Bad Mom

[ajcooksey]

Alright so update the vet on Tuesday didn't shave Turner's hot spot because they honestly were afraid he would freak out. I was skeptical but she reassured me that with proper treatment it should be fine. He has had several minor ones before that we have treated at home without shaving so we thought we could give it a day or two with medication and see how it went. Well what a load because yesterday when I came home from work I could smell Turner from the door to our garage. We decided upon inspecting his hot spot to take him to med vet because he could not wait any longer. We went to the emergency vet and they tried to give him a pill to make him drowsy and also a pain reliever so that they could properly clean and shave his hot spot. Well it was worse than they thought and he reacted badly when they tried to clean it so they went on to give him an IV for a mild sedation so that they could get at it and he fought through that still so we advanced onto full anesthesia when they discovered just how bad he was. The emergency vet who was amazing said skin irritations can range from mild to severe and his was severe plus plus. She said that she wanted to recommend he see a dermatologist in the morning to make sure that it was really just a hot spot and that there was nothing else going on. He was in so much pain that he hid so well from us that we agreed that he should stay the night and be monitored and see the dermatologist. She was concerned with the rapid progression of it since it was the size of a quarter on Sunday when we discovered it and hot spots typically do not progress like this.

We saw him at 11:30 this morning and talked with the dermatologist and this is what we found out is all wrong with our boy. His hot spot is inflamed and infected and he also has a follicular infection along with it. We knew he had an ear infection in both ears but the previous vet wanted to get his hot spot under control before treating his ears. He has a bacterial infection in one ear and a yeast infection in the other. His paws are also yeasty on the under side and I believe she said fungal on top from him chewing? We are so happy that we took him to MedVet and got the best care possible for him and now we have a plan of action for him.

He is on 50 mg Tramadol- 4 tablets three times/day as needed for pain for 5 days. 20 mg Prednisone 1.5 tablets 2/day for three days then weaning him back little by little. He is staying on the 500 mg Cephalexin 3 pills 2x/day until the culture comes back from his infection and if it is not the best antibiotic then he will switch then. He is going to be on antibiotics for 6-8 weeks. He is taking 200 mg Ketoconazole for his feet 1.5 tablets per day. We are to clean his ears every 3 days and twice a day we have to give him 10 drops of separate medications per ear. His left ear is getting Conofite Otic and his right ear is getting GentaVed Otic. He is having a follow up with his dermatologist on Nov 12th and we are to not touch his hot spot until then which is fine by me. I am so glad that he is getting what he needs and that we can get all of his allergy symptoms taken care of. I will never switch his food unnecessarily again. Here is what his hot spot looked like this morning and you better believe I have some words for the vet he saw on Tuesday and we are switching him to KatieB's vet who is local to us as well. If you could keep my boy and us in your thoughts and prayers as we get over the worst part of healing him I would very much appreciate it and I am sad that it had to come to this but happy that he is now getting the best possible care.

This is actually an upside down picture of his hotspot the bottom part is near his neck

 

[ajcooksey]

This is the first big hit we have had to submit to insurance and we are extremely grateful to have it thanks again KatieB for stressing how necessary it is for them. Also yesterday was their second birthday and that was not the way we had intended to spend it

 

[ElvisTheNewf]

OMG. I am so sorry that happened!!! I hope this new plan/medication works. Poor boy!

 

[MC Sullivan]

Oh poor puppy. I would want anyone to mess with me either. Thank god you took him to a different vet. Sending out prayers and thoughts.

 

[nowhavethreebears]

Oh my goodness...Poor baby Turner. That's the worst one I've ever seen.
Hopefully his arsenal of meds will kick in in just a couple of days and he will feel better. No wonder he did not want to be touched. I can't blame him.
You can be assured now that you are doing all you can for him. I am so glad that you found a vet for him that you are happy with.
Give him some gentle nose smooches from me and tell him I hope he feels better real soon.
Please keep us updated on his progress.

 

[KatieB]

Poor guy...that looks horribly painful. Sucks you had to experience Med vet but it is a pretty awesome place if you need it! I think you'll love Dr. Carlson as well!! Hope Turner is feeling better soon! And if you've never given pred just so you know he will PEE a LOT on the pred especially in the beginning. So expect to stay home with him to let him out until you taper the dose down.

 

[nowhavethreebears]

So, how did our boy Turner make it through the night?

 

[DAWNMERIE]

OMG, you poor things....make sure and give that Turner a kiss from me. You'll be in my prayers. And as for that other vet....I'd write them a nice long letter, shame on them!!!

 

[ajcooksey]

I am absolutely writing them a letter informing of them of what happened in result of them not treating him properly with photos from his time at the emergency vet. I haven't posted the worst picture of him from Thursday night when they were finally able to get it shaved down. He actually did very well during the night given the circumstances. He surprisingly did not have to go out between 8 pm and 8 am he wouldn't budge from his crate. I'm thinking the tramadol that can make him drowsy made him not want to get up to go out even though he is on steroids. Around 3 am he did start whining but he didn't want to go out he just wanted attention. We tried putting a t shirt on him last night but it was too painful for him so we settled for putting tube socks on his back feet so that if he did scratch it wouldn't hurt him. Today he was very sleepy and spent most of the day in his crate sleeping. It looks a lot better today less red and it has definitely continued to dry out. He scratched it once today and immediately regretted it and took off whining throughout the house then went to hide.

 

[DAWNMERIE]

Oh my poor thing Glad he's doing a bit better but it never should have come to that (can you tell I have steam coming from my ears!!!) I will say he must get used to you guys inspecting him though. Myra would run away at first but now she knows it's only for her feeling better that we look, she's still very cautious but she knows we must look. Re-assure Turner with treats and lovin after you treat him, if you are putting on any topicals.

 

[ajcooksey]

Trust me I was fuming when we left the vet on Tuesday and after Noah and I were finished ranting about how she cared more about the fact that we were not feeding him to her standards and giving him Science Diet than treating the problem at hand we decided to follow her directions for two days and if he wasn't better we were taking him elsewhere. The problem with Turner is that he will not scratch in front of us because he knows he will get yelled at so we never saw the damage he was doing until it was too late and we got home from work and saw what he had been up to for 8 hours. He is letting us near him to see it he is only skittish when he knows we're going to do something. Thankfully we are instructed to not touch his hot spot and are just treating it through the wide assortment of meds he is on. It is definitely improving and I'm so glad that we got him in to the emergency vet in time. He did not have a fever so it had not started to affect the rest of his body yet but it was only a matter of time before it did and then we would have had a much bigger problem on our hands.