ok, this one is gross and long, but i haven't posted anything on lucy lately so here goes...
it's been about 6 weeks ago, one night of course right before we went to bed on a sunday night i noticed that the entire back side of lucy was totally swollen including her tail, her hip, her butt, and her poor little hoohoo. of course we freaked out but thought of course we could make it until the morning and take her to our wonderful vet. but at 3 a.m. she was up and whining and wouldn't lay down so off to the er we went. they informed us (without charge thank god) that it was an absessed anal gland and that i looked like it would make it another couple hours and to take her to our vet. so right at 8 we were at the vet's door - long story short, it was absessed and they had to put her out and lance it and leave it open and we were to flush it 2 times per day and come back in a week. of course we were going out of town (as usual when she gets sick) - so our pet sitter god love her did it and we thought it was all good. but a week later, it was back again all swollen up and so off to the vet we went again. this time he says that it's not the gland, but it had healed from the outside in and there was still a pocket between the skin and the underlying tissue that filled up with fluid again. so he lanced it again, and this time we had to clean it with a qtip 3-4 times per day to keep it open and draining. so claire took on that job ad it was healing very nicely until one day we noticed it was draining again and so off we went and he now is treating it with a class 4 laser in hopes to get it to heal. it just isn't getting better!!
meanwhile back at the ranch though, bruizer got a stinky butt and during all this about 3 weeks ago, he went with us to the vet and one of his anal glands was infected, so dr krug started once per week putting antibiotic directly into the gland (the man has got to love his job!) - but after the 3rd time with the infection not going away he started the laser treatment on his butt as well.
so, we've been in for 4 treatments on each stink butt and they just aren't getting better. dr krug doesn't think its the food that we feed, but we are totally convinced it is. we started feeding a different food about 5 to 6 months ago because b wouldn't eat the other, now we've switched to chicken soup, but now i'm considering going totally raw.
we feel so bad for both of them (but thank god for stained concrete floors!)
we just want them to get better and heal and go on down the road.
if you've never smelled a great dane absessed anal gland you are lucky - especially when it opens and drains itself in your car - i really feel sorry for the guy that's going to have to detail my yukon!!
la
