Gandalf had surgery today

Status
Not open for further replies.
He has had 2 sizable skin lesions for a while now and I decided last month that since his blood glucose control was pretty good that I should schedule to have them removed. Unfortunately I couldn't do it last month as his BGs have become less stable again.

He did very well. I have what I consider a very good vet for surgeries and dentals. When she saw the lesions she was confident she could remove them with few problems and there were none. They only use gas anesthesia for him and he has little after-effects but he's a little out out of it as they gave him buprenex.

He's eaten but they kept him on a drip, so he's not thirsty, which is fine. Probably the worst thing is that one lesion was on the left knee and the other one on the back of the left leg, so he had trouble getting up earlier from lying on his left side. I probably should have had only 1 done at a time, but the total cost to do separately would have been considerable. Both was bad enough and I'm having to use Care Credit, but I can put bloodwork for my other cat Tigget on the same bill Thursday.

We are sending the tissues out for histopathologies. The vet took a lot of tissue from the surrounding area - the one on his knee is over 1 1/2" long. It was the deepest. The other was on the surface and looked like a large mole, but was pinkish grey, not dark like ours. He's had 2 other legions removed earlier in his life, one of which was like the deeper one, where you can feel it under the skin but don't see anything on the outer skin.

His BG tonight was only 201, so I gave him 1.2U instead of 1.3U. I'm not sure how well he will eat because of the Bupe. He nibbled at the food I put down for him after his shot, but he had eaten earlier. I am off for the next 3 days from work, so I'm home to watch him. He's supposed to be confined to a cage or small room! He wandered all over the house when I let him out! He always does that after a surgery. He was stable on his feet, probably the worst is I can tell he can't see too well because of that goop they put in his eyes. But he's responsive, vocalized a couple times and purred, so I feel he's doing very well for a 17 1/2 yr old after surgery. He has acupuncture on Thursday, so we'll get acupuncturist's opinion on how he's doing. She's going to have to find a different spot to give his B12 shot though!
 
FYI - I took his meter and strips and even some lancets along this morning and had them use it to test him. They still charged me, but they cut the price in half, which wasn't too bad when each stick was $15 last year for his dental! And his meter measured accurately - his pre-op bloodwork had it at 354. On the meter after surgery it was 309 and 4 hrs later it was 237. He received half his usual dose.

So if you want to save a little money, see if your vet would do this for dentals or surgeries. $15 is nearly a box of 50 strips!
 
Glad to hear that Gandalf did well after the surgery. Have a nice three days pampering him and yourself. :smile:
I think my vet charge $20 a pop to test his BGs during Klinger's dental. Robbery!
Keep us posted on Gandalf's recovery.
 
Vicky & Gandalf said:
He has had 2 sizable skin lesions for a while now and I decided last month that since his blood glucose control was pretty good that I should schedule to have them removed. Unfortunately I couldn't do it last month as his BGs have become less stable again.

He did very well. I have what I consider a very good vet for surgeries and dentals. When she saw the lesions she was confident she could remove them with few problems and there were none. They only use gas anesthesia for him and he has little after-effects but he's a little out out of it as they gave him buprenex.

He's eaten but they kept him on a drip, so he's not thirsty, which is fine. Probably the worst thing is that one lesion was on the left knee and the other one on the back of the left leg, so he had trouble getting up earlier from lying on his left side. I probably should have had only 1 done at a time, but the total cost to do separately would have been considerable. Both was bad enough and I'm having to use Care Credit, but I can put bloodwork for my other cat Tigget on the same bill Thursday.

We are sending the tissues out for histopathologies. The vet took a lot of tissue from the surrounding area - the one on his knee is over 1 1/2" long. It was the deepest. The other was on the surface and looked like a large mole, but was pinkish grey, not dark like ours. He's had 2 other legions removed earlier in his life, one of which was like the deeper one, where you can feel it under the skin but don't see anything on the outer skin.

His BG tonight was only 201, so I gave him 1.2U instead of 1.3U. I'm not sure how well he will eat because of the Bupe. He nibbled at the food I put down for him after his shot, but he had eaten earlier. I am off for the next 3 days from work, so I'm home to watch him. He's supposed to be confined to a cage or small room! He wandered all over the house when I let him out! He always does that after a surgery. He was stable on his feet, probably the worst is I can tell he can't see too well because of that goop they put in his eyes. But he's responsive, vocalized a couple times and purred, so I feel he's doing very well for a 17 1/2 yr old after surgery. He has acupuncture on Thursday, so we'll get acupuncturist's opinion on how he's doing. She's going to have to find a different spot to give his B12 shot though!

I am so sorry Vicky, I didn't realize today was the day! I am glad though that things went well. I hope and pray the biopsies will come out negative and all is okay.

Will he be limping on that left leg for a bit...did your vet say anything about his recovery time? I am glad to hear you will be home to monitor him. I am sure he will love the extra company and pampering. :)

Hugs and healing thoughts for the big gray guy. :)

P.S. Funny about him wondering all over the house after wards. Checking out that his 'territory' was still intact I would imagine. :)
 
Vicky, I am sorry, I forgot today was surgery day too! Glad all want well and I hope he recovers fast. Do they have stitches to take out in a week? I would assume so - seems like the incision had to be pretty big. he did good BG-wise today will all that going on.

Yeah, the last time I had a BG test done with a meter at the vet is was $20. But they never charge me an office visit anymore. Haven't for years. (now watch, next time they will!).

Keep us posted on what the path report says.
 
Vicky, I am sorry that Gandalf had to have surgery. Glad to know that it went well! Positive thoughts for his fast recovery.
 
It's amusing - he has pink stitches! About 6 or 8 on each. Last time I think he only had 3 as I remember cutting them off myself. This time someone will have to do the one on the back of his leg. He doesn't like his legs messed with!

They said take them out in 14 days. I'll have the acu vet do it on his appt that week.

I couldn't get out of dream sleep this morning so his shot was an hour late, but he was only 143. That's a little low for me to give him fluids, I would like his BGs higher as they can create a dip in BG. I am going to syringe feed him today, so I know he gets enough to eat. He's sleeping on his window stool, thankfully on his right side. I wish the sun was out, but I had the heater on in the cat room last night and his ears were toasty this morning! I gave him his shot in his papasan chair (giant oblong chair that I swear I did not buy for the cats, but it has become theirs!) and he got up, came to the kitchen, so then I could get him in the bathroom to feed him and give him his Baytril. I was concerned about picking him up because of the site behind his leg, but he complained only a little.
 
Pink stitches? You have to take pictures! Probably so they can see the stitches against his fur, black ones would blend in with the new fur growth at 2 weeks.

Aw, glad he is warm and toasty and getting up and moving around. A little activity is necessary for healing.

Hmmm... what were you dreaming about that you couldn't tear yourself away from?
 
dreaming

I have the weird ability to dream in between the snooze alarms going off. Literally dream. I'm not normal....

And if you really must know I remember riding a motorbike around a track that was oddly like some of the Wii Mario Kart racing games I played on New Years at my friend's house! Like a see-through track over water where you could barely tell where the track was!

Now back to our regularly scheduled ISG topics....
 
Here's a not great picture of Gandalf's surgery site.
 

Attachments

  • CIMG1546.JPG
    CIMG1546.JPG
    1.5 MB · Views: 707
Lol on the dream! I had a dream with Oprah in it the other night. It had elements from Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Committed" too, which I just started reading. Odd.

Nice pink stitches! Is that the "back of the left leg"? Looks like more of the side. Hard to tell with no landmarks like paws, tail or head to orientate you.
 
Sheila & Beau & Jeddie said:
Lol on the dream! I had a dream with Oprah in it the other night. It had elements from Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Committed" too, which I just started reading. Odd.

Nice pink stitches! Is that the "back of the left leg"? Looks like more of the side. Hard to tell with no landmarks like paws, tail or head to orientate you.

That's his knee. Sorry, it's not very clear either.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top