Winston got his staples out today. Ever since his TPLO surgery, I've been really happy with his progress and pretty excited that everything seemed to be going so well. They burst my bubble :(
Dr. Duerr was in an emergency surgery so Dr. Trousdale did the evaluation and he noticed that there is a little fluid pocket along the line of the incision. He was happy to see that Winston is walking on the leg and actually puts it underneath him when he walks, but the fluid pocket may indicate the presence of an infection. I guess this is pretty likely since we just battled an infection, so he's going to be more prone to another one. It's not really what I wanted to hear or even think about. I've been watching the swelling go steadily down ever since surgery, so I thought it was just a normal part of the healing process. I didn't realize that he shouldn't have any swelling anymore.
He said that a little clear fluid leaked out when he removed the staples. Clear is good, but still....
Dr. Trousdale asked us to put hot compresses on the incision 2-3 times a day for 3-5 days, and to call them if ANYTHING changes at all. I'm guessing that the hot compress will also cause the infection to come more to the surface if there is one? Our last 2 doses of cephelexin are today, so I asked whether we should extend that, and he said no because if there's an infection present, it's resistent to that anyway.
Ugh! I hate this.
After we got home, I soaked a washcloth with hot water from the faucet and put it into a zip lock bag and held it against his leg for about 10 minutes. I'll be doing this about 3 times a day from now until Friday.
We walked again a couple more times and Winston is definitely putting his weight onto his leg and wants to go farther than he's allowed. It's hard to get him to turn around. At the same time, he's a little slow on the way back, so I think we're going far enough for now.
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