Part II: Cyke Has Complications
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Thursday, April 10, 2003 (6:00pm): Cyke threw up this morning, got extremely lethargic, and when we took his temp, it had spiked to 106.7. We rushed him to the vet. X-rays were inconclusive so I told them to open him back up. They found adhesions and severe peritonitis. Complications from last week's surgery, I guess. They transported him to the VCA (Veterinary Referral Associates) which is fortunately right down the street from us. He's now in the ICU there. We visited him this afternoon and he looked a lot better despite the 3-line catheter in his neck and all the various shaved parts where they have monitoring equipment attached to him. His temp was down to 100.something and they were pushing all sorts of fluids into him.
Thursday, April 10, 2003 (8:00pm):Cyke is out of surgery and recovering. Basically, what had happened is that at the point where he had the original intestinal resection (where they took out the 10 inches of intestine that had died), the rest of his intestines adhesed onto the point at which it was healing. This turned everything into this nasty little ball of guts. The surgeon broke down the adhesions to open everything up and removed another foot of his small intestine. The then cultured the abdomen, debrided it, flushed everything inside, and closed it back up. (An open abdomen procedure is also possible in cases like this, but they decided that it would be better to close him back up and try to keep external germs out of him.)
His bloodwork is mostly okay. His liver and kidneys are doing fine, but his protein levels are a little bit low. They've given him plasma transfusions and are giving him masssive doses of antibiotics to try to eliminate any infection. They're also giving him what's essentially liquid protein to bring up his protein levels. Currently, they are guardedly optimistic. The criticial period will be the next couple of days and he'll remain there in ICU under their care. Currently, they are guardedly optimistic. The criticial period will be the next couple of days and he'll remain there in ICU under their care. They'll call us tomorrow AM to let us know how he's doing and we're going to go see him tomorrow as well.
Friday, April 11, 2003 (8:00pm): We visited Cyke this afternoon and spent about an hour sitting with him before they nudged us out the door. When he saw us, he got up and started wagging his tail like crazy -- it was thumping on the metal sides of the cage. He looks a LOT better than he did yesterday. While we were there he turned up his nose at water, but tried to eat the hand of the doctor who had fed him a bite of food in the early AM. Land Shark! So they gave him some food and took away the cardboard tray before he could eat that too. He's holding his food down right now.
He's still in dangerous territory healthwise, but he's in good hands and they're doing everything that they can to help him get well. Click here for pictures from April 11, 2003 when Cyke was in the ICU.
Saturday, April 12, 2003 (4:00pm): We visited Cyke this afternoon and they brought him out so that we could take him for a short walk outside. He was super happy to see us and trotted around sniffing everything. We took some pictures of him, but we haven't uploaded those yet.
Sunday, April 13, 2003 (10:00pm): Cyke was moved into the regular hospital ward today. He went absolutely ballistic when we showed up, whacking the cage with his tail and attempting to remove the cage door with his front paws. Reports from the staff indicate that he's eating like a pig, having a huge appetite for both food and his IV lines. When we visited today, one of the techs was very wary about letting us remove his elizabethan collar -- we figure that she'd had to replace more than one line and was getting a wee bit tired of it. We took Cyke a special visitor today -- our friend Christine who bred his litter was staying with us this weekend so we took her along with us. Cyke also had a chance to say "Hi" to his canine mom in the parking lot (shh...don't tell the vet folks).
Things are looking more positive. He's still in a risky place physically, but he's a fighter and he's much stronger than he was before. He pitched a royal fit when we finally had to leave -- we could hear him all the way out in the waiting room area (which is a LONG way from the hospital ward that he's in). Click here for pictures from April 13, 2003.
Monday, April 14, 2003 (6:00pm): Cyke might be able to come home tomorrow. He's off the IV antibiotics and fluids and is now on oral antibiotics. He's doing great, doesn't have a fever, and his incision is slowly becoming less swollen. We visited him again today and took him walking outside and then sat in his cage with him. I have to say that he has all the amenities there -- staff to wait on him hand and paw, a nice soft blanket in his cage, and a nice full water bowl in his cage as well. He's really got them all fooled if they think that he wouldn't eat the blanket and dig in his water bowl the second that they look away from him.
Thursday, April 17, 2003 (10:00am): Cyke came home on Tuesday! He's on baytril, metronidazole, and clavamox for the next 7-10 days. He's restricted to leash walks for the next 7 days with no running, jumping, swimming, stairs, or interaction with the Big Dogs allowed. He gets his staples out next week.
We're extremely happy to have him home, despite the wailing, howling, and barking coming from his crate as he loudly protests enforced crate rest. So far his temperature has been within the normal range each time that we've taken it, there's very little redness around the incision area, he's definitely NOT lethargic, not vomiting, etc.
Monday, April 21, 2003 (6:00pm): Cyke got his staples out today. This means that he can once again run, jump, chase balls, play, and interact with the Big Dogs. The doctor said that he looked fabulous -- pretty amazing considering that he had three separate surgeries in the space of less than 2 weeks. We're happy that we can finally give him some exercise -- even the earplugs couldn't block out the screaming of a very bored puppy. We're doing 10 additional days of Clavamox and while I'm not a big fan of overusing antibiotics, in this case I think that it's warranted.
I'll post some new pictures shortly.