On the night of September 26, Astrid had gotten outside and got into a cat fight. We checked her out when we got her back inside and couldn’t find anything, so we assumed she came out fine. All day the next day, she wouldn’t eat and wasn’t really herself. Friday, she still wasn’t eating or anything, so we took her to the vet. We were worried about dehydration, so they gave her a saline bag and couldn’t find any wounds. However, her temperature was getting high and they were concerned about an infection, so they gave her some antibiotics. We took her home to wait and see.
Saturday was basically a repeat of Friday. Still no activity or eating from her and back to the vet for the saline bag. They also did an x-ray to see if there was internal bleeding. They didn’t find any, but they did see a slight area where there was bruised tissue. So we went back home and did some more wait and see until Monday, but we kept her secluded in the guest room so she would have quiet to recuperate.
Monday morning when I went in to check on her, I saw some blood on the floor. I caught Astrid and looked for the wound. It was right near her butt, so I called the vet and they thought it sounded like a burst anal gland. We took her in so they could drain and clean it. Turns out, it wasn’t a burst anal gland, but it was an abscess that had finally burst from the fight. While they were cleaning around the abscess and shaving her fur, they found a bigger one on her right side. Because of the bigger wound, we needed to schedule surgery. It was scheduled for Wednesday so that any skin that was going to die would already be dead.
Wednesday morning October 3, I took her in for surgery. After they had finished the surgery, they gave me a call. It was bad. The wound on her right side was a quick stitch after removing some dead tissue. However, when they shaved her for surgery, they found a much bigger wound on her left side that had finally burst. It was like whatever got her had almost removed her tail. They had to use staples and stitches to fix it up and put in a couple drains. So we brought her home and quarantined her in the room.
Saturday morning after the surgery, we went back to the vets to have the drains removed. Everything looked like it was healing well. Next appointment set for Wednesday to check on possibly removing the stitches.
Sunday night/Monday morning, the wound on the left started looking bad and the staples were starting to split. We took her back to the vet. The left side didn’t have enough time before it was stitched, so a good part of what they stitched was dying skin so the stitches and staples were coming apart. So once again, after a really long tough talk with Darrell and I, she was scheduled for surgery again on Wednesday, October 10. They went in and removed all the dead skin and sewed her shut so it wouldn’t come open again.
When we brought her home after the 2nd surgery, we were concerned about her catching the cone on her wound and possibly opening it again, so at the recommendation of the vet, we went out and bought a couple baby onesies to put on her. It took a little bit from us and a lot of grumbling from her before we got it on. We then went and put her in the cage we have so that she was more confined (no jumping and popping anything). Somehow, within two hours, even though she didn’t have a lot of space, she still managed to wiggle out of the onesie.
Finally, after 5 weeks and a lot of trips to the vet, she was able to come out of quarantine and we were able to take her cone off. It was a long and stressful month, but we did it. Now, because of the amount of skin they had to remove, she has a permanently crooked butt and she is no longer allowed to be outside except on a leash with us present.
