACL that was probably already partially torn. I'm guessing that we've got knee surgery pushed forward on the priority list now.

 

Perhaps he will actually heal cleanly from this one - oh wait.. he doesn't DO that! (insert hysterical laughter here)

 

Sorry - perhaps I'm getting a bit punchy from all the snow. We are in the midst of a blizzard now of course.. and I do love snow, but I hate to think of the pups trying to potty in it soon.

 

Cheers

[Guest eaglflyt]

Continued prayers for Drake. So glad the biopsy was benign! Good luck with the healing and the knee surgery we have coming up. : )

[Guest ss556]

Thinking of Drake.

[grey14me]

Just sending hugs and prayers :hope

[Guest IrskasMom]

Thinking of Drake and his Ordeal . Ton's of Hugs and Prayers for Drake

[Guest jerrybird]

Thinking of you and Drake this morning.

[Guest FLT]

Thanks to everyone for their positive thoughts.. it seems to be helping :-)

 

Drake is getting better at getting around without using his back left leg - his knee is not able to bear weight. We are helping him up the several steps into the house after potty breaks, and he is otherwise manage okay most of the time (with occasional boosts if he gets stuck trying to get up). I'm getting better at helping him too - poor guy.

 

I am posting photos from Feb 8th, and from last night (the 10th) so you can see the healing progress - but I'm putting the photos behind links so you don't have to click if you want to see oozy looking wounds.

 

Feb 8th - Drake's Toe Feb 8th 2010

 

Feb 10th - Drake's Toe Feb 10th 2010

 

We appreciate everyone's continued good wishes for Drake. Once I hear about what they are going to do with the school schedule I will get him in to see the Surgeon about his knee, and back to the vet who is working with us on the toe. (Not allowed to miss school - we get one lecture but if we miss more than one we can be removed from the RN program).

 

Cheers,

 

FL

[Guest eaglflyt]

Well, it looks to be making good improvement quickly. I'm so glad. Here's hoping for it to continue ... and fast.

[Guest FLT]

Just back from Drake's recheck for his right rear toe.. the wound is healing (will do updated photos sometime this weekend) with good granulation. The final results on the culturing came back this afternoon and Drake has... MRSA (doh!)

 

Hubby and I have an appointment on Monday with our doctor for nasal swab and culturing to see if we are the vector (carrier) of this resistant strain of Staph Aurelius.

 

The Clindamycin he has been on is not up to fighting the MRSA, so we are going to go pick up his prescription of Chloramphenicol next (the local vet doesn't carry it - but the surgical specialist we've been seeing has some - so we are getting the script filled there). He gets 14 days of that, and then a recheck of his CBC (because this medication can affect white blood cell levels). We are also to apply Mupirocin ointment to the wound on his toe twice a day. I'm going to need to invest in more bandaging materials!

 

I have to wonder if this has been a problem all along though.. If the Baytril is able to be bacteriaostatic (not kill the bacteria, but not let it spread either) vs. this strain of MRSA I wonder if he has a systemic infection of it for the last 4 or 5 months even?

 

Anyway - going to go bandage the woob (he is drying out after his Betadine solution soak and then we apply the ointment and then bandage him up).

 

Cheers to all,

 

FL

[Batmom]

Who knew, eh? Glad you found it, tho. I was just going to post, why the heck won't he heal????! That sure could be it. Fingers crossed.

[Guest eaglflyt]

WOW! I'm glad you found out the infecting organism. I'm wishing you success with the right treatment. Ady Bea sends Drake a big hug!

Edited February 13, 2010 by eaglflyt

[EllenEveBaz]

Sending healing, anti-MRSA thoughts.

[Guest FLT]

Well Drake has decided that there is not enough cream cheese in the world to cover up the taste of the new antibiotic (not helpful that we have to give three tablets, three times daily - that is a lot of pills!). I tried bread after we failed with cream cheese, but he was already in a "spit it out" mood.. 4pm dose went down, but it was by force down his cute little throat. I'll have to go buy some liverwurst before the midnight dose.

 

I also had an acid controller and some tramadol to give him, so after he had recovered a bit I went over with cream cheese again (including his pills in little balls of it like usual) and had to pry his mouth open and force him to take the (non-pilled) chunks of cream cheese for a while until he decided that they tasted good again. Then he eagerly took the rest of his pills.

 

His knee is really really sore today - he tried to get up to greet us when we got home from running errands today and we could hear him crying out in the living room and he wasn't able to get up then. We got in and it looked like his bad knee side (that's the left rear) was all kinds of cramped up. I gave him a massage and it eased, but he wasn't willing to get up for a few hours. When he got up - was because he wanted to avoid me shoving pills down his throat. Don't I feel like a mean mommy now?

 

A couple of hours before pill time I tried to get him up and he wasn't having any of it.. I put a big peanut butter cookie (the kind from Trader Joes - nummy dog treats) a few feet away from him and instead of getting up he slithered on his side like a sideways snake to get to the cookie.

 

I was able to get him outside to pee while he was up, and then he took a nice long drink. While he was outside I fluffed up the dog beds and covered them with clean(er) sheets. Need to do a bunch of linens for laundry tonight!

 

Drake and I are both exhausted now.. Hubby is napping, so I guess he was pre-exhausted. Kaylee likes all these attempts at giving pills because she gets a share of the cream cheese and/or bread each time. She is rooting for Drake to continue to spit things out.

 

Cheers to all,

 

FL

[Guest Energy11]

OY! Just reading your post tired me! You are amazing, and Drake is VERY lucky to have you!

[Guest FLT]

I uploaded the last few days worth of photos too.. will put them behind links again in case you aren't into healing wounds.

 

He has some good granulation going - so hopefully if we can get the MRSA on the run he can heal this up a whole lot faster than his last wounds. I think that being able to take it out of bandages and give is some air every day will help a lot.

 

These photos are all taken after he has been out of bandages for at least an hour (or several), but before we do the Betadine cleaning.

 

Thursday Feb 11th - Drake Toe - Feb 11th 2010

 

Friday Feb 12th - Drake Toe - Feb 12th 2010

 

Saturday Feb 13th - Drake Toe - Feb 13th 2010 - don't mind the fuzzies, they'll come off in the soak

 

Hubby is up now, finishing digging out his car. After he comes back in I"m going to tag out for my nap!

 

Cheers,

 

FL

[Guest FLT]

Oh - I ordered $90 worth of first aid bandaging supplies from online suppliers this morning. That sounds expensive (and it is) - but it is about a quarter the price I pay in store for the same supplies - and I figured they won't go to waste around here!

 

Among the items I got - 40 rolls of Vet Wrap (30 in the 4" size, and 10 in the 2" size). I also got a bunch of sterile rolls of stretch gauze, and even found some cast padding material to wrap around his leg too - that is what they did at OSU and it was great! Way nicer than the rolled gauze for absorption of oozing stuff.

 

I should do a pictorial on "how I bandage the dog" sometime.. maybe tomorrow if Hubby is willing to help. My bandaging job is getting rave reviews from the vet, LOL.

 

Now I think I'm for bed.. g'night everyone!

 

FL

[Guest FullMetalFrank]

Wow... I just read thru some of the updates, you and Drake have really been thru the wringer! The toe does look better; and I hope the MRSA thing is under control. Poor kid.

[Guest IrskasMom]

How is Drake today ?By Reading the last few Updates,my guess is that Drake is getting better. I have a strange Request , I would like to see Pictures not of his Auweee Foot , but his kissable Nose and Face. Is that possible??I feel so badly for him and I want to kiss his long Nose.

Edited February 14, 2010 by IrskasMom

[Guest longdoglady]

Poor Drake, nasty MRSA, heal well sweetie.

 

 

[Guest FLT]

Drake and I had a Valentine's Day photo shoot - just for you! He wanted me to invite all the ladies to give him kisses for his nose and face. :blush

 

I'm having trouble getting photos to show directly now.. so I'm sorry they are also behind links.

 

Oh, there are ladies out there on the internets asking for me?

 

 

Well lets get with the flashy thing, mommy!

 

 

I spend a lot of time lying around on my bed, but there is room for extra cuddlers!

 

I am getting sleepy now, but please give me more kisses on my nose.

 

 

 

How is Drake today ?By Reading the last few Updates,my guess is that Drake is getting better. I have a strange Request , I would like to see Pictures not of his Auweee Foot , but his kissable Nose and Face. Is that possible??I feel so badly for him and I want to kiss his long Nose.

[Guest Energy11]

HOW Handsome! Thanks for Sharing!

[Batmom]

Aw, happy belated Valentine's day, sweet boy! *I* would kiss your nose for sure.

[crazygang]

What a sweet precious boy he is........lovely photo's thanks for sharing.

I hope and pray he gets well soon.

[Guest IrskasMom]

Was just Thinking of Drake and how is he doing ??? Well , what a kissable little Schnootie he has.I love this Pictures

Now I have a Face to his Injury's.

Edited February 20, 2010 by IrskasMom

[Guest FLT]

I have been a busy girl with the RN program sucking my life away, but I wanted to let all of Drake's fans know that he is doing very well. We saw really great progress with healing once we got into week 3 of the nasty antibiotics of doooooom. (Drake will not take them in any food at all - we have to just pry his mouth open and throw them to the very back of his throat. I am always afraid I"ll pitch them in while he is inhaling and he will suck 'em down into his lungs instead).

 

We went back to Dr. Prostredny for a consult on his knee again on Friday, and he concurred that we could go ahead and leave the bandage off the "MRSA foot" - it seems to be in great shape, and unless he licks it open we are to leave it unbandaged while we finish up the 4th week of antibiotics. Hopefully that will have the MRSA entirely licked, and we can work on the knee next.

 

We have decided to wait a few weeks after finishing the antibiotics for the MRSA to make sure nothing else swells up before proceeding to working on the torn cruciate ligament. We are talking about surgery on that (oh joy, more open wounds for Drake) in mid-April if everything goes as we hope.

 

Drake did start using that bad knee leg (left rear) again a little bit just a few days ago - so he has recovered back to about where he was before he re-injured it in the snow on or about the 10th of Feb. I guess he just needed a few weeks of rest.

 

We decided to reduce, and then eventually to eliminate his Tramadol as his knee got better. We are currently only giving one Tramadol if he starts showing signs of pain, but mostly he is just fine with his daily dose of Metacam (which we have no intention of taking away - it does a TON to help him).

 

I've got a boatload of daily progress photos from the toe healing process to upload, but they are going to have to sit on the camera for a little longer. I've also got some cute pictures of his handsomeness too - again, they sit on the camera but maybe sometime in the next week or so I'll have time to pull them off.

 

Drake says hello to all his ladies,

 

FL