***Update on Buckley Prayers needed

[momtomany]

To make a long story short, our Lab Pit Chow mix (Bono) savagely attacked our 6 year old lab (Buckley). They have had issues before and we have kept them apart but our daughter was house sitting while we were out of town and let her dog out thinking Bono had finished eating. Well he had a little food left and when Colt (a year lab) went for it he attacked him. Buckley charged out to defend Colt and lost big time. Buckley was taken to an emergency vet with horrific wounds on his neck and throat, but because of two other emergencies, he had to wait almost 12 hours for his treatment and surgery. My daughter took him home with instructions to give the antiobitic twice daily for ten days and follow up with our vet when the stitches needed out. Buckley later climbed in our tub, and we told her to take him to our vet. He had a 105 fever and ozing wounds which are now necrotic. Our vet explained that with jagged tears this could be expected but is very surprised of the degree of it. He is being flushed and bathed twice daily and had to have an IV inserted for fluids because he developed jaundice, which is better today. My questions are, has anyone ever experience this? His chest and neck are black with huge ozing wounds and of course very smelly. Our vet said he hasn't turned the corner yet and is concerned we havent seen the worse. Has anyone's dog experience this and what was the outcome. Does anyone think that the emergency center was some what negligent in their treatment. Looking at the bill, they never administered even an IM antibiotic shot. We are at our wits end fearing we are going to loose Buckley. Our vet said this wasn't a fight, but an attack to kill. Bono's intent was to kill based on the wounds. I appreciate any feed back that anyone can share and if you don't mind prayers for Buckley. Thank you

[Karen]

Prayers on the way. No advice, but we'll keep you and Buckley in our prayers.

[Freedom]

Goodness how awful! Prayers for Buckley from RI.

No info, other to google it on line.

[Moesha]

I don't know anything about the condition you described, but I was wondering if there was any update on how things were going with Buckley. What a terrible situation.

[momtomany]

Buckley is starting to do better. His was septic but that is now under control. His entire chest has sloughed off and is actually a horrible to see. His neck is starting to slough also, but shouldn't be as severe we hope. We go every afternoon to see him and he was glad to see us today. We had brought some shredded chicken this morning and he ate some of it, so that is a good sign. I stop and bought two more chickens and my husband will take 3 bags to the vet tomorrow morning. He has a very long way to go. He will still has to be debrided under anesthesia and then slowly start trying to connect skin together again. Our wonderful vet said this is the worse case she has seen. Thank you Moesha for asking and please continue to pray for him.

[kokopup]

Necrosis can take on different meanings depending on where in the body it is taking place and what the initial cause for creating the condition. Cell death is a normal process that occurs in every living thing. Cells die and then new cell grow to take the place of the dieing cell. The problem occurs when cell death is out of control. Normally cells of the body are dieing but at a slow controlled rate. Cell death will accelerate when the blood supply to a given body part is interrupted for a number of reasons. This can be trauma, infection, radiation fibrosis (scare tissue) and other unnatural occurrences. When cells are dieing fasted than they are being replaced then you have a problem. In the case of a limb that has severe necrosis then you have what is known a gangrene. The solution is to restore a normal blood supply to the effected area so that normal healing can take place. The types of necrosis are to many to discuss in a forum
such as this.

This is a simplistic view of the process of Necrosis. The term can be used
to describe an abcess , a infarction, or an infection where skin or bone dies because infection has interrupted normal blood flow..

Buckley will be in my prayers. Glad to hear he is improving.

[momtomany]

Buckley's necrosis was due to the trauma from his injuries which cause the lack of blood supply to the injuries. Jagged tears are very difficult to repair and often there is a lack of adequate blood supply. Our vet explained that this was not a dog fight, but an attack to kill and kill Buckley it almost did. Our vet said today when we went to see him that she hopes to start connecting the remaining tissues back together a small portion at a time. It will be a long process to do this. Buckley was very glad to see us today and acted more like his old self thank God. He is stealing the hearts of all the vet folks with his personailty and how he has handled his treatment. Twice daily baths and cutting off of the dead tissue. Not a peep, a nip at them, just small wags of his tail. Hopefully he will have no set backs and can be back home in a couple of weeks. Thanks for all the prayers.

[Moesha]

That's great to hear that Buckley is still making progress. I think about him often. Please keep updating us on his condition when you can. Hugs to you and him.

[Grace]

I pray Buckley continues to improve.

Dare I ask what you are doing about Bono?

[momtomany]

The vet has started the process of trying to close up Buckley's chest. The damage was much more than she thought and there may not be enough tissue to pull back together. There even may not be enough tissue to pull back together to get the area small enough to consider doing a skin graft. If we can get to the point of the skin graft, he will have to go to a teaching vet school and it will be big bucks!! This right now is costing us a fortune, which he is our baby, but I don't know if we could do several thousands for a skin graft. Please pray that our vet can do what she originally planned to do. He had his first surgery was yesterday and we could not see him. We went today and he does not have the spark he had. We know he is uncomfortable as the skin is pulled tightly where they have started. He is not eating again so we will take him chicken on Friday. Please keep him in your prayers. Thank you

[Moesha]

Oh dear. I sure hope that Buckley gets back to feeling perkier again. I tink of this thread often and appreciate the updates you give us. What a terrible time for you and your family.

[Catty1]

Just an idea...in the cases of Siamese twins that have to be separated, something is put under where healthy skin is to stretch it, so that it will be available for a graft. Would this have to be done at the vet hospital?

Prayers for dear Buckley - and bless that vet for trying her best!

[Queen of Poop]

Prayers and crossed paws for Buckley.

[Grace]

Just an idea...in the cases of Siamese twins that have to be separated, something is put under where healthy skin is to stretch it, so that it will be available for a graft. Would this have to be done at the vet hospital?

Prayers for dear Buckley - and bless that vet for trying her best!

Those are expanders - sort of a balloon device placed under the skin and slowly expanded. They are used prior to separation of conjoined twins, and in breast reconstruction after a mastectomy.

I get the impression there is not enough time for this to work with Buckley.

[momtomany]

The problem for Buckley is that he is one of the hugh chested type labs and his entire chest from just below the neck is gone as well as to the outer edges under his front legs. That is why his chest can't be pulled back together as originally thought. The necrosis just keep spreading and then after the debridement and trimming.............well....
According to our vet, who we have been with for 30 years, a small area could be grafted, but not this large. The plastic surgeon vet she used to work with at the vet school has since retired and she is not familiar with who took his place. She is not really sure we have many options. Small areas of grafting are on thing, but this large is another. We have already spent $1000 so far and don't know how much more we owe our vet right now. Our oldest daughter lost her job 2 months ago and we are having to help her. We just had a roof put on and it ended up costing us $3000 more than we planned, so like so many these days, we are tapped out.
We have had Buckley just shy of 7 years. He has a typical male lab personailty, that is he never has grown up. He does his invisible act, where he thinks if he walks past you and turns his head he is invisible and can sneak out to the kitchen to see what he can scraf up. He loves oatmeal raisin cookies and I can no longer leave them on the stove. He ate 13 of them not to long ago when I left the pack I had got from Publix on the stove. Bread is another favorite of his. He knows place and will creep his way off until his back toe is on place and look at us with, "well, I am still on place." He loves Jasmine and all the cats and plays with them. He lets our chichihua (spelling brain cramp) Chili Pepper, clean his teeth. They usually sleep together. 110 pounds with 7pounds.
Thank you again for your kind thoughts and kind prayers. Pet Talkers are the nicest folks I know. May God's favor shine on all of you. Julie