Author: Gil

About one hour after I posted that item on how great Rufus’ bandages were holding up, they began their pilgrimage  down his leg. Still, this wrap lasted nearly 48 hours after his Tuesday surgery, which saved me a ton of aggravation.

We went down for a 1pm followup and rebandage today. Both our lead vet (Dr. A) and the vet who handled Rufus’ first operation (Dr. R) came in to check him out. Dr. A cut off the failing bandages, carefully peeled the tape from Rufus’ tender skin, and announced, “WOW! He’s healing great!”

He assumed that some of the stitches would have torn by now, either through Rufus’ attempts at getting to them or just through his regular activity. I didn’t tell them that I’ve been on 24-hour alert, zooming into action the moment I hear the jangle of the metal tags on Rufus’ collar. But I did let them know that, while I let Ru walk down the stairs because he knows to keep from using that leg, I still carry him up the stairs as well as into the car. I figure the strain of that motion, where he pushes off with both rear legs, is more likely to cause the stitches to tear, especially with the double-leap he’d have to do in order to climb our stairs. Dr. R was glad that I wasn’t making little exceptions and taking shortcuts.

Then Dr. A said, “Well, it looks like we’re done with bandages!”

“Excuse me?” I said, shocked and already making a mental inventory of the self-adhering bandages, gauze wraps, sterile pads and other accoutrements that we’ve stockpiled.

“He’s healing so well, I don’t think he needs the bandages anymore. As long as you can keep him from reaching back there and chewing on his stitches, he should be fine till we take them out in a week or so.”

Dr. R added that she couldn’t believe how much better his skin was than when she performed the first surgery, a day after the attack. “There really wasn’t much skin to work with,” she said, “but this looks great.”

Dr. A recommended we pick up a compression wrap of some kind that can slide over the leg to protect it from Ru’s compulsive grooming, but said that his sweatshirt-cum-hip-wader was a good setup to keep the area covered. They still want us to keep Ru’s activity restricted — yard-only bathroom breaks, with no full walkies — but felt that it would be fine for Ru to promenade tomorrow morning at the farmer’s market.

Rufus, meanwhile, is simply thankful that there’s no more medical tape involved.

And, once again, the exam room turned into the stateroom scene from A Night at the Opera, as virtually every employee of the animal hospital came in to say hello to Rufus, give him some rubbies and scratchies, and get a look at his big, heart-melting eyes.

No Rufus news since our last update, except to note that the bandages our vet applied after Ru’s surgery on Tuesday are still holding up! This is a great relief to me, as a big source of my consternation and anxiety during this episode has been the need to constantly reapply bandages and figure out how to keep both of Ru’s wounds covered and protected.

Last night, Nancy, one of the people from Greyhound Friends NJ who helped us adopt Rufus, stopped by to drop off a cage-type muzzle for Rufus, and also to see how he’s doing. She brought Cali, her grey-girl, along. Ru was happy to make Cali’s acquaintance, but he spent most of his time leaning against Nancy and getting rubs & scratches. And a couple of times, he simply wedged himself between Nancy and her old girl, so he could get himself a little extra love.

Today, he’s pretty much just zonked out on his bed in my home office while I do research for my July/August issue. I let him walk down the stairs on his own, because he keeps from using that rear paw when he does that, but I still carry him up the stairs like Cole Porter’s manservant.