Zeus Continued

the last week has been a rollercoaster.

after finally getting him into see our regular vet, we found he had a fever and his lame leg was swollen to twice its size.  he spent two days hooked up to IVs at the vets.  tons more pain meds and an antibiotic.  the fever broke but the swelling was still massive.  X-rays showed no breaks, so they decided to try a biopsy even though they couldn’t see what they were sampling due to the size.  had the results rushed and they couldn’t determine the issue just that it was a large abscess.  no idea how it happened as he isn’t outside to get bug bites and there isn’t anything in the home that could have injured him after his initial injury.  the two were separate incidents as the swelling and fever didn’t start for a few days after the lame leg.

we kept him home on Friday so he was comfortable and around his people and “friends” (the other pets).  he seemed in better spirits but we still had to use entyce in order to get him to eat, and he has to eat to take his meds.  eating small meals about 6 times a day.  we are using wet food, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, cheese, peanut butter, essentially anything we can lol.  he has some sort of 6th sense and knows which bites have a pill and spits those out.  he doesn’t even chew his food so I have no clue how he figures it out!

woke Saturday to a full nightmare.  the abscess burst.  we honestly didn’t know if he had diarrhea around the house with blood or what…. until we looked at his leg.  it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen.  a full river that wasn’t stopping.  all animal hospitals had 8+hr wait times again and our vet said they were unable to take us.  we spent 2hrs managing the drainage and cleaning.  cleaning carpets and tile and hardwood.  cleaning pet beds and towels and checking him again and again.  we knew we couldn’t wrap it as it needed to drain.  but man.  we took him outside and helped him by compressing his foot to his hind which helped ease more out, without causing him pain.  sent a few pics to our vet pleading for help and they finally fit him in.  they added a second drainage site and drained as much as possible along with adding more antibiotics and wrapping the leg temporarily.  his swelling was down almost 100% which had to be such a relief.

here we are, Tuesday.  the vet cannot see him again till the 30th and they want us to just let the antibiotics do their thing and keep up on pain meds. I’ve had sometime to think about the infection though…..  the only logical answer, is that whatever happened at the animal hospital, for the first visit with the torn acl, caused the abscess.  as if he wasn’t in enough pain, he then had to deal with a fever and swelling and tons more medication.  it was as if it tripled his already miserable situation.

Zeus will won’t put any weight on this rear right leg.  even without swelling.  which indicates that he prob does have the torn acl as dx.  we still dont have any more info on this to help us with our final decision.  but I’m glad that overall he is much more comfortable.  seeing in in as much pain as he was in, we were ready to discuss euthanizing him.  Thursday night was a real turning point which helped us determine that he really was fighting and not giving up.

now I wait…