Well, now that it's all over (I sure hope so, anyway) It wasn't THAT bad, I guess. About the late fall of last year King developed an infection, a bad one in his left anal sac. It seemed to resolve itself after a course of antibiotics and irrigation. About a month later, it came back, worse. Again with the same treatment for twice as long this time, and it seemed gone. For a while, then it was suddenly back and this time, it didn't get any better, and after another couse of treatment with another antibiotic, it only improved slightly, so the vet said the only real way to solve the problem was to remove it.
Then he tells me there is the possibility of "anal incontinence" for up to a month.
Since only the left one was going to be removed, any problems with that should be short lived, if it happens at all. So I set it up, took a week off work to stay home with him, and dropped him off the night before, and he came through it all fine, and I picked him up late that afternoon. It was far enough after the operation that he was already drinking and had eaten a few bites, so I didn't have to put all the water dishes away, and close all the toilets and put books on them (He opens the lids just fine if the books arent on them). And the most important thing was, he went out in the back yard, and made a normal dump. Yayyy!
The cone he had to wear really seemed to upset him, but the first night, he mostly slept, but the next day, he was constantly "getting stuck" by snagging the cone on furniture, and stuff, and he was driving me nuts, to be honest. He was pretty miserable in general.
Then, by trial and error, he figured out how to "lay over" and get his tongue back there, so I had to go to Petco and buy him a bigger cone. This one was clear red, and he has his periferal vision back, and he seemed to relax and sleep much better than he had since the first night. Then that night, he started shivering and looking miserable. To be safe, I took him to the ER Vet at 330 AM. $107 dollars later, King was passed out in the back of the truck (He got a "happy shot" at the vet), and I was stuffing my face at Waffle House. Got to see a guy get pulled out of his car at gunpoint while I ate! He was just in some amount of pain, and that gave him the shakes, his temp was ok, and the incision looked fine. As soon as he got in the truck, he seemed to perk up pretty well, and ran around pretty well in the vet's office. I just gave him the pain pills the vet gave me every 8 hours and it kept him sleepy enough to give me a little peace, and also kept him from trying to scoot.
After 12 days, he was using the cone as a weapon on Molly, and myself, I had all kinds of bruises from the cone hitting me all the time. On the 13th day, I got fed up, the incision was totally healed, and him crashing through the house was driving me and Molly to the point where I had to get the cone off. I took it off in the middle of the night, and he went right to sleep, then I took him to visit my mother later that morning, and he seemed pretty perky, smootching all the old folks in the assisted living place my mom lives now, along with the workers he knew. The next morning, the stitches were due to come out. At 130AM, I saw the stitches, but when the vet took him back to remove them, he came right back and said he had removed them himself, and he was all set. I don't know when he did it, but he did a fine job,so it didn't matter really.
I guess it must have been bothering him more than he showed, since he is back to "100% crazy", torturing Molly, walking around and running on his back legs a lot more than he been doing recently (I just thought it was age catching up with him, since he's pushing eight), and in gereral being his normal self again, more "normal" than he's been in some time. I took him back to the vet last week to get his nails cut, and the remaining sac expressed, and he put on a fine show whining, twirling around standing up on his back legs, barking, yodeling, and embarrassing me in the waiting room. In short, back to the "old King" pre infection.
He drug the vet to the grooming room and then back. When we were leaving, he played with a huge 5 month old Lab puppy who was bigger than King already, and had feet as big as King's head. The pup was a rough player and King was in heaven, it had been a long time since he ran into another dog that wasn't scared by his roughness. After about 5 minutes of wrestling and all the terrible noises they both made, the pup had to go get his shots, and I took King home, where he spent the next hour and a half harrassing Molly, like he used to. The next day, he got to visit with his two "girl friends", labs that belong to a friend of mine. Unlike the last couple of visits, where he was very laid back, for King anyway, he got going to the point both of them were happy to see him leave 45 minutes later. They were wiped out. King napped in the truck on the way home, and as soon as we got home, started on Molly to the point she chased him around the yard and house several times, foaming at the mouth, she was very angry. The look on his face was of total joy, even when running away from Molly as fast as he could. (If I try to stop him, Molly gets very upset, and will try to start it back up as soon as I'm gone, it's like she's brainwashed!)
I know he's got to get old and slow down sooner or later, but for now, King is BACK, and INSANE! I guess it was worth 700 bucks...
Then he tells me there is the possibility of "anal incontinence" for up to a month.
Since only the left one was going to be removed, any problems with that should be short lived, if it happens at all. So I set it up, took a week off work to stay home with him, and dropped him off the night before, and he came through it all fine, and I picked him up late that afternoon. It was far enough after the operation that he was already drinking and had eaten a few bites, so I didn't have to put all the water dishes away, and close all the toilets and put books on them (He opens the lids just fine if the books arent on them). And the most important thing was, he went out in the back yard, and made a normal dump. Yayyy!The cone he had to wear really seemed to upset him, but the first night, he mostly slept, but the next day, he was constantly "getting stuck" by snagging the cone on furniture, and stuff, and he was driving me nuts, to be honest. He was pretty miserable in general.
Then, by trial and error, he figured out how to "lay over" and get his tongue back there, so I had to go to Petco and buy him a bigger cone. This one was clear red, and he has his periferal vision back, and he seemed to relax and sleep much better than he had since the first night. Then that night, he started shivering and looking miserable. To be safe, I took him to the ER Vet at 330 AM. $107 dollars later, King was passed out in the back of the truck (He got a "happy shot" at the vet), and I was stuffing my face at Waffle House. Got to see a guy get pulled out of his car at gunpoint while I ate! He was just in some amount of pain, and that gave him the shakes, his temp was ok, and the incision looked fine. As soon as he got in the truck, he seemed to perk up pretty well, and ran around pretty well in the vet's office. I just gave him the pain pills the vet gave me every 8 hours and it kept him sleepy enough to give me a little peace, and also kept him from trying to scoot.
After 12 days, he was using the cone as a weapon on Molly, and myself, I had all kinds of bruises from the cone hitting me all the time. On the 13th day, I got fed up, the incision was totally healed, and him crashing through the house was driving me and Molly to the point where I had to get the cone off. I took it off in the middle of the night, and he went right to sleep, then I took him to visit my mother later that morning, and he seemed pretty perky, smootching all the old folks in the assisted living place my mom lives now, along with the workers he knew. The next morning, the stitches were due to come out. At 130AM, I saw the stitches, but when the vet took him back to remove them, he came right back and said he had removed them himself, and he was all set. I don't know when he did it, but he did a fine job,so it didn't matter really.
I guess it must have been bothering him more than he showed, since he is back to "100% crazy", torturing Molly, walking around and running on his back legs a lot more than he been doing recently (I just thought it was age catching up with him, since he's pushing eight), and in gereral being his normal self again, more "normal" than he's been in some time. I took him back to the vet last week to get his nails cut, and the remaining sac expressed, and he put on a fine show whining, twirling around standing up on his back legs, barking, yodeling, and embarrassing me in the waiting room. In short, back to the "old King" pre infection.
He drug the vet to the grooming room and then back. When we were leaving, he played with a huge 5 month old Lab puppy who was bigger than King already, and had feet as big as King's head. The pup was a rough player and King was in heaven, it had been a long time since he ran into another dog that wasn't scared by his roughness. After about 5 minutes of wrestling and all the terrible noises they both made, the pup had to go get his shots, and I took King home, where he spent the next hour and a half harrassing Molly, like he used to. The next day, he got to visit with his two "girl friends", labs that belong to a friend of mine. Unlike the last couple of visits, where he was very laid back, for King anyway, he got going to the point both of them were happy to see him leave 45 minutes later. They were wiped out. King napped in the truck on the way home, and as soon as we got home, started on Molly to the point she chased him around the yard and house several times, foaming at the mouth, she was very angry. The look on his face was of total joy, even when running away from Molly as fast as he could. (If I try to stop him, Molly gets very upset, and will try to start it back up as soon as I'm gone, it's like she's brainwashed!)
I know he's got to get old and slow down sooner or later, but for now, King is BACK, and INSANE! I guess it was worth 700 bucks...
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