Misty Update

Loopy Misty

Here I am, cone and all, just having arrived home last night, still feeling a bit fuzzy from all those drugs.  I was zonked out.

My fancy bandage.  My incision ended up being a lot bigger and longer than expected.

My tail incision where they removed that ugly thingie.

Me today, feeling and looking a lot perkier.  Mom is going to tell you all about my surgery.

Mom here now.  So Misty's surgery went about as well as expected.  

The growth on her eyelid was a granuloma, typically benign.  Dr. B. removed it, and she is getting some ointment on the eyelid as it heals.

The ugly growth on her tail was a cutaneous horn, also benign.  It was removed.  Misty has a couple of stitches there along with a bare spot where she was shaved.  It was just going to get bigger and bigger so good riddance.

That brings us to the main problem, the mass on her front leg.  The mass was located between the wrist and elbow on the back/outer side of her left leg.  Since it was fairly large, there was some concern about closing it in an area that doesn't have that much skin.  Dr. B. said that the whole situation was "very gnarly", his words.  Because he had to cut such a large area to remove the tumor, he also had to cut below the wrist and higher up toward the elbow to be able to have some skin flaps to close the wound. He does not expect the pathology report to indicate clean margins because he was trying to avoid damaging the muscles in the area. He wants to get the pathology analysis first and then worry about what comes next.  So the incision is quite long and zig zags up the leg from below the wrist.  As for the mass, he said it was unclear what it actually is.  We have to wait for the pathology report and then weigh our options.  It wasn't so much what he said as what he didn't say that makes me concerned.  There was a very guarded tone to his words.  I have had a bad feeling about this lump so I guess I need to be prepared for bad news and hope for good news.

Lastly, this morning Misty seemed much more alert.  She ate her breakfast but just wants to lounge around - and that is fine.  She can't do stairs, no horsing around, and no running for two weeks when the stitches come out.  I have her penned off from Timber overnight and when she is not under the supervision of me or my husband.  This incision is too tricky to take any chances.  The one problem we encountered today was what appears to be a major flareup of her Inflammatory Bowel Disease.  She had a bowel movement after eating, fairly typical in appearance, laced with lots of blood. But about an hour later,  I noticed a huge smear of fresh blood on the floor, her tail, and hind area.  She evidently is putting out quite a bit of blood from the intestines. Dr. B. is in surgery and will call me when he is done to discuss.  But from what has occurred in the past, there really isn't anything to give her that makes any difference. She doesn't tolerate any meds other than antibiotics.  We just have to wait for the flareup to subside.  Maybe he will have something different to try when he calls.  I am also keeping an eye on the bandaged area for swelling.  I can remove the bandage tomorrow unless it comes off on its own. It is difficult to tell if there is swelling with that large an area covered.  I will check with him about that too.

Nothing is easy with Misty, but we continue to hope and wait.

And I am waiting too.  I want Misty to be better soon so we can have fun and hang together.

Woos - Misty and Timber and Mom too

And since we are all thankful for a wonderful vet and all the POTP from our friends here, let's join Brian's Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.