Mr Rams

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On February 4th 2016, Rambo underwent an operation to have his back right leg amputated.

A week and a half prior to that, he had undergone a surgery to have a lump removed from his leg.

The surgery to remove the lump went well, and samples were sent off to conclude what it was.  Part of the wound was left open because of the location (ankle) it was quite difficult to stitch up. With that in mind he was bandaged and sent home.

A few days later we went back to the vet for a check up and the samples had come back as cancerous and it was diagnosed as a tumour sarcoma. 

 

He did really well over the past week, although he never applied pressure to the foot. We had three vet appointments in one week to check up on the wound. By the fourth bandage change he was yelping quite a lot, which was a sign that something was not quite right. When the vet checked the wound the next time round it wasn’t healing as good as it was before. His toes were quite cold and for a staffy that hates  loathes getting his feet touched, he was not reacting to anything. The vet informed me that he was certain the circulation in his foot had been cut off due to the tumour. This cancer had been more aggressive than we all thought.

I was referred to a specialist the next day for a second opinion and he confirmed that the circulation had indeed been cut off and that a high amputation needed to be done to ‘cure’ the tumour. Even if the leg was amputated from the ankle down, there still was a great risk that it could come back. So two days later he was booked in for surgery.

I was nervous and relieved come surgery day. This was the best decision we could make for Rams, at least this amputation would get rid of the cancer all together. He was dropped off at the vet, early morning with high hopes I would be picking him up the next morning.

It was about 2pm that day the surgeon had called me. “I’ve got good news and bad news”…. The good news was that the chest x-ray had come back clear – the cancer had not spread (thank god) but the bad news was that he became very flat once he was sedated and his vital signs were showing very low results “I do have to inform you that there may be a chance he will not make it through this surgery”. The toxins from his wound had reached his bloodstream and Rambo had become septic.

I don’t remember a whole lot at this point.  It’s a very surreal feeling. I was trying to comprehend what was just said. I wasn’t too too sure what to do or say. I actually told the vet that I would give him a call in 5 minutes and hung up. I couldn’t even say ‘continue with the surgery’. After I managed to get my shit together, I called the vet back then called my boyfriend and cried my eyes out.

What seemed like the longest three and a half hours ever, I got the call back from the vet. “He’s pulled through! He’s doing OK, but we are keeping him overnight” Thank, fricken christ.

I went down to visit him straight away. He was very drugged and half asleep, but he propped his ears up and sat up when I spoke to him, so that was a small indication that he was still aware of what was going on around him. The surgeon advised that the next two nights would prove to be hardest considering he was still very sick. He was fighting for his life.

After the most sleepless night I called the vet in the morning who told me that he made it through and was doing surprisingly well :D!  I was at the vet that afternoon to take him home.

When I got him home, I had the help of my boyfriend and his parents to help settle him in. We carried him inside on a blanket so he didn’t have to move so much and placed him on his bed. He had been vomiting that afternoon and so was given an anti-nausea injection. That seemed to kick in once he settled down, only vomiting twice that night, 5 hours apart. Because he had been through so much and was fed a lot of medication, he was still very out of it. We fed him water through a syringe to keep him hydrated. I also made him bone broth that he would drink willingly, only letting him have a small amount every hour to help ease his stomach.

At 4:20am I called the emergency vet for some advice on what to look out for in case there was any changes to his well-being. Other then behaviour, she told me to keep on eye on his gums, which were a very pale pink. “If they turn white, bring him straight down”. He fell asleep again when I was on the phone, so I managed to get a few hours of sleep in myself.

The next morning he was looking much better! His eyes were the first thing I noticed. They looked like…he was back. His gums were still a pale pink, and he was still wobbly, however he got up by himself, went to the toilet, came back inside and had some water. For breakfast I fed him a tiny amount of kangaroo with bone broth and throughout the day he started to become more of himself, eating, drinking and going to the toilet as normal.

Each day he bounced back and the next couple of vet appointments proved that he was in fact becoming healthier and stronger.

Conclusion

To be honest, I am not sure why I decided to wrote this blog. I think its a mix between getting everything out and perhaps helping someone through something similar. Especially if things have not gone to plan.

Everything seemed to be ‘just on time’ with rams. If he had the amputation a few days later, he probably would not have made it. If I had not made a vet appointment so soon, he probably would not have made it. He has had that many bumps and cuts and bruises because he is such a highly active staffy that I didn’t really think that this lump would be cancerous. And never in a million years did I think that he would lose his leg. I was always the person to think “that would never happen to me”. However that thought was purely fear based. We are just so lucky that he pulled through so much and that everything was done as quick as it was.

The tripawd website really helped me understand how to help rams after the surgery. Even though the amputation was the best thing it can be very daunting, and you have a thousand questions running through your head and on what to do next and how to make your pet as comfortable as possible. However you also forget how resilient they can be. He chases his toy and walks around like he didn’t need four legs in the first place.

But the most important thing is that he made it through all of it. He’s still got the strong fighting spirit!

Reading other people’s story really relived me of some stress and helped me figure out what to do next.

I hope my blogs will help someone that needs it.

Thanks for reading.

Mel x