State of the Mollydog

[bunn]

 The back leg which was operated on, and is now thought to be rejecting the metal implant, is not improving: in fact, if anything it is worse.  There are big swollen bruised areas either side of the joint as well as across below the scar now, all filled with liquid.   I've been giving her gentle short walks, but after a few minutes on her feet the leg will already be shaking badly and it's clearly painful.   

What I'm not entirely sure of yet is whether another operation to remove the metalwork will have an outcome good enough to be worth the further pain, endless bandage changes etc.  If it really didn't heal and had to be amputated, I'm not sure how well she'd cope, given that one front leg can barely bend and is badly arthritic already. 

I'm going to give her a week of complete rest (which will not delight her) and see what it looks like after that.  

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

No, pretty sure not pus (or I'd be at the vet now!) she's had the one on the back of the leg for a while, and has also had other similar swellings (but smaller) the vet has seen them and she's managed to pop previous ones, and they just bled. The leg isn't hot and I don't think it looks infected. The lumps go down when she's lying down, and come up when she runs about, so not too abcess-like. I'm supposed to wiggle her toes to get the fluid moving back to where it's supposed to be.

She's on fairly serious painkillers for her front leg already: they didn't seem to think that side of things could be upped much. :-( I do have some antibiotics from the last trip but one I could give her (she wasn't able to have them due to unrelated tummy trouble...)

Rude Craig reckoned that it might stabilise when I saw him on 10th, but I think maybe I've not really made her rest for as long as I should have to get a really good shot at it. If a week upside down in a beanbag doesn't improve things, then it should at least get her skin in slightly better nick for the op, as every time she walks on the leg and it swells, the skin gets more stretched and baggy :-(