Recovery is Ruff

I believe the last time I wrote about Bubbles and her wound, the vet had thought that it was healing well and she wouldn't need surgery. Well that all changed this past Monday when I took her in for another bandage change. Apparently the wound had opened up again and he decided that three weeks of doing the bandage changes and waiting for it to heal on its own was long enough.

So Ms. Bubbles had surgery on Wednesday - they had to go in and debride more of the tissue that wasn't healthy. They also had to close down the spacing that was left from the wound so it wouldn't fill with fluid again and form another seroma, so they had to tack down some of the tissue directly to her leg muscle. Lucky girl got a little nip/tuck during her procedure, although that might mean one leg is leaner than the other! Ha! I am sure she doesn't care.

We had a little bit of a scare before they did the surgery. The vet was doing a preliminary physical assessment before putting her under anesthetic and found a solid mass in her mammary tissue. He took a sample to check it out on a slide and thankfully determined that it was not cancerous. He was concerned that it might be mammary cancer, which is pretty bad according to him. It appears to be another site of infection that can be dealt with by Bubbles taking antibiotics. The vet is still sending a sample off to a pathologist to double check but he really thinks it is non cancerous.

Poor Bubbles is definitely not herself. When I first brought her home, she basically just stood in the spot where I set her down. She had to be carried out of the vet and from the truck into the house. I finally got her to lay down (by picking her up and turning her so she was on her side rather than standing) and she has basically been in that position since we got home yesterday. Of course she still eats...I mean, it is Bubbles after all. But I can tell she is definitely in pain and is afraid to try to move her leg because of the pain. She has yet to go to the bathroom and I am pretty sure I am going to have to carry her out when she does need to go.

Here are some pics I took when she got home yesterday:

Bubbles on her favorite doggie bed...cone of shame still on, I think this is week 5.

They shaved quite a bit to make sure the area was clear.

Close-up of the stitches. She goes back in 2 weeks to get them out.

So for the next few days, I will be Bubbles' nurse. I have been bringing her food bowl and water bowl to her so she can eat and drink. She won't even get up for food, so I know she doesn't feel good. I also have to ice her wound every two hours to keep the swelling and inflammation down. In the next day or two I am hoping she starts to move around a bit more. This should be the last of this ordeal for her and the antibiotics should get rid of the mass in her mammary tissue as well.

I will keep you updated!!