Another update on Toby

Where to begin? I took Toby to the vet on Friday to have her stitches removed. All went well. They had trouble removing one from her leg because it had scabbed over so it was weeping just a little but the vet looked at it and said it was ok. Just to "watch it". I brought her home and then left to run a couple of errands and then I went to pick up a friend who was being discharged from the hospital. That went well but considering errands, and travel time and going to the pharmacy etc it was about almost 4 hours from the time I dropped Toby off at my house until I walked back in the door. I walked into a mess. She had apparently been bleeding the whole time I was gone. There was blood all over her and blood all over the living room floor and foyer. I panicked. I called a friend and he came over to stay with her while I tried to find someone to go with me to the emergency vet hospital since I couldn't apply pressure to the bleeding and drive. Another friend who knew John and who I know slightly was kind enough to come and drive us. We were 4 hours at the hospital because there were two more serious emergencies ahead of us. Toby bled the whole time that we waited. She saturated a dish cloth I had brought with me and the floor of the room we were in looked awful. For some reason she just was not clotting. To make a long story short, they examined her, applied a pressure dressing to stop the bleeding and did some lab work to find out the cause. One of her clotting factors is deficient and we don't know why. It was almost 1 AM by the time we got home. Toby has a dressing from her toes to her arm pit on that leg. I checked her several times during the night and she seemed OK. Saturday morning I noticed that she bled into the bandage. She went back to her surgeon and had the dressing changed. It has been difficult to keep a dressing on that part of her leg because it is on a joint, the equivalent of her elbow and any dressing I put on it eventually slips down.  She's better today. No more bleeding although the wound is oozy. It has opened up a bit since they removed the stitches so now it has to heal from the inside out which will take longer. I am going to call her regular vet tomorrow and ask him to see her. I trust him more than any of the others. We really don't have an answer why this is happening. What a night!

Happy Birthday, Toby!

Our Tobester is 13 years old today.
Happy Birthday, sweet girl. We love you.

More on Toby

Toby is continuing to limp and since she should be better by now the vet thinks it might be something more. We had her tested for Valley Fever and while her titer didn't come back positive for it she did have some other markers which indicated she might have it anyway. That would explain her hip problems. So today I started her on Desert Defense and next week she will be on a regimen of fluconazole as well.
Hopefully this will make her better. People have seen remarkable results within 3 weeks on this protocol.

Toby update

Toby had some bleeding after surgery when I went to pick her up. We had to put pressure dressings on her leg and back because the incisions kept oozing.

She had trouble getting out of the car when I got her home.

I think the anesthesia really bothered her this time. She kept panting and acting like she was in pain and she would not eat her supper.

She did sleep a little but when she woke up she was limping very badly.

The doctor also found some kind of mass [she thinks] on her liver when she x-rayed her today so we have to follow that up in two weeks.

The pathology report will be back in two days from the lump they removed today.

I was able to get her to eat some breakfast [I made her scrambled eggs - she loves them] and she went outside on her leash to pee so that's good.

She is still limping very badly. She barely puts weight on her right rear leg and that is her good leg. She injured the ACL in the left rear a few years ago. I'm hoping it's just arthritic pain and not another ACL injury.

I was able to get some pain meds into her late last night with some bread and peanut butter and that worked again this morning. She also took her antibiotic, another good thing.

I called Dr Tom [my mobile vet] and he is going to come by the house this afternoon to take the bandages off so we don't have to get her in the car and further aggravate her pain and legs.

My poor little girl. She's such a love. It breaks my heart to see her uncomfortable.

I think Chaz knows Toby doesn't feel well. He has been hanging around her and every so often he rubs against her face.

 

 

Toby is having surgery today

I have found another lump on Toby's back and with her history of cancer we are not taking any chances. It has grown a little in the last couple of weeks so it's being removed this morning.
Saying prayers for good news.