snaps on saturday

spoon-feeding Riley his "dog food soup"

Ok.

I have one more photo and it is pretty graphic.

It's a wider shot of Riley, taken today.

If you don't want to see it, don't scroll down anymore!!!

I made it small, just in case....

but if you're into really seeing the gory details,

just click to embiggen.

I tried to make him look pretty with the evening light and such...





....and I don't think I did half bad.

The sutures remind of argyle socks a bit.


So here's the situation with Riley. The reason none of the previous sutures have been holding well is because he has some sort of pretty serious infection (yet to be determined), and it's just rotting away at his skin. It turns out that even though the vet has been trimming off the necrotic/dead skin and re-suturing "healthy skin to healthy skin", this infection is just underneath everything, including the fat and softer tissue, and so the infection just keeps coming back.

This has the potential to be very bad :-(

This vet who did this latest surgery yesterday (different vet, same office/group) took out a swatch of skin that was about 3-4" wide and ran the full length his side. That's a lot. While she was in there, she also took cultures of the ick, but it will take until Thursday to get the results. Meanwhile, she has put him on a pile of broad spectrum antibiotics. She put in new drains and ran them horizontally. They will come out in a week, as will the wider-set, shoe-lacy looking sutures that are there to reinforce things and hold him all together. He's needs to wear the cone, and he will need to be on a seriously restricted movement plan for 21 days, because the rest of the stitches (the ones on the incision line) will need to stay in those 21 days. Most of his medications (especially the antibiotics) are set to be taken for 30 days, although the meds may change once the results of the cultures come back.

You'd shit your pants if you knew how much the bills are thus far.
And there may be more, plus he still may need surgery to remove one of his canine teeth once the jawbone fracture heals.

My greater concern right now, is that Riley just does not quite himself this time. Up until now, every time he's come home, his personality has still be shining through. It's something in his eyes (or not in his eyes) this time, and it's worrying me sick. I'm just hoping it's because he's tired, or because he's just had enough of all this crap, or maybe that he's just looking strange because he's got a pain patch taped 'round his ankle.

That's my hope.

I really need him to stay strong and heal from this infection.