Healing

Right after publishing the last post about Mazy's vaccine reaction- it opened up. I will spare you the pics and the gory details for those who may have a weak stomach- as I sit here eating my dinner... Lol There is still some swelling and plenty of drainage, but remarkably there is no detectable smell coming from it. Normally an abscess stinks enough to make some of us gag. It just does and there's no nice way of putting it. So now comes flushing it out to keep it clean and hope it doesn't get infected. 

Even with the nozzle on Shower which is the 'lightest' setting I can find on it- she is not happy with me hosing it. I rinse it and all around the open area and she fidgets and moves and protests in a number of ways. One thing she will do once she feels I have hosed it enough- Mazy will turn her head and use it to block her shoulder. I can't spray it if her head is in the way, right? Then she starts spinning circles around me to get away. When I put her up against a fence or wall where thats no longer an option- she cow kicks! But.... When I go to sticking a syringe up in there to flush it out with antiseptic mouthwash- that doesn't seem to bother her. She stands nicely for that for whatever reason. Maybe she knows she's almost done with this round of torture? I dunno. 

I get it. It hurts and since everything opened up I no longer give her IV shots of pain meds (she hated that too) so while I try to be gentle and understanding, so far she gets a verbal correction for the cow kicks. So far she hasn't connected and has only tried it a couple times. 

We went back to the vet for a checkup and first thing he does- jams his finger into the hole and starts feeling around. Heifer stood like a rock and didn't budge. I told Dr. K that I figured there was room enough to stick a finger in there but I wasn't going to. You just had to go there... I also figured he would have to sedate her to do it and there she stands all Miss Manners. 

We got a bottle of antiseptic spray and a container of antibiotic powder to put on her feed and a bill for our records. No need to come back unless it gets infected and there's complications. This may be a while, but everything looks good so far. Get some petroleum jelly and smear it under the holes so the drainage doesn't burn her skin, and hope for the best. Keep cold hosing until all swelling is gone, he slathered on a decent amount of furazone and sent us on our way. 

Two days later and it has really started to heal rapidly.  To read it looks almost all closed up at times going from the size of a silver dollar to the size of a quarter. Still has the hole the depth of a middle finger, but that is slowly healing from inside out. Still hosing/rinsing, flushing with antiseptic, spraying with flyspray, smearing on furazone and trying to find a way to get the powder antibiotics In her. Miss Mazy doesn't like it even though it smells good (sweet) and is supposed to be apple flavor. Wasted 2 doses so far. Ugh! I'll skip this for now and keep hosing, flushing, spraying it and thinking of a way to get the antibiotics in her and hope it doesn't get infected in the meanwhile. 

When I turn her out she runs and jumps around having a blast and tearing it up. Sometimes when she comes in- everything is oozing. That's a good sign since it is flushing out any stuff I couldn't get to. We're getting there and hopefully there is minimal scaring and all of her hair comes back. Time will tell.