Current rescue

[eyespy]

<img src="http://www.thebeardedlady.org/images/dcp_0941.jpg">

I call this little fellow The Gimp. While stopping in one of my local pet shops to pick up a few supplies, I noticed this guy with his entire leg totally covered in blood. I called the shop owner over and she said she hadn't seen it yet. I believed her because the blood hadn't clotted yet. It was obviously a very fresh injury.

She decided it would be cheaper to give the little guy to me for rehab than to arrange vet care herself, so we washed the leg, coated it in Neosporin ointment and I took him home after stopping in at the drugstore for Betadine, Neosporin and some dressing supplies.

We went to see my vet friends the next day, at a major vet school. While the leg looked very bad, it was mainly just swelling and a deep bite, clear down to the bone, around the ankle. We thought about amputating above the knee, but I was hesitant to do that as the foot still had enough circulation for the little dude to have pain sensation in all of his toes. High eosophinil counts revealed that the leg had a significant infection.

It was decided to give Gentamicin by injection and oral Baytril and return the next day for another Gent injection and installation of a Penrose drain to reduce the swelling and try to save the leg.

<img src="http://www.thebeardedlady.org/images/DCP_0939.jpg">

The leg isn't truly that black, if it were I would have chosen an immediate amputation and sacrificed the leg to save the life. My camera turns all the bruised areas to black as it isn't all that good at closeups. After a week of Baytril and the drain doing its job, swelling is slowly going down but we did lose 2 toes. It is thought we've saved the foot and so this little dude will be able to get around quite well once he's healed up some.

He has pretty good energy and an excellent appetite, although he is still too weak to chase down his crix and requires handfeeding.

This boy will be available for adoption once the infection is fully resolved. It appears he is a boy but he's still too small for accurate sexing. It also appears that he is a normal phase, with shades of gray, tan, and beige, with some yellow hilights once he's nice and toasty warm.