Annabelle Update
The verdict is in. Annabelle will lose a toe tomorrow. There is no way to save it at this point.
A toe sure beats losing her leg though. My only concern is that we still don't know what this is and we may never know. The vet went over her bacteria culture results and there was some bacteria present. One kind is resistant to almost every antibiotic, but it's slightly affected by the Baytril in larger doses. So that's getting doubled to prevent anything from attacking her after surgery.
She should be fine with losing this toe, it's a non-weight bearing toe meaning it's not the outer ones she would use to balance and whatnot. It's a middle toe. Her recovery there should be fine, I'm not concerned with her appearance as long as she can walk and it sounds like she will be able to get back to normal.
The one concern is whatever causing this issue to keep causing it. What is it? We don't know. The vet said the bacteria is likely secondary, it came after whatever is causing the necrotizing flesh and isn't causing the issue. She still thinks spider or rattlesnake bite.
I brought up my concerns about cancer (Google isn't my friend) and she doesn't seem to think that's likely, but said we can keep an eye on the tissue for a few things. She said bone cancer would show up on an x-ray (she had one the first day). Of course it still worries me since brown recluses aren't common here, we really haven't had many opportunities for her to meet a rattlesnake and there's no flesh-eating bacteria.
For cancer, amputation would be the remedy anyway, so there is that.
Hopefully this is it. Hopefully we get whatever it is and she can recover. They will put in a drain for a few days next week, but after that she should be clear for recovery. I can't wait for things to get back to normal, I really can't.
I'm exhausted. I run around from early in the morning until 7-8 at night. I never stop moving. I haven't been able to get to bed before midnight once this week.
I start my new job on Monday and the whole getting into work late thing really won't be cool, but I don't know what to do if she needs to go back to the vet? It would likely only be for a few days thankfully, but still?
Personality wise she seems fine since I took her off the anti-nausea medicine. Last night, she actually begged to go for a walk and then kept giving me "the look" to signal that she didn't want to come inside yet. Today she is chasing my roommates cat. She's limping from time to time, but personality-wise, she's pretty happy.
Seriously, without everyone's help, I couldn't have made it through this. To give you an idea... Tomorrow's surgery is $900. This is on top of probably $3,000 I've spent already. The antibiotic she needs to be on, the only one that slightly attacks the bacteria? $90 a bottle and she's been through two bottles. The other antibiotics are about the same cost but stopped today.
Her vet stays plus bandage changes and cleaning has been about $100 a day, down from last week when she needed an IV and everything (that was $300 a day). Last Monday with all her tests? Another $900 and then $600 at the emergency vet.
I'd be homeless right now and would have had to sell everything I owned. That's not an understatement at all. Hopefully this surgery is the end of it and we can go back to normal, all thanks to all the amazing people on LJ and FB :)
Thank you again.
Here are some photos of my amazing pup from the last few days, some showing off the nifty heart they put on her bandage!
More behind the cut!
A toe sure beats losing her leg though. My only concern is that we still don't know what this is and we may never know. The vet went over her bacteria culture results and there was some bacteria present. One kind is resistant to almost every antibiotic, but it's slightly affected by the Baytril in larger doses. So that's getting doubled to prevent anything from attacking her after surgery.
She should be fine with losing this toe, it's a non-weight bearing toe meaning it's not the outer ones she would use to balance and whatnot. It's a middle toe. Her recovery there should be fine, I'm not concerned with her appearance as long as she can walk and it sounds like she will be able to get back to normal.
The one concern is whatever causing this issue to keep causing it. What is it? We don't know. The vet said the bacteria is likely secondary, it came after whatever is causing the necrotizing flesh and isn't causing the issue. She still thinks spider or rattlesnake bite.
I brought up my concerns about cancer (Google isn't my friend) and she doesn't seem to think that's likely, but said we can keep an eye on the tissue for a few things. She said bone cancer would show up on an x-ray (she had one the first day). Of course it still worries me since brown recluses aren't common here, we really haven't had many opportunities for her to meet a rattlesnake and there's no flesh-eating bacteria.
For cancer, amputation would be the remedy anyway, so there is that.
Hopefully this is it. Hopefully we get whatever it is and she can recover. They will put in a drain for a few days next week, but after that she should be clear for recovery. I can't wait for things to get back to normal, I really can't.
I'm exhausted. I run around from early in the morning until 7-8 at night. I never stop moving. I haven't been able to get to bed before midnight once this week.
I start my new job on Monday and the whole getting into work late thing really won't be cool, but I don't know what to do if she needs to go back to the vet? It would likely only be for a few days thankfully, but still?
Personality wise she seems fine since I took her off the anti-nausea medicine. Last night, she actually begged to go for a walk and then kept giving me "the look" to signal that she didn't want to come inside yet. Today she is chasing my roommates cat. She's limping from time to time, but personality-wise, she's pretty happy.
Seriously, without everyone's help, I couldn't have made it through this. To give you an idea... Tomorrow's surgery is $900. This is on top of probably $3,000 I've spent already. The antibiotic she needs to be on, the only one that slightly attacks the bacteria? $90 a bottle and she's been through two bottles. The other antibiotics are about the same cost but stopped today.
Her vet stays plus bandage changes and cleaning has been about $100 a day, down from last week when she needed an IV and everything (that was $300 a day). Last Monday with all her tests? Another $900 and then $600 at the emergency vet.
I'd be homeless right now and would have had to sell everything I owned. That's not an understatement at all. Hopefully this surgery is the end of it and we can go back to normal, all thanks to all the amazing people on LJ and FB :)
Thank you again.
Here are some photos of my amazing pup from the last few days, some showing off the nifty heart they put on her bandage!
More behind the cut!