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Beagle Smells & Tails

Getting better

Bosley got the staples out of his arm today, and he's doing quite a bit better. His side is finally staying closed, although it did take quite a few surgeries to accomplish that. He had to go through 4 surgeries, counting the first one. But the vet was happy with the way that everything is healing today, so we're really happy.
Unfortunately, Bosley's other leg hasn't shown any improvement, but we still have hope. We've been stretching it for him and doing range of motion exercises on it every day so that it doesn't stiffen up. But only time will tell. He's starting to lick at it, so I'm a little scared about the self mutilation, because that is a problem in dogs with nerve damage, so we went and bought him some baby socks to wear on it. It helps some, but he pulls them off fairly quickly. Hopefully he stops licking at it when he figures out what's going on with it. Poor guy, I can't even imagine what it must feel like for him.

Bosley's starting to get back to his old self at times... He'll get little bursts of energy and try to play with his sister every now and then. It's really cute, and I feel terrible for breaking it up. But I don't want the poor guy's side to open back up. Most of the time he's pretty depressed, though. He lays around a lot... Asia has been trying to cheer him up; giving him kisses, barking at him, and just generally being her old pain-in-the-butt self. And he just lies there and tries to ignore her or occasionally growls at her. Pretty much like old times. :) But it's good to see her trying to play with him again-- She wouldn't go near him when he first came home, I really think she could sense how much pain he was in. So we're taking this as a sign that he's feeling a little better-- Or that Asia' s just that much of a pain.

Trying to heal

Bosley's wound on his leg seems to be healing up fairly well, but we've been having problems with the one on his side. He had to have it re-sutured for the 2nd time today. They had put staples in when they did the original surgery, but they didn't hold. The skin was pulled so tight from taking all the dead tissue that the wound actually pulled itself apart. So we had to take him back in and he had to go back under and get the staples out and sutures put in. Those were supposed to hold better than the staples (the reason they hadn't put those in during the first surgery is that they take longer and the vet didn't want him out any longer than he had to be)... Well, this morning his side was open *again*. So the poor guy had to be closed up one more time. They put in tension sutures today, so I'm really hoping that this holds, for two big reasons... First of all, the poor little guy is in quite a bit of pain tonight, and I think it's from the repeated surgeries on the same site; and second, because I really don't want to have to put him under again. I don't like that he's had to be under anesthesia 3 times in 5 days (Mon, Wed, & Fri), but, I know he needs that wound to close. And stay closed. Just to give an idea of the extent of his lacerations, before they replaced the staples with sutures, he had 40 staples. Which is a lot for a little beagle.
My little guy still wags his tail, though...

What we know

Thank you to Ryder & Abbie's Mommy & Daddy for taking care of Asia for a couple days while Bosley rests.

Bosley's home now, but we've found out some more information.

His original wounds are doing okay, but he does have more than originally thought. He has what's called a partial brachial plexus avulsion. Basically, the nerves have been torn and stretched from the spinal cord and he's lost the use of his right leg. Some dogs do regain some use, but the chances aren't high. We're praying, and the fact that it's only partial instead of complete helps, but it's still not good. Right now he can't use his leg at all. He's actually bearing all his weight in the front on the leg that was operated on. From what I've been looking up, it usually takes about 4-6 weeks for the use of the limb to come back in this situation, and if it doesn't come back, amputation's highly recommended-- Due to secondary trauma to the leg from dragging and also the dog tends to self-mutilate from abnormal sensation. Right now we're still trying to digest the whole sitauion, and I think we're kind of in denial a little bit-- You know, the "Our bubby will get better, he's a fighter," frame of mind. So we're really trying not to think too much about what happens if he doesn't get the use of his leg back. It's a reality that we just don't want to face right now, not with everything else we're facing at the moment.