Bruce is now 46 pounds and getting bigger every day. We had a little scare earlier in the month with a bump on his ankle. He had a spot on his ankle where there was no fur, there was no bump, but no fur either. Over the course of about 3 weeks it developed into a tiny bump and in the matter of a couple days it quadrupled in size so we took him to the vet. At first the vet told us that it could be an inflamed bug bite, so he gave us some antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds and said if it didn't go down in a week to come back and we would have to check it, run some tests, and remove it. After just 3 days on the meds, the bump got bigger. We went back to the vet and they did an emergency surgery for tumor removal and biopsy. Luckily the tumor was on the skin not the bone, so I wasn't AS concerned, but still worried. Bruce was drugged up, stitched and stapled back together with his leg wrapped, and we got a cone for when we were gone. After 5 days we could remove the wrap and then on day 14 we were supposed to go in and have the staples removed.

On day 4, the vet called with biopsy results. Everything was negative, the tumor was benign, and nothing to worry about...such a relief! On day 5 we removed the wrap and got our first look and his ankle. There were 8 staples all in all and a big cut from his ankle all around his leg. We left for work on day 6, put Bruce in his kennel with his cone on (this was nothing new except this time his leg wasn't wrapped). When we came home on lunch, Bruce was normal, happy to see us, everything seemed fine. Tim checked his leg to see how the staples were doing, except the staples weren't there. Bruce has pulled every single one of them out and his leg was open like a filet fish...it was disgusting. We immediately called the vet and we had to take Bruce in for emergency surgery. Everything went well, but we had to start all over. We had to purchase another cone because the one the vet gave us wasn't big enough obviously since Bruce was able to pull his stitches out while wearing it. What was supposed to be an easy 14 day watch turned into a 19 day watch, and my family had to help because Tim and I were going to Disneyland for my birthday.

I took Bruce back to the vet this week to get the stitches and staples removed. The vet said his ankle was healing great. His fur is slowing growing back around his ankle and on his arm where they gave him his IV and he is back to normal!! He has a long scar and little dots from the staples, but he is doing great! I hope we don't have to go back to the vet anytime soon.

1 Comments:

 Nick and Nicki said...

You forgot to mention that he played with his cousins for 5 days while you went to Disneyland!!

February 27, 2011 11:45 AM

 

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