well last night I came home very late, like 11 PM, and found my nine year old GSD lethargic, running a fever, with a paw three times its normal size. I also find him no longer wearing the bandage we put over the lick granuloma on that leg, which sucks because the reason he’s wearing a bandage is he can access it even with an E-collar on. He already had the lick granuloma on that leg, and already had an appointment to be seen Tuesday by his regular vet. But given that he was acting like he felt pretty crappy it was pretty safe to say he now has a serious infection.
So I did what you do and called around to the area ER vets, which unfortunately we have only three of. All of them had a 12+ hour wait and were dealing with multiple hit by cars/poisonings. Not surprising on a holiday weekend but sucks for me. This objectively is something that SHOULD be seen immediately since he’s lethargic and not weight bearing and running a fever, but is not something that is going to kill my dog in the next 12 hours, so I thanked them and said I’d deal with it and call in the morning.
So out to the barn I go. Found some SMZs (bactrim). Search proper dosage of SMZs for a deep pyoderma. SMZs turn out not to be the preferred antibiotic for this in a dog but after digging in some veterinary manuals and some research papers I find the right dosage. Give dog the SMZs and a dose of rimadyl before re-wrapping his leg in a bandage and then slathering the bandage in cribox so he can’t rip it off anymore.
Called again this morning. Clinics are still running a 10-12 hour wait. However dog’s paw is a lot less swollen, he’s weight bearing, and his behavior is back to normal so I’m thinking he’s gonna stay on bactrim until he can see his regular vet on Tuesday.
It sucks, and it’s not the vet’s fault there is such a long wait for services. But is this affecting anyone else’s area quite this badly?