August 2011 - Izzie Admans
Izzie is a loyal 4 year old German Shepherd dog. She was seen at the practice at the end of July after having problems with her rear end. Her owner had noticed an unusual appearance of multiple discharging holes to the left side of Izzie’s anus. The vet was suspicious she had a condition called Anal Furunculosis and was put on a course of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories.
A week later, Izzie's rear end had, unfortunately, worsened despite the medical treatment, so the only other option was to book her in for surgery.
Izzie was given a general anaesthetic and the surgical site was clipped and cleaned. The veterinary surgeon, firstly, removed both of Izzie’s anal glands, of which the left side had ruptured causing multiple radiating tracts of infection.
The necrotic (dying) and infected tissue around the anus was removed and the surface tissue layer was sprayed with liquid nitrogen to ensure destruction of the infected tissue and to stimulate healing, as the wounds were not sutured closed due to the nature of anal furunculosis.
Izzie was hospitalised overnight so that strong pain relief could be administered and her back end could be cleaned on a regular basis, this included bathing her four times daily, especially after she had passed faeces, also applying flamazine, a cream which stimulates the growth of new, healthy tissue, onto the wounds.
The following day, Izzie was still passing diarrhoea and being cleaned on a regular basis. Her demeanour had improved and she was desperate to be reunited with her owners. She was doing so well, that Philip decided to allow Izzie to go home with the plan that the owners would continue to bathe the area and apply flamazine cream.
Izzie returned the following day, Mr & Mrs Admans had been managing to bathe her back end with the shower, but after passing diarrhoea, she had become very painful and would not allow anyone to touch her. At the practice, with the assistance of the owners and a veterinary nurse, Philip managed to bathe the operation site and apply the flamazine cream. He advised the owners to allow Izzie to sit down into a bath rather than shower her, as this may be causing discomfort.
Two days later Izzie was much happier, her owners were managing to clean her well. On examination the tissue was healing well and the tissue looked very healthy.
Ten days after the procedure Izzie was much more comfortable and very happy in herself. The wound was still healing well and Izzie was passing solid faeces most of the time.
Izzie will be seen in 1 months time to reassess her condition and hopefully (fingers crossed) sign her off.
