Colby’s Surgery/1 wk Post Surgery

His surgery was done last Thursday morning, October 7.  It was a tough morning.  We were comfortable with our decision–although there were no options that feel good– but so nervous about the surgery and recovery.  Doug went with me to take him this morning–I knew I wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone—plus, he wanted to be there.  I  did pretty good until we had to say goodbye.  Doug stayed with him and walked back to the entrance to the back part of the animal hospital where surgeries are done, etc.  He also wanted me to take pictures of him  (and me) with him this morning in the back of the car with all 4 legs.  He was all clean and pretty since I just bathed him.  They told us we should hear something between 11:30 and 2pm about how surgery went.  I was nervous as all until then…maybe I should stop the constant flow of coffee ; ).

I got the call from the vet just before 2pm.  Thank goodness everything went well–which was expected, but your mind tends to get a little overly dramatic when waiting 2 1/2 hours to find out.  Doug & I were both just giddy that afternoon with relief. 

Although I had looked at a lot of pictures, pickup the next day around 4pm was scary for us.  First, when the vet came in to talk to us before bringing Colby in, he made the statement he was anxious to get the labs back on the leg to know for sure what it was.  This was the first we had heard anything other than bone cancer.  From x-ray, his “cancer” was in his elbow and was above and below the joint.  I had not yet read that OSC does not jump the joint as a rule, but my vet said those words.  So now it was not likely OSC, but might be another form or cancer or even a type of degenerative arthritis.  He left the room to get Colby and we were somewhat in shock at what he had said.  When he brought Colby in, his wound was not covered and was dripping a bloody discharge–probably to be expected, but we hadn’t expected it.  He seemed confused and distraught.  Once we got him home, I sat in the back of my SVU with him for an hour and he seemed to calm some. 

Getting him home with his family made a huge difference.  The vet sent Colby home with 400mg/day of Etodolac, and 1gm twice daily of Cephalexin.  I asked if that was enough for the pain and said I had Tramadol, and he said I could give him that.  I had found out earlier in the week before the surgery, what his maximum dose was for weight, so asked him if 400mg every 8 hours was ok and he said yes. 

The first days were a blur.  He perked up on Saturday when my parents came and spent the day with us.  He had the hopping down.  But by Sunday, a small section of his outer stitches was pulling away.  We had not been given instruction to cover the wound, in fact assumed uncovered must be best since that is how he gave him to us and didn’t tell us otherwise.  However, we did have a t-shirt on him.  They had forgotten to give us the cone, but I wasn’t too jazzed about putting one on him and the t-shirt has done the trick.  On Sunday there was also a lot of discharge and I wrapped it for the first time.  I called the vet’s cell later that day Sunday to ask about the area where stitches were pulling away and about the diahrea he was experiencing.  He said yes, it is good to bandage, because a covered wound heals better than an uncovered one.  He assured me the discharge was normal and that he had considered putting a drain in, but then didn’t.  He said to give him some immodium–one dose now and one later that night, for the diahrea.  I decided he had been moving a little too much and decided we really needed to limit that.

Next day, Colby’s wound was continuing a large amount of discharge, but in checking for heat, it seemed fine.  However, more outside stitches were pulling.  With it wrapped and him in a t-shirt, he was not bothering it, but just the tightness I suppose caused the stitches to pull away.  I emailed pictures to the vet and he said to put neosporin in the places that were a little yellow, stay on the cephalexin and continue wrapping. 

I sent him another picture the next day, nervous that not just one place on his massive incisions, but now two, were pulling apart.  The large vertical incision seemed to have a cavern, but he assured me the internal stitches were there and he would need to heal from inside out.  On Tuesday, he had me add flushing the wound and “holes” with a mixture of warm water and dawn dishwashing soap.  Colby didn’t seem to mind that.  I filled the holes with half a large tube of neosporin every time I changed the bandage.  I skipped sending pictures Wednesday. 

Colby was getting tons of love all through this.  His best tail wags were always reserved for my husband Doug, but he was generally alert and didn’t seem to be in pain.  Doug  backed our golf cart up to the retaining wall by our barn and put his bed in it and Colby hopped right in.  He laid in the golf cart and rode along while Doug took down a section of fence.  Think it did him a world of good to realize he could still go for rides.  We both gave him constant hugs, snuggles and kisses and lots of encouraging words for everything from eating–which his appetite has stayed strong throughout, to “doing his business”, and being a very good hopper.  We dubbed his new gait “the rocking horse”.

Thursday, Colby was more lethargic.  He layed around all morning and I hoped that made for some good healing.  I had wrapped his wound around 7pm the night before, but he never went outside until around 2:30pm and I did the flushing and bandage change around 5pm.  I had hoped for lots of healing, but things were worse.  No infection, thankfully, but more opening of outer stitches.  He was very lethargic that night.  I sent a picture to the vet and he called me to say restitching really wasn’t an option, it would just need to heal.  So this was the one week post surgery situation.  A wound that was not anywhere near on the way to healing I had expected.