Toddy Poorly

[eve]

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Toddy was neutered about six weeks ago. Last week he developed a huge blood blister / fluid filled sac in his groin with signs of infection behind it. Even the vet is at a bit of a loss as to the cause. It was thought to be caused by a trauma. He has been on Metacalm and antibiotics for 3 days. The blister burst yesterday and has been draining pus and has left a huge hole about 1" x 3/4". Back to the vets last night. They recon it will need stitching to close the hole next week after it has had time to drain. However, a bruise is starting to appear above the lymph gland on the other side now. We are going back to the vets tonight to get this checked. I just wondered if anyone would know if it is posssible for an infection to start in a dog 6 weeks after neutering. How long do the internal stitches take to dissolve? Could this be the problem. The vet says the stitches will have dissolved some time ago.

Toddy is bright enough in himself but this must be so painful.

Experience anyone?

Thanks Eve

 

[Suerose]

Poor Toddy, it sounds like he's been going through a really rough time. I've been having similar problems, though not as severe, with Grace after her spaying. A couple of days after the external stitches came out a lump came up on the line of the wound. The vet thought it was a reaction to the internal sutures and it didn't clear until she had had another course of antibiotics starting a week later (took about 2 weeks in all). Now it has almost settled down and healed up thank goodness.

Do hope Toddy recovers soon :luck: :huggles: :luck: . I reckon internal stitches stay around quite a while. A friend of mine who had a hip replacement last year says his were itchy and uncomfortable for quite a few weeks, and I thought I could feel a bit of one sticking out of Grace this morning. I guess the knots take longer than the straight bits to dissolve.

 

[Trish]

Sounds like a foreign body thats cause a infection to build up and come to the surface ,thats just my thoughts though .

Hope toddy is soon on the mend and feeling better real soon.

 

[moonglow]

Get your vet to check for mrsa!!!

hope he's better soon.

 

[Suerose]

Get your vet to check for mrsa!!!hope he's better soon.

If it is MRSA ( or for any sort of infection) Manuka honey is a good thing to use, I meant to say earlier that I put that on Grace's wound as well as giving her antibiotics. It has been shown to work for MRSA that is resistant to anti-bs.

 

[TillynPip]

Poor Toddy, it's bad enough having to have surgery without added complications. Could it be an absess?

Hope it clears up and he's better soon.

 

[eve]

My poor we Toddy is not doing so great. We were at the vets 4 days in a row last week. The second blood blister also grew and grew and eventually burst. he now has 2 big holes each side of his femoral lymph glands. The dirst one seems to have stopped draining pus. He is back to the vets this morning for them to decide of they are going to stitch the wounds. It may be a bit soon as the second blood blister only burst yesterday morning. He has been on 1 lot of antibiotics for a week and a second really fancy and expensive lot for 3 days but the lymph glands are still swollen and he is very sore even with the Metacalm. The vet thinks that it is possible that fatty deposits have stopped the stitches dissolving (but whippets do not carry much fat, especially Toddy). I am beginning to wonder if they left a swab inside him when they neutered him. I will ask them to test fror MRSA and I am also going to ask them to run some other blood tests too. He has been seen by 4 different vets now and none seems to have any idea what is causing this. He is back to see the vet who did the neuter. I think she is fantastic and really knows her stuff. I am fortunate that my vets have a new big clinic nearby with all the latest gadgets, scanners etc so he may need to go out to Haddington to be scanned if this will help with a diagnosis. The Manuka Honey will be purchased, but at present, there is no chance of applying it as he has got to the stage this morning where he will not let me touch or wash the wounds. He just goes crazy. Poor we fellow, he has not had much of a life so far. It is a great relief that he is still insured ( only did this as he was a crazy pup when he arrived to live with us in May) . I have never insured a dog before and none of the others are insured. beginning to wonder if insuring him has put some kind of HEX on his health

Please send healing thoughts for my wee fellow

 

[Suerose]

I'm so sorry he/you are still having problems. Miserable for you both :huggles: :huggles: :huggles: Sending love and healing thoughts, do hope he will start to improve soon. Would an x-ray show a swab? I know someone who had an operation for colon cancer and was ill the whole of the following year because a swab was left in.

 

[Sarah86]

Poor Toddy it sounds as though he is having a right bad time of it at the moment. Lots of healing thoughts to Toddy and I hope he gets better soon :huggles:

 

[eve]

Toddy got a reprieve from surgery on Monday morning. The vet thinks the wounds may heal themselves after all. My favoured vet thinks that it is most likely that the ligatures to tie up the ends of Toddys tubes are causing the problem and that the stitches have not dissolved. The present blisters have both burst and are beginning to heal although 1st one has started draining pus again.

He has been on the antibiotics for 10 days now and the wounds are closing although still not totally clean looking. The vet thinks that they will close on their own but I am worried that he will just go through the same thing again in a few weeks. My vet is not that keen to cut Toddy open, find the knots and do something because, 1. they will have sprung up somewhere inside his body and may be hard to find and deal with and 2. because whippets are hard to stitch because their skin is so thin and he would probably require 2 quite big incisions on each side and with the tissue damage, location etc there is not a lot of spare skin to stitch . We will probably end up playing a waiting game and perhaps use the antibiotics again if it re-occurs. I think he theory being that the stitches will eventually dissolve and the problem will go away. Meanwhile, poor Toddy is confined to walks on a lead and with his energy levels, he is getting fed up. I am off to buy some Manuka Honey today to help things along.

 

[rls22]

What an awful time Toddy has had. Pleased to hear that the wounds are finally healing and that he's escaped further surgery.

Sending him some gentle healing licks from the Citycroft girls x

 

[Suzycbee]

Sorry to hear that Toddy is having a rough time of it. Hoping he is on the mend very soon :luck:

 

[jazad]

Hi

Sorry to hear about Toddy's problems. Huey had something similar (although not as severe) when he was castrated. At the time he also had a benign tumour removed on his chest. He developed a blood blister on the site and his body started rejecting the internal stitches. He was given another shot of Abs and we were given Fuciderm to apply. His blister didn't burst, it seemed to dry and the top came off, but I had already removed some of the stitches myself (not sure if it was a good idea or not - certainly did no harm in Huey's case) - because the swelling had made them tight.

Hope he is well soon...

zahra

 

[Trish]

Good luck with toddy , hope those stitches have dissolved now and things can start healing.

 

[eve]

One of Toddys stitches seems to be trying to break out as the hole from the blister now has a firm red pea shaped lump in the middle!

Oh it just gets better and better

Toddy LOVES the Manuka honey :wub: I cannot put it on often enough ( I recon we are going to get through jars of the stuff

I just wish the other stitch would do the same thing then the vet can fish them out under sedation when he goes tomorrow insead of worrying about what the other one is doing for the next few weeks.

It is interesting that both Sue's Grace and Toddy have had the same problem with stitches not dissolving. I wonder if it is a more common thing in sighthounds who are very muscled and itnernally compressed unlike some other breeds. Anyway, I am happy that A stitch has appeared as it confirms what the problem is. :sweating:

Hopefully this will be the last of his health problems for a long time and he can get on with having fun (and getting off the lead)

 

[Suerose]

One of Toddys stitches seems to be trying to break out as the hole from the blister now has a firm red pea shaped lump in the middle!Oh it just gets better and better

Toddy LOVES the Manuka honey :wub: I cannot put it on often enough ( I recon we are going to get through jars of the stuff

I just wish the other stitch would do the same thing then the vet can fish them out under sedation when he goes tomorrow insead of worrying about what the other one is doing for the next few weeks.

It is interesting that both Sue's Grace and Toddy have had the same problem with stitches not dissolving. I wonder if it is a more common thing in sighthounds who are very muscled and itnernally compressed unlike some other breeds. Anyway, I am happy that A stitch has appeared as it confirms what the problem is. :sweating:

Hopefully this will be the last of his health problems for a long time and he can get on with having fun (and getting off the lead)

Glad to hear the Manuka honey is going down well - at least, unlike the more pharmaceutical ointments, you can feel that it does him good whether it gets licked off or stays on!

From what my vet said about internal sutures lasting for 50 days I guess Grace's aren't even due to be fully dissolved yet (not sure about Toddy's) and presumably knots are going to last longer than straight strands. It may be that whippets are more sensitive/reactive to these sutures, but I also gathered that a reaction to them is going to be more visible on a whippet than on another breed that has a good covering of fat.

Hope your vet can get rid of those nasty old knots for you and give him a chance to heal up. :luck: We're just waiting for Grace's current blister to burst so that her knot can be got rid of.