Lucky got her sutures removed yesterday

Hi all.

Lucky got her sutures removed yesterday. 

 

Her updates might become less frequent now, as the fun stuff is over with.  Right now,  we are on poop monitoring and no one wants to hear about that.   Her discharge instructions are posted below.  Click on the photo and it should enlarge a little making it easier to read.  

As  it says, Lucky nows 2 distinct tubes. One for urinating and one for pooping.  At the very caudal aspect, (closest to you if you are looking from behind) both open into a common area where the tissue didn't heal together.  A little pocket there.  

It might be handy for carrying change for the bus, perhaps.

She doesn't have much muscle tone to her anal area. She did before surgery.  That might return.  In the literature with dogs, some regained continence but only after several months.  So now, we are just waiting and watching to see if she urinates and poops in her litter box.  She has been urinating in the box and pooping there some of the time.  We aren't sure how much of the pooping is a conscous effort. Even if she is fecal incontinent, that is still better than Priscilla's situation where she ('Scilla)  has to have help expressing her bladder twice a day, and is fecal incontinent. 

Lucky still has to get spayed. So the plan is to wait a few weeks to let her get over this, and then spay her.  Once she is older, and larger, with healthier perineal tissues,  we might try to close the pocket at that time.  It depends on if she is able to keep the area clean on her own.  She can live with a little change purse there.  There is an increased risk of getting a urinary tract infection in the long run.  But if you didn't have a urinary tract infection before surgery from pooping through too tiny of a single opening as if it were squirt cheese, then that doesn't seem too terrible of a concern either.  

 

I'll probably spay her before looking for a forever home for her, or a foster home.  It might depend on the poop situation.  Below is a video of her around the office yesterday afternoon.   

 

Thanks again for all your help. And drop me a note if you find yourself suffering from withdrawal of Lucky updates.  Someone suggested a litter box webcam.  Where you can see "progress" as it happens.  

 

I'll think about that one. . . . . .not.