Summer Struggles II

After Cole’s first surgery to get metal out of his intestines he was sent home because he howled all night long. Our 9 year old black lab is one big lap dog and a mama’s boy. Unfortunately, he was not ready to come home and was leaking fluid all over the house. His incision was about 6 inches long and only about 4 of it had actually closed. There were two inches of the incision that continued to leak fluid.

We took him back in several times and each time the Vets stated that the incisions were holding and that he needed to be still. But, keeping him still and keeping him away from the incisions, even with the largest E-collar, were tough. He was in his kennel (cage), which we have not used in about 5 years, and he was still able to use his back paws to scratch.

By Saturday he had actually opened up his incision and his intestines were coming out.  We rushed him to the emergency Vet services and he had yet another surgery that night. They cleaned him out, cut off what was coming out, and sewed him back up…triple thick. They also took out quite a bit of necrotic fatty tissue.

A week later I took him back because the incisions were infected but as of today he is finally doing well…a month later.