Osteo Thread Part V I I

[Guest fastcasper]

Casper has been delayed for a week because his white blood cell count was a little too low. SO, we will try the Doxo again next week. He tolerated it well.

[TwiggysMom]

I'm sure it's disappointing to wait a week, but I think it's always best to err on the side of caution. He should do well with the doxo next time too!

 

 

Here's a Twiggy anecdote for you all...

 

Last Saturday morning I wanted to sleep in later than usual. At some point, Twiggy decided it was time for me to get up. She was already on the bed (which is funny enough, since the first 5+ years with me, she was absolutely convinced that the world would come to an end if a dog got on a piece of furniture!), and...

 

She started stomping her front leg (her only front leg), playbowing, and barking her big girl bark at me: woof Woof WOOF WOOF WOOF!!!!

 

As adorable and hilarious as it was, I also knew I absolutely could not let her ploy work, because I'd never sleep until the alarm went off again, so I did my best to ignore it (which worked!). But it was so cute and funny, I had to share. She continues to evolve into a different dog; I am so happy that she is still here to do so.

[Guest fastcasper]

I have had Casper 7 years and he still comes up with new things to surprise me with. Twiggy sounds adorable!

[a_daerr]

Well, I guess we need to induct Henry as an honorary only member of our club, and I couldn't possibly be happier!!!

 

It's bittersweet, because although I'm so happy for my guy, my heart breaks for everybody in this thread.

[greysmom]

Henry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

:rotfl Twiggy! :rotfl

[MP_the4pack]

I'm so glad I got to meet Miss Twiggy at GIG. I got to see her wonderful sassy personality. You go girl!

[a_daerr]

I think we're dealing with an infection. Thicker, whitish bloody discharge coming from those two little holes. He's already on Cipro and Cephalexin. I'm flushing it 3-4 times a day with sterile gauze, Chlorhexidine, then prescription ointment. Hopefully it clears up soon, lest he end up back in the hospital on IV antibiotics. He seems a lot more subdued and sleepy today.

 

Those of you who dealt with infections post-amp, am I missing anything? At what point do I take him back to the vet?

[krissn333]

I'd hope what he's on will knock it out. Hopefully others with more experience will chime in.

[greysmom]

Dude had to go back in for surgical debridement for his infection. I'd give the AB's 3 to 5 days to see if they can knock it, and then take him in. You don't want it to spread too far. Add in very warm (as warm as he can stand) compresses on the affected area. This will help the blood flow clear it.

[a_daerr]

This is Day 2 of the Cipro. He's been on the Cephalexin for over a week. I'll give it a few more days of hot compress and ABX. If that doesn't work, we'll head back to the specialty vets.

[KF_in_Georgia]

I think you want to plan ahead: It's Wednesday night/Thursday morning now. If your specialist is available on Saturdays, you might want to call in the morning and set up an appointment for Saturday. If they're not open on Saturday, try to get an appointment for late Friday.

 

If he's suddenly better on Friday, you can cancel the appointment early that morning. But if this hasn't turned around, you don't want him home and sick on the weekend, with you maybe facing an ER visit.

[Guest LazyBlaze]

Sounds like very sensible advice from KF_in_Georgia. 'Safe back bowl' as my gran would've said. Hope the antibitics can get a grip on it though. Gentle hugs to Henry.

[Victor]

Did they culture it? If not, you might ask them to do that this time. If it's a strain that's resistant to certain antibiotics and they don't culture it, the antibiotic Henry's getting may not be doing any good.

[a_daerr]

I think you want to plan ahead: It's Wednesday night/Thursday morning now. If your specialist is available on Saturdays, you might want to call in the morning and set up an appointment for Saturday. If they're not open on Saturday, try to get an appointment for late Friday.

 

This is a really good idea. We have an appointment for Tuesday, but I'll call and give them a heads-up if we should need to come in sooner. I think the surgeon prescribed the Cipro as a backup in case he developed an infection that Cephalexin didn't cover. But I think I'm more concerned about the possible need for IV antibiotics if things don't start improving. I flushed the wound this morning and applied warm compress, and more bloody whitish discharge came out.

 

I talk to Henry while I'm fixing him up. Today, I said, "Henry, your mom really must love you, because she is ready to puke right now." DBF had a good laugh.

[Guest fastcasper]

I say something similar to Casper as I am pulling (gently) grass out of his butt. He is part billy goat and loves to eat grass.

I hope the infection calms down. It seem in greyhounds infection closer to the surface area can spread faster because they don't have the fat to "slow the infection" down. I had to do 2 debridements on one of my greys, it seemed the infection almost spread right before my eyes.

[a_daerr]

Called the vet, and the surgeon wants to see him tomorrow. He's been on the Cipro since Monday night, so it should be getting better, not worse.

[Guest fastcasper]

I'm glad you are getting Henry in sooner rather than later. Keep us posted!

 

Kim and Casper

[MaryJane]

Called the vet, and the surgeon wants to see him tomorrow. He's been on the Cipro since Monday night, so it should be getting better, not worse.

 

 

Glad to hear this -- better to catch it earlier than later. Did you check to see if he has a temperature?

[TwiggysMom]

So, as you know, Twiggy had a post-op infection (pseudomonas a .- highly antibiotioc resistant, to the point that if I could have even obtained the proper antibiotic from a human hospital, it would have cost me about a year's salary)

 

Twiggy's vet (she didn't have an oncologist yet) called the local e-vet and one of their surgeons thought she would be a good candidate for their vac-therapy unit. It is a surgical sponge that is implanted in the infected site and sealed, with a suction tube attached which constantly applies suction to drain the wound. This literally "sucked" the infection out, and she was healed without antibiotics. (She was still on general antibiotics to prevent additional infection, but her "bug" was not sensitive to those antibiotics).

 

She did have to be hospitalized for an additonal 5 days for this, because it is quite a heavy unit, and she had to be constrained and supervised the entire time it was on.

 

First step is culture to find out what bug Henry's dealing with, hopefully it will be sensitive to a readily-available antibiotic and he won't need to be admitted to the hospital again for anything!

[a_daerr]

Huh! How cool about the vac-therapy! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Henry has an abscess that can be drained and treated with a different oral antibiotic. It seems like whatever it is is kicking his butt because he had another 'off' day today. Poor guy.

[a_daerr]

He had an abscess. They drained it and sent a sample out for culture. We should know in a few days if it's a type of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. He actually seems to be feeling better today. I saw his first ever tripod roach! And he chewed on a bone for awhile.

[4My2Greys]

Now that's a little better Henry report. One thing you might want to consider using if it is an antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria is the surgical pads impregnated with Manuka honey from Medihoney. Manuka honey has been proven successfull at fighting antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.

[Victor]

Alicia, I'm glad you were able to get Henry's abscess drained and cultured. I hope they can prescribe an antibiotic that will take care of it.

 

Wendy, that's incredible that the antibiotic for Twiggy would've cost you a year's salary! Thank goodness vac-therapy was an option.

 

Lana's had a rough two weeks. We made the mistake of trying Palladia one more time, and it really did a number on her GI tract. She's still not completely recovered, but at least her appetite and energy level are improving. She's on cerenia, metronidazole, and sucralfate, plus neo/poly/gram eye drops for conjunctivitis, which also came back after the Palladia. I'm so angry at myself for trying Palladia again after she had reactions to it the first two times. Aside from being short of breath at times, she was otherwise acting completely normal before the third Palladia dose. Now I've robbed her of two precious weeks.

[TwiggysMom]

Victor, I never did get a firm quote on the antibiotic, but that's about what it was looking like - so the two thousand for the vac-therapy and hospital stay was quite the bargain in comparison

 

I'm sorry Lana has had such a tough time with the Palladia. I put Twiggy through exactly the same thing. After about a month or so, she had a bad reaction to Palladia, so we took her off it for a couple weeks, then I gave her a reduced dose (per the oncologist's recommendation), and she immediately had a really tough time with it. While the worst of it was over after a week or so, her system is only now getting back to it's original "cast-iron" shape. Of course, she also maxed out on iv chemo and Metacam, so she did take a few hits along the way.

 

The medications you are giving her should help her get back to feeling well pretty quickly. This is all such a guessing game. Trying to find dosages that are high enough to be effective and low enough to keep them comfortable. Unfortunately, there is no way to know ahead of time what either of those things are.

 

Alicia, I'm hoping Henry is feeling better, and the culture comes back quickly!

[a_daerr]

Henry is doing better. As I was cleaning up that spot last night, I pressed a certain way, and A TON of gunk came out. The draining has really slowed down since then. He's making some more strides behaviorally- went down the stairs and out the dog door on his own today. He even played in the yard with Truman for a few minutes until I put the kibash on it. He's still sleeping 80% of the time, but his energy and personality is coming back in small amounts. What a relief.

 

Some more questions. Now that we're close to two weeks post-amp, can I start scaling back the Tramadol? The vet recommended I start doing this once it became apparent that his pain was lessening... only, he's pretty stoic, so I have no idea how much he still needs. He's currently taking two Tramadol every 8 hours. If I scale back, should I dose in the same increments, but half the amount? Or same amount, but less doses (maybe just once or twice a day?) Can I just stop cold turkey and continue with the Rimadyl? Is there a likelihood of him going through a withdrawal period? I have no idea if dogs can become dependent on opiates like humans can.

 

Also, he is going down stairs like a pro. No problem at all because he gets a good momentum and he doesn't have to overthink it.

But he really hesitates going up. I can't get him to budge. Can a dog with a rear amp eventually re-learn going up stairs? If so, any tips to re-train would be a big help.