Mimzy again...more trouble with the months old suture :(

[MimzMum]

Good Lord...when will it end???

I noticed last night that there was something crusty in the area of Mimzy's scar from his surgery in August. Believe it or not, only a bit of fur has grown back yet, mostly in the scar. It's still puckered because they had so little skin to tuck together upon closing the wound. This crusty area also had some dark red skin next to it and that sent up a flag.
So I poked around a bit and lo and behold, there is a long piece of plastic suture coming from the scar. I think, aha, well his body is pushing it out of the scar area (like I've seen on most of my animals when they had residual stitching material stuck in their surgical areas) so I'll just take hold of it and see if it slides out for me.

Well, it did not. In fact it is pretty well mired in there. So I cleaned the area a bit, put on some neosporin and left it thinking I'd just call today and see what the doctor said about it.

This afternoon, upon making the rounds and giving him his metacam, it is now inflamed and looks like he's chewed an area right behind the suture and it is definitely bulging. My guess is I've either caused him to irritate the area by messing with it in the first place, or from pulling the suture through the skin (where it is still stuck) and now it looks like he's brewing an abscess for sure.


I am so angry angry angry with myself for trying to dislodge it, or not noticing that something was growing under the skin beyond healing tissue or whatever...but now he's GOT to be seen again and we've got snow coming tomorrow (can't get in today, OH has prior dates to keep this afternoon). The office is so backed up with appointments that they are going to have to squeeze us in, which means we'll be sitting there for awhile most likely and my OH has too many physical problems to deal with that, but the road is too nasty for me to drive by myself. :evil:

I should've taken him back in last week, before the road went to poo, because now it's likely they'll have to cut him open, remove whatever they find and I'll be either dragging him back and forth to more appointments or having to irrigate another open wound for another couple of months. I'm not very happy with my good vet at the moment because she had to have closed the wound, why didn't she use dissolving stitches?

And why is he just not healing as well as he used to? Is this what I have to look forward to for him in his declining years? Constantly reopening old wounds to clean them up and causing more trauma? Not fair on him.

Is there anything I can do here at home until tomorrow to make this more comfortable for him? Should I be placing compresses on the area or should I just leave it and let the doctor tend it? (Mind you this is not the one who did the surgery but another exotics-not as good-who will see him tomorrow.)

I have a few pictures but they aren't great.
Last night, two views:

The crusty part has gone that was in this picture, I assume by him chewing on himself. :roll:

Today (only one because for some stupid reason my laptop couldn't read the other five I had taken even though they were all shot at the same time :? )

You can see the bit of suture sticking out from the original wound (which is under a fold of skin in this pic) and then the new lump I'm worried about is pretty obvious.

I am so stressed right now I want to scream. Why can't we catch a break? This poor bun has been through enough. And I'm at the end of my rope.

We did have a bit of happy time last night, before I noticed this problem, I'd emptied out some bunny safe packing paper from a delivery we'd just gotten and allowed him to tear it up to his heart's content. Wish I gotten video of it now, but he was really taking out some frustrations. It's the most I've seen him gad about in awhile. He doesn't eat it, but just shreds it to bits. There were two large sheets when he started and only two large sheets' worth of confetti when he finished.
My guess is, he's thinking of what a numpty mum is when he's tearing something up like that...pretending it's me most likely. :roll:

*sigh* Anyway, could we have some vibes if there are any going spare? I really hope this isn't going to be a major production tomorrow, for all our sakes. Many thanks in advance!

 

[tashp90]

Sending all the vibes possible that it's something simple to sort out!
I have no advice or anything, but can only imagine how frustrated you are with it all

 

[Jack's-Jane]

I am so sorry that things are really stressful for you at the moment and that Mimzy's wound continues to cause him problems Could the area have become more inflammed due to a reaction to neosporin ?

http://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-3...nationantibiotic-topical/details#side-effects

Sometimes scar tissue can be sensitive to things that never caused problems before. I know that from first hand experience myself. So maybe the Metacam will have calmed things down a bit by now ? Then perhaps the Vet will be able to extract the rogue suture with just the use of some local anaesthetic gel.

Lots of vibes being sent for all of you and do please keep us updated about how you are all doing xx

 

[Zoobec]

I'm so sorry you are having a bad time at the moment I don't have any advice, but I'm sending lots of vibes xx

 

[Pets mum]

Really sorry you are going through this, and hope it gets sorted quickly. Sending healing vibes for bun, and calming ones for you

 

[mini lop1]

oh no sending many healing vibes x

 

[Rabcat]

Poor little Mimzy and poor you!

Sending lots of vibes for him and hope you can get this sorted soon xxxx

 

[Fee]

Oh no Mimzy.. What have you been doing to yourself?

Millions of healing vibes being sent to you.. Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

[MimzMum]

Sorry to not update till now, folks. It's been a long day but at least Mimzy's portion of it was pretty straightforward.

First of all, Jane thank you for the link. I didn't put anymore neosporin on him just in case that was the problem, but when we saw the vet today she determined that there was no abscess forming (odd because the day I saw this lump it was easily the size of a big pea underneath) and that they'd just used a large gauge suture material to close him and it was the reason it was still protruding from the scar. The suture thread she uses for such a procedure is lighter and dissolves away. (Still no idea why my vet didn't do the same back in August.)
She almost got all of it out but the end really is stuck in there and while she was grasping the scalpel to cut the stuff off that she could see, most of it slipped back down under his skin, so she only got a wee bit of it. The rest is still there, under the scar, and we can't get at it now. So either it's there for the rest of his life, or if his skin forms a pocket around it again, maybe we can get the remainder off at a later date, but she really wasn't too worried about it. I asked if she thought it would form an abscess later and she said usually it doesn't. Well...usually we use a lighter thread to close the dermis around a wound too so, that's not the most comforting thing for me to hear. :?
Anyway, he wasn't happy with more prodding and poking. I did ask the vet if she thought I should give him antibiotics against infection, she said no, and when I asked if there was anything I should put on it, she suggested the neosporin plus. :shock: I told her he could reach the area (obviously, since he's torn the skin up behind it!) and she amended that to just the plain neosporin. :roll:

Sooo...all that way in and back and it was as I feared...I probably could've taken care of this at home without putting him through another agonizing car ride. But hey ho...it's not an abscess and that's what I was first worried about. The initial wound looked much better after the neosporin ointment but I'm not eager to put it on him again now. I really didn't want him to get cut on again but now I have to worry what is going to happen with the rest of that suture? I know the area has to be bothering him or it wouldn't still be so messed up. But I fear we'll get nowhere until I can see his regular vet again and God only knows when that will be. :evil:

Since we got home (not a fun ride with all the ice on the road and dodgy tires) I've managed to hack my daughter off enough (it's not worth mentioning how) that she is shunning me and so I've got double duty with our two dogs and any household chores I've not gotten finished yet. I was supposed to drag a bunch of cardboard boxes out to the backyard in the snow so that we can burn them this evening (we're allowed to do that here, as long as you're not torching old tires or toxic chemicals or stuff like that) along with all that nasty old hay I had to dump this summer due to mites, but I can't leave the pups alone to themselves in the house and neither is my son available (he had a late night and is still abed at almost 5 PM!) so I think I'm just going to make myself a nice cuppa and pretend this day never happened! :lol:

Thank you all for your good wishes for Mimzy. I really hope he's not going to need anything else done to him, but I can't help but wonder if I hadn't had that stupid fatty lump off in the first place if he would've been better off. Just really mad at myself right now.
I'm curious if anyone else has ever had a problem like this with your bunnies? If so, do tell. I could use any encouragement right now that Mimzy will be okay still having this obvious irritant underneath his skin. Of course if he continues to mutilate it we'll have to march back and I won't be a happy bunny. :evil:

Bless you all and thanks for reading! xxxx :wave:

 

[Tamsin]

Aww bless, my sister had little tufts off dissolvable stitches sticking out of her leg after she had an operation. The doc said you could just pull them out, but they were pretty stuck and really grossed her out, so I she cut them off flush with the skin. She didn't have any problems with the bits left in. Not quite the same thing, but hopefully it will be ok for your bun too It must really add an extra layer of worry/stress when you've got the weather to contend with too!

 

[yaretzi]

Poor Mimzy and poor you I hope what remains of the stitches remains inert and doesn't cause any problems. I'm not sure if F10 germicidal cream/ointment is available in the US but I've been using it on and off with Nena's abscess and I've also been using it on myself now that Nena no longer needs it, and I've found it really good. It is harmless when ingested by bunnies and it's very non reactive with skin - with bunnies and with me! We've also used it on my little niece who suffers quite badly with eczema and it suited her fine. If the wound does need a little extra help to heal it might be a good option. Fingers crossed for him, I hope everything goes a lot more smoothly for you both now

 

[MimzMum]

Thanks for replying, Tamsin.
Yeah, I think I am mostly concerned that the suture doesn't cause any damage (it was pretty tatty in places so I think the vet decided some of it was disintegrating anyway) because I know bunny skin is sensitive and that's likely the first place infection will set in. I fear I pulled on it too hard and it was hurting which caused him to tear at the spot with his teeth. He has enough achy joints and bones as it is, adding to his discomfort is a thought I cannot abide.
And I just don't want to have to put him through more travel. He just doesn't handle it as well as he used to since his head tilt. Poor little guy can't ride in a carrier with a litter box either, so I have to just place him on some bedding with a waterproof pad underneath. He soaks it almost immediately upon being taken out to the car. I feel so bad for him because I just know he's supremely annoyed and little things set him off. He regains his composure after being home a few hours and having a nod, but he's getting older now. I really want him to be as comfy as possible because I just don't know how much longer I have with him.
Even the vet was a bit surprised by how little of his fur had grown back in, but she said he was beautiful anyway.

Thank you for suggesting the F10, yaretzi. I'm not sure we have that here but I'll ask around and see if there's an equivalent. It sounds like really good stuff. Thank you for the vibes too. I haven't caught up with your threads yet but I hope Nena is doing better now. xxxx

 

[Captain Helen]

Sorry Mimzy is still having problems Hopefully it will settle down now and stop bothering him. Sounds like an awful journey for all of you. I really hate driving in ice or snow, so I can imagine it must be pretty scary out there on the roads. Sending lots of vibes for Mimzy and hugs for you xx