Snoopy Surgery

The first week of May the right side of our dog Snoopy's face swelled up. We initially surmised he'd been stung by a bee and a small dose of the antihistamine Benadryl would help. But the lump got larger and harder and seemed to move over toward the top of his head as well. On Friday May 5th we took him to an emergency vet, not wanting to wait until we got him a vet appointment for Monday May 9th. The emergency vet diagnosed an abscess, perhaps from a bad tooth, and prescribed a best guess antibiotic and pain pills. At the Monday appointment the vet lanced the skin to relieve some pressure and extracted eight dental irrigation syringes' worth (about the volume of eight rolls of dimes) of pus/blood yuck. Snoopy would continue to ooze the rest of the day and night. We set up a appointment time for surgery first thing Tuesday morning May 10th. The following progression photos taken pre-surgery are pretty graphic so I have kept them small. The red is where poor Snoopy's skin had split due to excess pressure from the swelling; his eye is barely visible as a slit.

During Snoopy's surgery the plan was to take skull X-rays, check for tumors, and extract samples of the infection in order to fine tune the antibiotic and check for possible malignancy. If the swelling was due to a dental abscess, the vet would do the needed dental work. If the swelling was from a tumor we signed for the vet to not wake Snoopy up from the anesthesia. Snoopy is fourteen years old. Skull X-rays confirmed there was no tumor. The abscess was not due to a dental infection although there was a broken tooth on the opposite side of Snoopy's head from the abscess. Snoopy was under anesthesia for 4.5 hours. No reason for the abscess was ever found. Cultures days later confirmed no malignancy and found he needed antibiotics for both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. There was concern that sustained pressure on the optic nerve put Snoopy at risk of losing the sight in this right eye or even the eye itself. Snoopy was on two pain killers, a patch on his rump to dispense Fentanyl, three antibiotics, eye drops, plus a modified diet of soft canned food and no hard kibble. Oh, and yes, the "cone of shame". I learned that Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and that if he ate or chewed on the patch on his rump, the dosage would be fatal. We also did not wanted him pawing at the sutures or the healing wound on his face. His skin had been stretched so taut during the swelling before surgery that the skin did not reach far enough to close fully. He still had an opening that had to fill in gradually with a healing process called granulation. I learned that  "Granulation of a wound is normal and desirable. [It is] That part of the healing process in which lumpy, pink tissue containing new connective tissue and capillaries forms around the edges of a wound." 

With the cone of shame on, Snoopy could not navigate his dog door in and out of the garage (lower left of next photo). For most of the week after surgery we did not leave him alone, Frank or me stayed home to watch over him. But eventually we would need to go some place together. Even once the cone was off, we did not want Snoopy scraping his granulation scab on the flap of the dog door pushing in or out. Frank erected an elaborate fencing system and we left the side door to outside from the garage open. We could still lock the door between the family room and the garage for personal security; our attack mutt was not up to the task. We did acknowledge the possibility that some robber could steal the garage empty but Frank philosophically declared that that would be a blessing and most assuredly worth the risk.

Snoopy healed well. He had twice weekly vet visits to check the surgery and monitor his eye pressure, once changing the type of eye drops. Once his sutures were removed he still has a Frankenstein appearance but that will be camouflaged as his fur grows back in. His skin is pink where is black fur on the right side of his head is still growing it is but no longer an angry looking red. A rose colored oval remains and will fade when the skin fills in. How much hair growth there will be in that area is yet to be seen. The following are photos about two weeks and four weeks after surgery.

A comical feature that still remains is the rectangle on Snoopy's rump where his fur was shaved for the Fentanyl patch. Frank was tempted to write on it "Your ad here." Perhaps the publicity income could help defray the vet costs.