Before we even left for Thanksgiving in Arizona, we were quite concerned with Remington. He had two VERY large lumps on his body... one to the point I was nervous about it rupturing while we were gone. Once we returned I took him to the vet to see what was going on with them. The vet was shocked with how big they were (fist size) and told me they needed to come off immediately. So we scheduled a surgery day and off they came!
We were so thankful that the surgery went well and the lumps showed no signs at all of being cancerous! Recovery went well. Remington never even touched the incisions and after 2 weeks of having stitches in we were ready when it was time for them to come out. I scheduled that appointment the morning of the day we were to head out of town for Christmas with Dan's side of the family in Ohio. Once they were out everything looked pretty good. I noticed that the back incision looked a little red and had some blood leaking from it, but I didn't think much of it not knowing what was about to happen.
We headed to Ohio and my parents headed to our house to be with Remi for the weekend. Probably 30 minutes after we arrived in Ohio (after a 3 hour drive) my Mom calls freaking out. Remington's supposedly healed incision had split back open! Being 3 hours away it was now up to them to help Remington.
Bless my parents hearts... I am beyond thankful for them!!!! They rushed him back to the vet (a good 45-55 minute drive since we hadn't found a vet we trusted close to us after moving yet) in freezing rain conditions minutes before they closed for the weekend. Unfortunately, there was dead tissue around the opening which is probably why it opened back up in the first place. They decided to keep Remington overnight and did surgery on him before they left that evening. They removed the dead tissue and stitched plus this time stapled it back up. The next day my parents drove back to get Remi in HORRIBLE weather (this was the night we had ice and 465 was shut down). Have I said how grateful I am! SERIOUSLY!
Dan and I cut our visit in Ohio short and came home the next day after the Christmas festivities to be with Remi. Would he have been just fine without us? Yeah probably... but I was so worked up nothing really could have made me feel better except being home with him.
Even though our vet had talked briefly with Dan over the phone he called me EARLY Monday morning to see what had happened. He asked if Remington had chewed the area etc etc. No... surprisingly Remington's recovery had been super easy! He told me that he wanted to leave the staples in for 3 weeks this time instead of the 2 we did last time and when I scheduled the appointment to have them removed he wanted to personally check everything out and remove them himself.
Recovery for Remington this time around was a little harder. It took him several days to get back to his old self. The incision looked awful and healed up more slowly, but for the most part I can't complain. As the two week mark approached of having the staples in I couldn't help but dread getting them taken out. What if the skin broke apart again? What would we do this time around? I had heard stories from others that they had to just leave it broken open and let it scab over and heal on it own... but it was tedious work to keep it clean and stop it from oozing everywhere.
The day I drove the hour to the vet to have the staples removed I was a nervous wreck. I kept picturing the incision splitting open knowing it would be huge this time around. When I got there I met with our vet and told him my concerns. I asked if ALL the staples had to come out today and he responded no! So we agreed to take out every other staple to see if everything would hold and then a week later I would take out the rest. Yes, you read that right. Our vet took me back in the back and taught me how to remove the remaining staples at home on my own! This was such a huge relief to me knowing that Remington still had a little time to make sure everything was healed properly!
Half the staples out...
... and a week later ALL the staples out!
I just feel so thankful that this ordeal is finally behind us after 2 months of dealing with it. And especially thankful to have my healthy pooch back!
Gosh I love this boy!
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