Doggie Triage - The Cone of Shame

Unfortunately, even with my super resourceful doggie bandage and diligent foot washing, it turns out (after two rather expensive trips to the vet that included x-rays, cultures, lancing, wound cleaning, and anesthesia) that my poor fur baby had an abcess. (We were never able to find a definitive wound or insect bite.)  Here he is, the giant in the back of my car... (BTW, the car is parked in this picture.)

And on our 2nd trip to the vet... poor guy.  Look how swollen his paw is.  Turns out the cracks I thought I saw in his pads were due to swelling, not the actual wounds causing the swelling.  The vet also wanted his x-rays sent out to a specialist for another 2nd opinion.

Here's a close up of the paw, prior to the vet putting him under and lancing/digging out the abcess.  He was not putting any weight on his paw at this point.

So anyway, she took him back, shaved his toe down, put him under, and dug out the abcess.  So it looks much worse now (it's draining as it heals from the "inside out), and he is now wearing the "cone of shame."  I'm just glad he doesn't have a broken toe.  The first visit took 2 hours, and two dogs were carried in (one having seizures, the other poisoned by a toad) as emergencies, so I had to leave him for a couple of hours and pick him up.  He was still groggy and disoriented when we got home.  Poor baby.

The good news is that although he is still knocking into all sorts of furniture with the cone (the dog is big, the house is small, do the math) he is placing weight on the foot again.  Of course, this has to occur days prior to a family vacation to the Mainland, meaning the dog is now on meds with an open wound on his foot and more than likely will have to be medically boarded at the vet instead of at the MWR kennel (which is a MUCH better deal).  So not only are we whacked with the vet bill, we are looking at more expensive boarding costs AND losing the deposit we put down at the MWR Kennel.  I am hoping the results of his culture (from the abcess) are in before we leave (so his meds/antibiotics will be set) and the MWR Kennel will still take him with the wound on his paw and cone of shame.    That's five calendar days.  Joy of joys.  I am washing his foot out with Betadine twice a day, along with all of his meds.

But this is my fur baby and I wouldn't want to worry about his foot getting infected again while we're gone... and so at the risk of sounding like one of those crazy people who treat their animals better than they treat other people, no expense will be spared... at least not yet. 

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