So, Chili is healing nicely. ***WARNING -- Graphic Wound Description Ahead***
If you are satisfied knowing that he is doing okay, you can stop reading. If you cannot help but read on, do so at your own peril.
When he got the drain line out on October 12th (It's that latex thing in the picture of the previous post), there was a small hole at the top and bottom of the stitched areas. These holes were still weeping, but the wound site is an awkward place for a bandage. We took him back to the vet the following day because of the continual seeping and he had pulled the top stitch out overnight. The vet put four staples in the top of his incision and one at the bottom. We brought him home and were having a difficult time keeping him from trying to scratch the wound. I did NOT want him to tear those things out...more heartache, more damage to the little guy, and more vet bills. We called the vet and they recommended putting a sweater on him and putting a child's sock around his hind leg to keep him from scratching. While the sweater idea was pure genius, the sock thing didn't work out at all...the tape pulled at very sensitive skin areas and his mobility was very awkward. I wish I had gotten a picture, though. It was pretty funny watching him try to walk around. So, we took the sock off and the sweater did the trick. However, the wound continued to weep for several days, which meant frequent sweater changes and laundering (gross, I know). Also, we couldn't leave him home by himself because I was still catching him try to scratch and who KNOWS what he would have tried if we were all gone. He got his stitches out last Friday, the 19th, but the staples are still in. He truly looks like FrankenDog. Teresa even bought him a Frankenstein doggy costume for Hallowe'en. He still has the sweater on, mostly to keep Chester from trying to lick the wound. In every other aspect, he is behaving normally.
Which means that this incident has taught him nothing. I love him, but he is one dumb dog.
