Here's how Bug looked this evening when we arrived at the barn -- lots of yukky drainage all over her face. Got a tiny bit of discharge from her nose -- just noticed that in this photo. I'll have to check on that tomorrow.
Here's a close-up of that tubing that the vet ran into the abscess rupture and out through that second incision, then tied in a knot to keep the abscess open for flushing out. It looks painful, but I'm sure it hurts less than that awful huge swelling did before. (And no, her ear in the pic below is NOT sheer, she just moved it at the last second.)
Here's her ear AFTER Mark did the saline flush and I cleaned all that drainage off her ear and face. It really IS looking a lot better.
When I cleaned all that dried drainage off her face, she started rubbing against the cloth so hard she about knocked me over. Apparently it must have been itching really badly. When I got her to stop and looked again, her skin was raw. I don't know if I did that in cleaning her up, or if it was raw from the drainage to begin with and I just couldn't see it with all that gunk on top.
Anyway, tomorrow we're going to clean her skin really well, then put Calmoseptine Ointment on there. It's used to treat (according to the label) "fistula drainage, minor burns, cuts, feeding tube site leakage, wound drainage (perf-wound skin), scrapes, and itching." Sounds to me like the perfect thing for that raw skin. And it's completely waterproof, so if we make sure and pat the skin dry before applying it so we can get a good thick coating on there, it should do a good job of protecting her face from any further damage from the drainage.
Her ear is still swollen, but nothing like it was a day or two ago. And even though the drainage still LOOKS really disgusting, it no longer has that awful stench. So --- progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment