Recovery Updates

Hershey's first ear surgery was about seven and a half weeks ago. Six weeks into recovery, she got another hematoma in her ear. Her ear ballooned up so much that it split the incision site and blood was just coming out of it. Every time she shook her head (which was a lot), she sprayed blood all over the place. We took her to the vet and he said that she would have to have another surgery. He has only seen this happen one other time...of course she would be in the 1% percent of recurring hematoma cases!

She is has been in recovery for just over one week since her second surgery. She is doing pretty well, given the amount of trauma her poor little ear has faced recently. During this last surgery, they removed the fatty tumor from her side and also got her teeth cleaned. We are giving her lots of antibiotics and love, hoping that this surgery does the trick. I'll post more pictures once we can get her to stand still long enough to get a shot of her surgery site.

Nestle is now in her sixth week of recovery. According to her post-surgery instructions, we can walk her for short periods of time as long as this is the only exercise she gets. We've been doing our best to get her walking, even if it is just in the backyard. She's taken three very short walks around the neighborhood and while she is thrilled to be out of the house, she ends up limping quite a bit afterwards. We've been trying to alternate days of rest and walks so that she doesn't limp so much.

It's getting more and more difficult to keep her calm and in her cage. She's getting restless in the cage and wants to be playing and running. She's jumped up on the couch several times (which we're sure is a no-no for recovery!) and escaped into other rooms of the house on multiple occasions. However, we are happy to see that she is still putting weight on her leg, even if it with some limping. She goes for X-rays and an exam at OSU during week 8, so we have our fingers crossed that she is healing correctly and will not need any additional surgeries on this knee.

More to come....keep them both in your thoughts as they heal!