Posted By: TiPu
Zoey the neuro troubled suggie and toe amputations - 12/06/14 04:55 AM
Hello everyone,
These past few months have been difficult for Zoey to say the least. Back in the summer, she had a relapse episode where she lost control of her front legs and had general difficulty moving around effectively. She unfortunately did not fully recover as much as she did from the bout last year. About 3 or so weeks ago, she was badly attacked by one of my other gliders (I think Bitey...aka Amelia), possibly due to her weakened state and kinda being on the lowest of the totem pole in the group of three . She ended up with a rather large open laceration on her back behind her shoulder that became infected after my vet's initial cleaning and care. She became very weak and was, for the most part, stuck laying on her side unable to clean herself or feed herself. She lost over half her body weight in the summer, and another 15 grams after her attack. After a few weeks on medication, hand feeding her with a syringe and keeping her in a separate hospital cage, she made astounding progress to where she was able to stand on her legs again and scoot around and gained 10 grams back. Unfortunately, something happened with her front hands to where she wasn't able to open her hands too well, and this in turn hid some serious damage. Sometime during healing from this injury, one of her fingers sustained an injury and died/fell off and exposed bone, or this was part of the attack. Being severely weakened by the attack injury, we had to put off the surgery for a week to allow her to heal and gain some more weight again. After her surgery, I found out 4 toes had to be amputated, two on each hand. The vet had a suspicion that her last relapse may have affected her sensations in her hands and she may have been biting at them, or her compensating movements by scooting on the side of her hands may have led to the necrosis. It's really impossible to tell at this point .
Zoey is recovering in her hospital cage that she has been living in for the past month now. Her wound on her shoulder is nearly healed, but now we have to work with the recovery of her front hands. I ask if anyone else has worked with toe amputations before on their suggies? I also have a feeling she may not be able to return to the main cage with her other cage mates. It is a possibility she may never be able to climb again, but we need to see how she progresses over the new few weeks. If I do have to keep her separate for the rest of her life, are there recommendations to help her live separately, but still be able to interact with the other girls so she does not suffer from social withdrawl from them? I have been hand feeding her for nearly a month at this point every night, and do my best to spend extra time with her. If there are other recommendations to make her as comfortable as possible in her current cage, future cages, I would appreciate any tips . If this thread needs to be moved to Special Needs, I am ok with that. I will likely be posting there in the future with regular updates on Zoey.
I've attached a picture of her starting to eat some more food and trying to manage with her altered hands. You can see the remainder of the scab from her injury. It looks bald from the vet shaving the area a few weeks back to clean the area. You can see the two toes on her right hand that were amputated. I am thankful she still has her thumbs on both hands. The force is strong in this one
^Zoey says "These drugs man...they got me on some good stuff"
She's a little racked out from the anesthesia and the pain med injection here
These past few months have been difficult for Zoey to say the least. Back in the summer, she had a relapse episode where she lost control of her front legs and had general difficulty moving around effectively. She unfortunately did not fully recover as much as she did from the bout last year. About 3 or so weeks ago, she was badly attacked by one of my other gliders (I think Bitey...aka Amelia), possibly due to her weakened state and kinda being on the lowest of the totem pole in the group of three . She ended up with a rather large open laceration on her back behind her shoulder that became infected after my vet's initial cleaning and care. She became very weak and was, for the most part, stuck laying on her side unable to clean herself or feed herself. She lost over half her body weight in the summer, and another 15 grams after her attack. After a few weeks on medication, hand feeding her with a syringe and keeping her in a separate hospital cage, she made astounding progress to where she was able to stand on her legs again and scoot around and gained 10 grams back. Unfortunately, something happened with her front hands to where she wasn't able to open her hands too well, and this in turn hid some serious damage. Sometime during healing from this injury, one of her fingers sustained an injury and died/fell off and exposed bone, or this was part of the attack. Being severely weakened by the attack injury, we had to put off the surgery for a week to allow her to heal and gain some more weight again. After her surgery, I found out 4 toes had to be amputated, two on each hand. The vet had a suspicion that her last relapse may have affected her sensations in her hands and she may have been biting at them, or her compensating movements by scooting on the side of her hands may have led to the necrosis. It's really impossible to tell at this point .
Zoey is recovering in her hospital cage that she has been living in for the past month now. Her wound on her shoulder is nearly healed, but now we have to work with the recovery of her front hands. I ask if anyone else has worked with toe amputations before on their suggies? I also have a feeling she may not be able to return to the main cage with her other cage mates. It is a possibility she may never be able to climb again, but we need to see how she progresses over the new few weeks. If I do have to keep her separate for the rest of her life, are there recommendations to help her live separately, but still be able to interact with the other girls so she does not suffer from social withdrawl from them? I have been hand feeding her for nearly a month at this point every night, and do my best to spend extra time with her. If there are other recommendations to make her as comfortable as possible in her current cage, future cages, I would appreciate any tips . If this thread needs to be moved to Special Needs, I am ok with that. I will likely be posting there in the future with regular updates on Zoey.
I've attached a picture of her starting to eat some more food and trying to manage with her altered hands. You can see the remainder of the scab from her injury. It looks bald from the vet shaving the area a few weeks back to clean the area. You can see the two toes on her right hand that were amputated. I am thankful she still has her thumbs on both hands. The force is strong in this one
^Zoey says "These drugs man...they got me on some good stuff"
She's a little racked out from the anesthesia and the pain med injection here