Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Sickly Spike and his Adventures in Veterinary Medicine

Three weeks ago I took in Spike because he was struggling to breathe. We discovered he had two big abscesses in his throat that were constricting his airway. We put him on antibiotics and the abscesses cleared up. But then the infection spread to his beard. I tried treating him at home for the past two weeks, but the infection was more than I could handle. I even attempted to make an incision to drain the fluid & pus, but it needed more aggressive surgery. 




Today I took Spike back to Parrish Creek and Dr Echols used his surgery tools to clean out Spike's beard as best he could. Then he created a flushing tube out of a feeding tube that I could use to keep his beard open to flush it out twice a day for the next 4 weeks.




Spike is NOT thrilled with the new device. He keeps eyeing it warily. It will help me keep the area clean though. Poor beardie. He's had a tough life this year. Hopefully we can get him all healthy by the end of the year and let 2014 be a good year for him.