Dexter's update, as I know Tami will be looking for it as soon as she gets home. We sedated him this afternoon and cleaned and debrided the wound. This means we removed the dead and dieing tissue and scrubbed the wound to increase blood flow and promote healing. His IV catheter had been in since Monday and they are only "healthy" for 3 days so we had to remove the old one and put a new one in the other arm.
He also has a bad pressure wound on one of his rear legs because of the way he walks due to his handicap. We clipped this up and cleaned it today. This will need a series of laser treatments to remove all the thickened, raw tissue. Once we get this managed he will need periodic laser treatments to keep it under control. No telling how frequently it will need to be done, could be once or twice a year.
The current plan is to start him on IV antibiotics every 8 hours, Penicillin given subcutaneous every 24 hours, pain meds given subcutaneous every 12 hours, and IV fluids. We will also sedate and clean and deride the wound several times a week, every 2 to 3 days. We will do this again on Sunday after the spay clinic and then again on Tuesday. There isn't any real way to humanely clean and deride the wound while Dexter is awake. We will also start the laser treatment on the pressure wound at this time. It will require a series of treatments so we figure start now while he's already on pain meds and being sedated anyway. These laser treatments will be done every 2-3 weeks depending on results.
I asked Dr. Burton if she thought he would heal and she said "yes, I think
it's just going to take along time". She thinks it w! ill have to heal by
granulating in and there will most likely be a scar. She says the wound can
not be sutured closed at this time because the tissue isn't healthy and will
likely die and reopen. She seems to think he has deep pain in his
tail but will continue to evaluate this and Dexter may end up having to have
it removed.
Only time will tell