Smudge
It's been a rough week and a half. Our dog, Smudge, had a seizure on March 29th. Usually, this is something he recovers from in a few hours; old dogs (he's 18) are prone to them. He had them more frequently in the past in other households (Smudge is a family dog in the truest sense of the word. He was born in my parents' house, and has lived with them, then with my brother, back with them, back to the brother, and then with Mark and I so that he could have a non-steps doggie retirement home.)
Besides the steps, he hadn't had issues here until a seizure six months ago, then another around Christmas. Vet wasn't worried, since they were much less frequent.
Recovery from the last one had been slow going, and just as he was back on his feet, we had a complication -- a small sore (which we thought was a bed sore, but now is looking not to be -- so at least after today's regular vet visit I am relieved that it wasn't our fault so to speak -- we were quite diligent about turning/moving him while he was recovering -- I've been sleeping next to him in the living room during recovery in fact -- it's like, camping, but without the bugs or weird noises or septic tanks). Anyhow, a small sore on Thursday suddenly became a large wound.. well, about two inch by three inch oval area. We'll probably not know exactly what happened -- he was literally alone for three minutes when we came back into the room to find it like that (and incidentally, him getting up to trot around like there was not a hole in his flank)
ER Vet made it seem very dire, but after chatting with us for a while, treated it as an open wound since we had every intention of seeing our regular vet (which, huge advantage of large metro area -- means lots of vets and being able to find a really, really great one, and we have the best vets). I now know how to change the dressing of what is apparently a somewhat unusual type of wound dressing, so my on-the-spot training went well in that respect.
We have ruled out cancer with some scans today; tomorrow morning we are having blood work done to make sure everything else is working okay. If so, we're going to have the vet attempt the surgery, knowing that there is a risk on the anesthesia -- but also knowing that the alternative -- twice a day changing of bandages as we have been doing -- is super slow, and super susceptible to infection. There is also a possibility that the muscle in his leg has more or less died. If that's the case, the solution would be either amputation, which has lots more risks, or simply having him not wake from the surgery (which is what we've pretty much decided if that's the case -- at 18, prone to seizures, minus a leg, we'd be keeping him alive more for us than for him at that point).
Either way, it's going to be a long night and a long day tomorrow. I'm lucky I have a super awesome boss who is totally understanding of all of this and taking care of staffing things so that I don't have to come in and be weepy tomorrow as I watch the clock and wait at the phone (I'll let Mark deal with that from me instead).
{Edit: Out of curiosity, and since I'm just surfing and such until Smudge's next pre-op med in an hour, I went looking for 'how old is my dog' stuff. None of them go up that high for him -- suffice to say, he's more than 120 in people years, per the information that was available.}
{Edit II: Should also note that by Thursday he was on his feet again from the seizure and he's made several 'I'm getting up' attempts which we have voided by using the popular 'stay' and 'down' commands, to which he gives us the Elrond eyebrow by does as commanded.. the fact that he was tail-wagging and trying to get up while at the vet were also reasons the regular vet presented surgery as an option... there's a big difference between a dog that has stopped fighting and one who hasn't.}
Besides the steps, he hadn't had issues here until a seizure six months ago, then another around Christmas. Vet wasn't worried, since they were much less frequent.
Recovery from the last one had been slow going, and just as he was back on his feet, we had a complication -- a small sore (which we thought was a bed sore, but now is looking not to be -- so at least after today's regular vet visit I am relieved that it wasn't our fault so to speak -- we were quite diligent about turning/moving him while he was recovering -- I've been sleeping next to him in the living room during recovery in fact -- it's like, camping, but without the bugs or weird noises or septic tanks). Anyhow, a small sore on Thursday suddenly became a large wound.. well, about two inch by three inch oval area. We'll probably not know exactly what happened -- he was literally alone for three minutes when we came back into the room to find it like that (and incidentally, him getting up to trot around like there was not a hole in his flank)
ER Vet made it seem very dire, but after chatting with us for a while, treated it as an open wound since we had every intention of seeing our regular vet (which, huge advantage of large metro area -- means lots of vets and being able to find a really, really great one, and we have the best vets). I now know how to change the dressing of what is apparently a somewhat unusual type of wound dressing, so my on-the-spot training went well in that respect.
We have ruled out cancer with some scans today; tomorrow morning we are having blood work done to make sure everything else is working okay. If so, we're going to have the vet attempt the surgery, knowing that there is a risk on the anesthesia -- but also knowing that the alternative -- twice a day changing of bandages as we have been doing -- is super slow, and super susceptible to infection. There is also a possibility that the muscle in his leg has more or less died. If that's the case, the solution would be either amputation, which has lots more risks, or simply having him not wake from the surgery (which is what we've pretty much decided if that's the case -- at 18, prone to seizures, minus a leg, we'd be keeping him alive more for us than for him at that point).
Either way, it's going to be a long night and a long day tomorrow. I'm lucky I have a super awesome boss who is totally understanding of all of this and taking care of staffing things so that I don't have to come in and be weepy tomorrow as I watch the clock and wait at the phone (I'll let Mark deal with that from me instead).
{Edit: Out of curiosity, and since I'm just surfing and such until Smudge's next pre-op med in an hour, I went looking for 'how old is my dog' stuff. None of them go up that high for him -- suffice to say, he's more than 120 in people years, per the information that was available.}
{Edit II: Should also note that by Thursday he was on his feet again from the seizure and he's made several 'I'm getting up' attempts which we have voided by using the popular 'stay' and 'down' commands, to which he gives us the Elrond eyebrow by does as commanded.. the fact that he was tail-wagging and trying to get up while at the vet were also reasons the regular vet presented surgery as an option... there's a big difference between a dog that has stopped fighting and one who hasn't.}