Little Pippin has been having a rough time

It has been a difficult couple of weeks with Pippin and a few times we were really scared we were going to lose him. I’m pleased to say now though that he has made an excellent recovery and we are very hopeful that he is going to be all right.

Pippin’s abscess operation

To start with, Pippin’s operation to remove his second rather large abscess had to be brought forward when it became apparent that the abscess was going to burst. The lump had developed a large black spot on it, which meant that the skin was dieing and the infection inside would escape. We called our vets and they told us to bring him in immediately to have it removed, which we did.

The operation went well and the abscess was removed in tact. Because of the size of the abscess and its proximity to Pippin’s urethra it was a very long and difficult operation. Understandably Pippin was not very happy after having a second operation, but he was glad to be home and after a sleep seemed to be getting back to his old self. Unfortunately the day after his surgery we noticed Pippin had yet another lump, just below the site of his last surgery. As we were not going to put Pippin through another surgery, we decided to let nature take its course.

Pippin had a follow up appointment with our vet for Friday 17th April, 10 days after his surgery. Our vet agreed that while the site of his operation was healing well, it would be unwise to remove the second abscess surgically. The abscess was already turning black so we knew it wouldn’t be long before it burst.

Things got surprisingly worse

That night we had a terrible shock when we got Pippin out to play, we noticed that not only did he have a third abscess forming, but his tail also appeared to be dieing. A two-inch section of Pippin’s tail had started to shrivel and go stiff.

Saturday morning we took him to the vet again to see if they could help with his tail. The vet we saw speculated that there might be another abscess at the base of Pippin’s tail, which was cutting off the supply of blood, but as we suspected there was nothing that could be done to help.

Over the next few days Pippin’s tail got worse and presented us with another problem. His tail had curled over into a hook and it was dragging on the ground and a couple of times it got caught in his cage. Derek found him with it hooked through the bars and then on a rope hammock.

Pippins tail starting to die (left) and the hook that formed

The road to recovery for Pippin

The first of Pippin’s new abscesses burst on Monday and this obviously gave Pippin some relief from the pressure on his tummy and he brightened up a lot. We bathed the wound in salt water, as directed by our vet, to keep it clean and prevent the risk of further infection.

Pippin was so happy afterwards and he even started bouncing around when we got him out to play. Unfortunately this increased activity presented us with a second problem, because his tail had formed into a hook it was dragging behind him when he ran and getting caught on things he jumped over. It was obvious Pippin was finding it very confusing, we were sure he wasn’t feeling any pain from his tail but the sensation of it dragging must have been very strange.

Another trip to the vets, but good news

Pippin was due for another check up for his abscess surgery, seven days after his last one, on Friday 24th April. We had time to play with him before we had to take him to his appointment and we found that his fourth abscess had burst sometime in the night. We bathed it with salt water and he still seemed very happy, apart from the problem with his tail.

Our vet was very pleased with how clean both of Pippin’s burst abscess looked and that they appeared to be healing well.

Pippin's new and improved stubby tail

As Pippin was showing no signs of any new abscess forming we were very keen to do something about his tail, before he seriously hurt himself. We didn’t want to put Pippin through another operation, especially as we didn’t know what was causing his tail to die and more surgery may have made things worse. Derek had been thinking about what was best to do for Pippin to keep him happy and safe. He had come up with the idea of chopping off only part of his dead tail, just enough to remove the hook. This way no live tissue would be exposed, so there would be no risk of infection, and the danger of Pippin injuring himself would be gone. The vet was surprised by our request, but he couldn’t see any reason not to do it.

Our vet wanted to lightly anesthetise Pippin, as we couldn’t be 100% sure the tail was completely dead and if there were any blood vessels or nerves still present it would be incredibly painful for Pippin for it to be simply chopped off. We agreed, because if everything went according to plan Pippin would only be unconscious for a few minutes and if it did go wrong it was better for everyone that Pippin was asleep than to be afraid and in pain. It was scary but we left Pippin at the vet again, but as expected we got a call an hour later to tell us Pippin was ready to come home.

Our happy Pippin is back

While Pippin’s new stubby tail does look a little strange, he isn’t the least bit worried about it and neither are we. Our bouncy little Pippin is back and we are over the moon.

The wounds from all of Pippin’s abscess are almost completely healed and there are no signs of anymore. Only time will tell if Pippin’s tail will be all right, but we are not going to worry about it. Pippin is back to his happy self and once again squabbling and playing with his brother.

All better