Veterinary Care Page 7

Submitted by Deann Oakes -

This is my story about our SweetPea, We got him in Aug of 2003 and when we bought him home he wasn't acting right, laying by his water dish all the time and not eating. So I called [another skunk owner] and she said take him to the vet so we did and he had a kidney and bladder infection. He was put on amoxicillin that seemed to work well for him. So another month went by we had him nutered all went well. Then about a month after that again not acting right back to the vet again another infection. So put back on amoxicillin.

In Nov my vet passed away and we had no vet so I called aprox 20 to 30 vets to find one and we thought we did but she new nothing about skunks and he did have another infection and she put him on Baytril well that made him worse he could not pee or poop for 2 days so I stopped the Baytril and I started looking for another vet that knew something about skunks and we found a father and daughter team so we took Sweet Pea for a check-up and he did have another infection plus his liver enzymes elevated very high 997, normal is in the 100's. So he was put on Clavamox. For months through most of the winter we went for our monthly check-up for liver, bladder, kidneys. Well all was starting to look great, enzymes we got down to 150 range and one morning he woke up limping for no apparent reason. I thought he pulled something so I called the vet; she said it was probably a soft tissue pull to put heat and cool compresses on it whichever he liked. So we did and it was still getting worse so I called her back made a appointment.

We did X-rays and found which looked like several holes in his right front arm elbow. So she sent the X-rays to a specialist to read and we all agreed he needed a biopsy of the arm. So 10 days later he was getting the Biopsy when he was on the table asleep the vet called and said this arm is a mess there is no way to save it. It looked like mush and everything was eaten away. The only way to save his life was to take the arm. So we did she sent the arm away for a biopsy and it came back that my baby SweetPea has CANCER, 10 months old very rare type of cancer for his age. The first my vet has heard of Osteosarcoma. And she was telling me that this type of cancer travels throught the blood stream and he will be dead within a year. That next it will attack lungs,liver kidneys, bladder ,spleen, lymph nodes and so on. Now all was making sense this is why my baby was always sick.

So now here we are today his incision won't heal so we do our weekly Tues at 10am to the vet and this has been 2 months now. We did just wrapping it, then we did Sugar bandagages, then he went back in for a debreedment with a drain put in. I had to pull the drain in 3 days so I did it looked geat (see pics below) But 2 days after I pulled the drain the incesion opened right back up with a hole and puss. So we're leaving it opened I'm cleaning it 4 times a day with ST-37, BETADINE, and putting this Phytogel around the incesion and he's leaving it alone.