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Charlie's ear surgery

loobers25

loobers25

Warren Veteran
So Charlie had his ear surgery. When I saw him I burst into tears. It looks horrific. He's had his ear canal reconstructed and has a hole in the side of his head which i have to put a cotton bud in and clean out. I had no idea what it was going to look like and there's not much information on the Internet. . He is also borderline gi stasis having to critical care syringe him although he's not eating pellets but he is eating a lot of hay and treats... No pellets yet. I have just handed my notice in at work today as well. Feeling like **** to be honest
 
Ear surgery can look very dramatic when it has just been done - but it WILL look so much better in a few weeks. The fur will grow again and the hole will hardly be noticeable - in fact keeping it open is the tricky part! So sorry he is having problems eating - it is a big op - and also he may still be dosed up with bup. and other painkillers.
 
loobers25 said:
So Charlie had his ear surgery. When I saw him I burst into tears. It looks horrific. He's had his ear canal reconstructed and has a hole in the side of his head which i have to put a cotton bud in and clean out. I had no idea what it was going to look like and there's not much information on the Internet. . He is also borderline gi stasis having to critical care syringe him although he's not eating pellets but he is eating a lot of hay and treats... No pellets yet. I have just handed my notice in at work today as well. Feeling like **** to be honest
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Loobers I am so sorry for you and Charlie :(

I have seen several rabbits with this surgery, and as PB says, it does look quite dramatic and horrific :(

Lots of hugs for you. He *will* get better, and I hope you feel much better soon.
Charlie needs a good strong Loobers so I am sending you extra special vibes :love:
 
I really hope that Charlie will soon be feeling a lot more comfortable. It is a major operation, but it wont always look as horrific as it probably does now x
 
We were considering the op for Alfie but went with a slightly less invasive operation - the vet made a large incision in front of his ear, removed as much of the abscess as possible, then sutured the wound up to leave a small opening that we needed to keep clean. He's now got an abscess on the other side :( so he's back to the vet on Monday to assess whether he needs the same procedure on the other ear.

Alfie's face looked shocking enough so I can imagine how you must be feeling, especially as Charlie's had a more major op done and you had no idea what to expect. It does heal very quickly though and, as parsnipbun said, the problem can often be keeping the hole open enough to clean it, which I know is hard to believe when you first see them.

It's good that he's eating plenty of hay, that will be more important for keeping his gi system going than pellets at the moment; I'm sure his interest in pellets will return once he's feeling a bit brighter.

Sending lots of vibes for Charlie's recovery, please do keep us posted.
 
Charlie's eating everything now and his poop is regularl size again. He is back with a check up with jc on Tuesday. I'm not sure if it's lots of fresh ear wax or pus at the moment but it's making me reach. I am a dental nurse and assisted many implants and jaw bone grafts etc. But when I look at Charlie's ear my hands turn to stumps and I feel like I am going to faint lol. The hole keeps clotting and trying to heal over and I have to put a cotton bud on oh my gosh it's awful. Poor Charlie. What was the less invasive option you tried? Charlie's ear canal had collapsed and all the ear wax couldn't escape and was forming a big mound on the Base of his ear. We tried massaging and scooping it out but after a few months of doing this Charlie had completely had enough of us so jc said to operate. I can't wait for Charlie to feel better
 
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Bless him, I really hope that he starts to feel better soon. I am sure he doesn't hate you. He probably just needs to feel 'hidden away' whilst he recovers from what was a major operation.
 
He does hate me and that's OK lol. He's on a medicine called septrine that he absolutely hates too. On a positive Toby and Charlie's bonding is going well. Today there was head rubs

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loobers25 said:
He does hate me and that's OK lol. He's on a medicine called septrine that he absolutely hates too. On a positive Toby and Charlie's bonding is going well. Today there was head rubs

Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk
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You'll have to make it up to the brave little solider :D

I'm glad Toby and Charlie are doing well together :wave:
 
loobers25 said:
What was the less invasive option you tried?
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The vet made an incision in the side of Alfie's face - more or less from right near his eye going across the ear base and then beyond a little - and she removed as much of the abscess as possible, then sutured most of it back up, leaving just a small drainage hole. I don't think I got a photo at the time but, if he has the other ear done, I'll try to remember to take one in case it helps others in future.

It's worked well for Alfie so far; that was about 6 mths ago now and x rays at the time showed his other ear was also affected but it's only now started showing outward signs. But his symptoms weren't as severe as Charlie's sound so it may well not have been a suitable option for him anyhow - Alfie's ear canal itself is fine and there was no build up of wax, it was 'just' the infection.

The pus is quite nasty - I let my daughter deal with all that while I sat watching and gagging lol....... :mrgreen: Alfie hates septrin too, even though it's banana flavoured. :roll:

I'm sure Charlie just needs some recuperation time and doesn't really hate you; sending lots more vibes. x
 
Cleaned his ear today before work it's healing really well. I think the salty water definitely helps. So far so good. Yeah they said it was putting pressure on his brain so I didn't have much of a choice xx

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loobers25 said:
Cleaned his ear today before work it's healing really well. I think the salty water definitely helps. So far so good. Yeah they said it was putting pressure on his brain so I didn't have much of a choice xx

Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Poor wee man :cry: Are you getting much pus out of the wound ?
 
Loads and loads twice a day. Will the hole always look like a fresh wound if I can't let it heal over? It scabs over the top and I have to remove it...so gross

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