Rayen
Well-Known Member
Quinn has never liked me. He's tolerated me, but that was at best when we were at a distance. I was generally okay with this. I could still clip his nails and make sure he got everything he needed, I just didn't pick him up very often.
I now regret that. I was cleaning their cage when I noticed he was limping a bit. I took a look at his leg, the dreaded abscess right in the joint of his back leg. I've dealt with these things a million times before in other animals, dogs, cats, rats and guinea pigs. So off to the first vet I went.
I was given medication and was told to keep it clean and that it would take a long while to heal fully. So I did what I always do. I cleaned it several times a day, I made sure he was getting his medication and I made sure he was eating enough and kept everything clean.
It didn't heal. Time went by and I decided to take him to a new vet to see what their opinion would be. It was not good news. The vet told me that he could do surgery on it but that ultimately he was certain it would fail and that the leg would have to come off. He recommended just amputating the leg.
Of course, I was devastated. I took a couple of days to think it over. I was almost certain I would just suck it up and get the leg taken off. I was doing research on how best to care for a three-legged rabbit who was older (he's six and a half years old) but I don't know if it was my terrible google searching skills or what but all of the stories I came across ended in sadness.
So I went to yet another vet for yet another opinion. The vet assured me that she could do the surgery to clean the leg up. That the infection wasn't nearly bad enough to just take his leg off. So I booked the surgery.
As it goes, he went through the surgery and the call came in a few hours later. The infection was worse than she thought (of course) and she wasn't sure if things would go well for us. Most of the leg tissue had to come off, not much besides tendons and the bone was left behind. There was a lot of puss. She wanted him to come in at least once a week for penicillin shots and bandage changes.
Three days went by and off we went to get his leg looked at. Three people entered the room, they started to take off the bandages and all of them looked at the wound. At first, the vet let out a disappointed sound. She said that she thought she could see some puss and that it didn't look too good. The second vet bent down to get a better look, smelled it and said that she could see new tissue growth and that it didn't smell like it was infected.
They decided to take him back to clean it and get a better look. An anxious twenty minutes or so later and they brought him back in with his leg bandage changed.
It was finally some good news! Apparently the tissue growth was something she hadn't expected to see at least for another week and there hadn't been any new puss. If everything goes well, she said that the chances for recovery are a lot better now.
Quinn has been extremely uncomfortable these last few days. He sprays now, and every time I have to clean out his cage or check for dampness or give him medication I get urine thrown at me. Sometimes I get both poop and pee all over me. He stubbornly refuses to be syringe fed anything, his medication (which is like 0.9CCs total) takes nearly five minutes to make sure it all gets into him. I've been giving him a bit of critical care as well, since he hasn't been eating his pellets lately and there wasn't a huge volume of poop coming out of him. That gets spit back all over me.
I understand that he's not feeling great, but it's so disheartening to try and help him heal when he's just so angry about it. I have at least another 5 weeks of medication coming, and I would really like some tips on making him more comfortable for both of our sakes(so much pee, he's apparently extremely well hydrated).
To end this overly long story, I guess I'm just looking for some advice and/or stories about something similar happening. It would be nice to see some stories where things went well instead of all of the stories I've come across full of gloom.
In any case, Tuesday is when we head back to the vet for bandage change and penicillin shot number 2. Here's hoping there's more good news!
I now regret that. I was cleaning their cage when I noticed he was limping a bit. I took a look at his leg, the dreaded abscess right in the joint of his back leg. I've dealt with these things a million times before in other animals, dogs, cats, rats and guinea pigs. So off to the first vet I went.
I was given medication and was told to keep it clean and that it would take a long while to heal fully. So I did what I always do. I cleaned it several times a day, I made sure he was getting his medication and I made sure he was eating enough and kept everything clean.
It didn't heal. Time went by and I decided to take him to a new vet to see what their opinion would be. It was not good news. The vet told me that he could do surgery on it but that ultimately he was certain it would fail and that the leg would have to come off. He recommended just amputating the leg.
Of course, I was devastated. I took a couple of days to think it over. I was almost certain I would just suck it up and get the leg taken off. I was doing research on how best to care for a three-legged rabbit who was older (he's six and a half years old) but I don't know if it was my terrible google searching skills or what but all of the stories I came across ended in sadness.
So I went to yet another vet for yet another opinion. The vet assured me that she could do the surgery to clean the leg up. That the infection wasn't nearly bad enough to just take his leg off. So I booked the surgery.
As it goes, he went through the surgery and the call came in a few hours later. The infection was worse than she thought (of course) and she wasn't sure if things would go well for us. Most of the leg tissue had to come off, not much besides tendons and the bone was left behind. There was a lot of puss. She wanted him to come in at least once a week for penicillin shots and bandage changes.
Three days went by and off we went to get his leg looked at. Three people entered the room, they started to take off the bandages and all of them looked at the wound. At first, the vet let out a disappointed sound. She said that she thought she could see some puss and that it didn't look too good. The second vet bent down to get a better look, smelled it and said that she could see new tissue growth and that it didn't smell like it was infected.
They decided to take him back to clean it and get a better look. An anxious twenty minutes or so later and they brought him back in with his leg bandage changed.
It was finally some good news! Apparently the tissue growth was something she hadn't expected to see at least for another week and there hadn't been any new puss. If everything goes well, she said that the chances for recovery are a lot better now.
Quinn has been extremely uncomfortable these last few days. He sprays now, and every time I have to clean out his cage or check for dampness or give him medication I get urine thrown at me. Sometimes I get both poop and pee all over me. He stubbornly refuses to be syringe fed anything, his medication (which is like 0.9CCs total) takes nearly five minutes to make sure it all gets into him. I've been giving him a bit of critical care as well, since he hasn't been eating his pellets lately and there wasn't a huge volume of poop coming out of him. That gets spit back all over me.
I understand that he's not feeling great, but it's so disheartening to try and help him heal when he's just so angry about it. I have at least another 5 weeks of medication coming, and I would really like some tips on making him more comfortable for both of our sakes(so much pee, he's apparently extremely well hydrated).
To end this overly long story, I guess I'm just looking for some advice and/or stories about something similar happening. It would be nice to see some stories where things went well instead of all of the stories I've come across full of gloom.
In any case, Tuesday is when we head back to the vet for bandage change and penicillin shot number 2. Here's hoping there's more good news!