Phoebe - UPDATE with pics

[jorats]

The catheter is to prevent the urethra to heal and close up on itself. I hope it's just normal healing fluids and not irritation from the bladder or urethra. That surgery was a tricky one. May I ask where did your vet find a catheter small enough for a rat? Your vet sounds amazing!

 

[Godmother]

Poor sweet Phoebe! I'm glad that your vet was able to do this complex surgery.

I think that her appetite may be affected by the pain meds; one of them (Buprenex) sounds like an opioid, which can cause nausea in people and animals. So she will be OK as she recovers enough to be off the pain meds. I'm glad that you loosened the collar, because it sounded much too tight. She may not be as anxious now that you've loosened it and provided some breaks from it. If she is still freaked out by it, I wonder if your vet would prescribe a bit of anxiolytic for her. I recall one of SQ's rats, who was in a bandage that restricted his leg movement. It wasn't tight, but he was frantic in it. She finally had to remove it.

I wasn't on line the day of her surgery, but I will now start sending our best healing vibes from me & my ratty gang. All this will be worth it if she makes a good recovery. What a sweet girl she is!

 

[Debbie]

Thanks again guys for all the kinds words and thoughts. You know, I hadn't even considered the Buprenex could be upsetting her stomach and why she might not be eating very much. We usually always use just Metacam. The Buprenex was just for any added pain this time. And she's also on Cefa, which can cause them a little tummy upset too. Not to mention she's also on Baytril. Poor thing.

She's definitely perking up enough to be pissed as hell about her perdicament. This is probably the sweetest rat on the planet...but she's NOT happy right now. She reminds me of my mother when she started going through the change. My mom would never say an ill word to anyone...but she had this stage where she was someone I did not know. :wink2:

Anyway, the vet called me (it was her birthday...what a doll she is to love our Phoebe so much), she said the surgery was very tricky and our other vet had to work pretty hard as the tumor went pretty deep. She said if her bladder was leaking into her body, we would know very quickly, as Phoebe would get very ill and die :sad3: The fact that the catheter is still dripping, I do hope it's doing it's job and maybe the goo was some residual or something. I'm still watching her very closely and we'll be giving her some subq's tonight to help get her liquids and maybe help flush some more, keeping that catheter "flowing". She did nibble on some more oatmeal and avacado, but threw the cooked pasta at me. :giggle:

Jo, I don't know where they got the cath, but it is TINY. I want to get a pic to post, but I'll try later when she's awake again. My vet really is amazing at surgery....but I joke behind his back that he has a god complex for it. He's not really a people person..he's a machine. :giggle: We stick to the other vet for everything else.

The collar was definitely WAY too tight. And to think, by the time you saw the pic above, I had loosened it THREE times. I have a stack of collars....so I swapped her's out for another, that was a bit bigger in the center, and it's feeling much better now. I don't know if the swelling in her face will go down until she has it off though. But we keep giving her time out of it for face massages.

Only the best for our Queen Pheebs!

 

[jorats]

I was wondering about the catheter if the vet improvised or if they actually make some small enough for rat urethras.
If Pheebs was leaking into her body, she would develop septicemia so fast... praying like mad that she recovers.

Have you tried offering her crackers? I know for me, every time I was nauseous it worked wonders.

 

[Debbie]

I'm a bit more optomistic this morning. We found quite a few little poo's about the hospital carrier, which means she's eating. She also cleaned her bowl of babyfood and ensure, snacked on some avacado and oatmeal last night too. Still not eating with gusto...but eating.

I still see spots (tiny) of blood everywhere, even though the vet said it would happen...I'm going to be calling agian today to ask when it is suppose to stop. She'll be scheduled to have the catheter out on Thursday. I've got everything crossed it will be removed. Then we just have to get the stitches out and collar off a few days after that. Thankfully, the incision looks good and stitches are nice and clean.

She's still not a happy girl at all....and that breaks my heart. :sad3:

 

[lilspaz68]

Can you take her off the Buprenex at least? The Metacam should be enough for sure now, and you don't need anymore tummy upset.

Ouch on the collar! :sad3:

 

[mamarat]

:joy: your sweetie is making progress. Sending extra healing vibes.

 

[Debbie]

Can you take her off the Buprenex at least? The Metacam should be enough for sure now, and you don't need anymore tummy upset.

Ouch on the collar! :sad3:

Yep. We were given 3 days work of the Buprenex and I stopped at two. Hopefully, the Metacam alone will be enough for her now.

I'm super paranoid about Phoebe, and seeing her depressed like this is really making me upset. So, I'll be taking her tomorrow for a recheck, just to be sure the catheter is working right, and she's healing as she should be. We have another appt on Thursday, where the catheter should be removed. We go back on Saturday, to see if the sutures are ready to come out. It will be 8 days though...so I have a feeling we might not get those out. But they do look good right now and I'm trying to be hopeful. The sooner we get her out of that collar and back with her friends who love her, the sooner she'll feel better. :sad3:

 

[lilspaz68]

I have not been able to keep sutures or staples in for that long for my rats. They just heal too dang fast. As soon as that catheter is out I am sure you can take the collar off and she'll perk up.

 

[Debbie]

Usually, we are very lucky and get the internal sutures. My rats leave those alone, heal up and all is good. In this case, they are external and very important they stay in, because of the delicate area. My surgeon/vet is also a suture nazi and if we get the externals....we leave the collar on, or deal with his wrath :? Trust me, these are lectures I can do without otherwise. :stickpoke: Of course, he doesn't have to care for a rat in a collar at home the way we do. :redhot:

 

[Godmother]

Kisses to Phoebe!! :heart: Sounds like you're in the home stretch.

 

[Debbie]

I started to take some more pics of Pheebs tonight, and the camera battery died :? Her face swelling has gone WAY down. The swapped out collar has done the trick there. Whew!

I just put Phoebe back in her carrier. She had quite a little motor about the bed and is definitely feeling perkier for SURE. She's still just nibbling food, but she's produced at least 20 little poo's today. She's she's at least eating enough for that.

Tomorrow is her check up and I'm really hoping it's a good one. I'm definitely feeling better about her recovery than I had even this morning.

Thanks so much you guys for being there for us. It's really been helping.

 

[jorats]

She's sounding much better. I wonder if she knows she has a bunch of people from all over the world worried sick about her. :giggle:

 

[Debbie]

Phoebe really is just the sweetest little princess...I'm sure she is very thankful so many are pulling for her. I sure hope to share some new pics of her soon, after she's looking much better.

Sadly, we had a bit of a set back at the vet today. Phoebe has bacteria in her urine, suggesting infection. It can't be too bad yet, as I can't smell infection (I have a super sense of smell, with can be a downfall at times). Her urine was a bit on the green side though :sad3: :sad3: when the vet checked it coming out the catheter. It wasn't like that, even this morning....so this must just be starting. I am also hoping that it's something we can clear up with an antibiotic change.

Phoebe has been on and off of Cefa most of her life, for her chronic ear infection. So I think it might not be as effective this time. We also have her on the baytril, but switching out the Cefa for Amoxi. I personally have not used Amoxi before, but know many rat owners who do. Hopefully you all here have used it with success too?

Anyway, Phoebe can sure use some continued good thoughts. We go back in two days to see if her urine gets more the color it should, and if that awful catheter can come out. If so, the stitches will be removed on Saturday. I have all fingers and toes crossed for that!

 

[Debbie]

Oh and I forgot to mention.....my vet read me the surgeon's notes on Phoebe's surgery. She's much kinder than he is, and actually shares this stuff. Anyway, poor Phoebe actually ost part of her urethra. OUCH! No WONDER she's felt so bad. Boy am I going to spend the rest of her life making this up to her. :sad3:

 

[Godmother]

I hope that the change of antibiotics will do the trick for her urinary infection. Then she'll really feel good again.

 

[Lina]

Ouch, I had just read this thread, Poor Phoebe, sounds like things have improved for her, Praying that the infection will go away now.

 

[rat.charmer]

Lots of healing thoughts to Phoebe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That pic of her with the swollen face just broke my heart!

 

[jorats]

Poor Pheebs... The Cefa should have helped, but amoxi which is pretty much from the same family might be a good change. I have not had good results with amoxi for bladder infections but I'm also treating a very hard to beat bug.
Convenia might work for her as well. In a study in dogs, the convenia (Cefovecin) was 91% effective for a UTI while the Cefadroxil was 65% effective. Might be something to ask your vet about.

Lots and lots of healing vibes for sweet Pheebs. :heart:

 

[Debbie]

:gaah: :gaah: :gaah:

Yet another hitch in Phoebe's recovery. So she's basically been in a large carrier (medium dog sized) for her recovery, with not much more than white blankets (to watch the urine output) and a constant warm waterbottle (which she likes to drape herself across. After our vet visit yesterday, I decided to put a cuddle up in the carrier, and set the water bottle along side of that.

I can only assume, having the cuddle cup, gave her a way to contort herself.....and she managed to reach past the collar, and PULLED OUT HER CATHETER!! :gaah:

As you can imagine, I was completely horrified, especially after finding out she had some infection brewing earlier in the day. I called our vet who said we just need to keep an eye on her and make sure she's peeing ok. It's hard to tell now, because I could see it coming out of the catheter before.

I sure hope she'll pull through this ok afterall. The vet had said 5-7 days on the catheter, and today is day 5. I hope she'll heal up ok and the Amoxi will help. Jo, I'm not sure we can get the Convenia here, but I will definitely ask the vet about it, if I don't see noticeable improvement (though not sure I'll see much now with the catheter gone) in the next day or two. Cefa has been so great for us in the past, and I'm bummed I had to switch...but it obviously wasn't working this time.

I really wanted to have a good update....darn it Pheebs! :sad3: