LEGUME'S POST SURGERY PERIOD

On 9/14 Legume went to the vet because he had not peed in 24 hours. It was determined he needed his PU surgery as soon as possible. After several phone calls to track down a surgeon and check prices, Legume was taken to the emergency clinic. His regular vet had been asked to drain his bladder with a syringe. She removed 100cc of urine from Legume!

The surgery was complicated by the necrotic area surrounding his penis. That area would have to be removed and would necessitate his new site be in front of , instead of behind, his pubis bone. The surgeon did an excellent job with Legume, now it remains up to him to heal and Mom to take care of him.

A major problem, which Mom did not fully understand until after the surgery, is urine scald. His urine is very alkeline and burns his skin. This was the cause of the necrotic tissue! It began to reappear just days after the surgery. Mom went to handicappedpets.com for help and talked with the regular vet and the surgeon. She is currenlty using viatmin E and Bag Balm. Legume is washed three times a day with a saline rinse, then has his lower abdomen slathered in Bag Balm. After many tense days, his skin is healing.

A PICTORAL GUIDE

The surgery was complicated. A lot of skin had to be removed, an area the size of an american fifty cent piece. There wasn't quite enough skin to stretch together, so stints were used to fill the gap. These were removed after a few days when the seam had scabbed over.

The orange tubes near his tail are the stints. You can see how long the incision had to be on his abdomen. His new pee-site is at the fold of skin near the base of the incision.	The emergency clinic closes Monday am, so Legume required a day of observation at the local clinic. You can see his IV (for fluids)and his e-collar. He was alert and ready to go home! He even managed to escape once and take a tour of the vet office!
For a few days after getting his stints removed, Legume had trouble peeing on his own. He had to be manually expressed. The vet showed mom how this is done. Here he is with the vet. You can see how happy he looks about the procedure! Mom was very glad when he could pee on his own again.	This is the same area shown above, but now showing the result of urine scald. The red in this picture is accurate! He also developed some dark scabby areas, these are finally healing.
It didn't take Legume long to figure out how to eat with his e-collar on. He would set the collar directly over the food dish.	Legume is a very fastidious cat when it comes to being clean. Here he is washing his leg, even with the e-collar in the way. He has a very very clean e-collar.
Legume has found uses for his e-collar. It can be used to hold toys! He picks the toy up with his mouth, then puts it in his collar to carry it around.	Legume gets several hours a day to zoom around outside his cage. One of the first things he does is head for a scratching board. Like all the other cats, he loves cardboard!

I will keep everyone posted on his progress. Hopefully the scalded skin will heal! If the necrosis returns that could mean another surgery. The Bag Balm is doing a good job of keeping the urine off the skin. The hard part is keeping the Bag Balm on Legume! It gets wiped off as he plays. One trial without his e-collar resulted in him licking the Balm off. Mom will have to use something like Bitter Apple to prevent this, or find an alternative to Bag Balm.

We don't know if he will ever be able to wear his diapers again. Mom has decided that the upstairs carpet will simply be steam cleaned every so often and eventually removed and replaced with the bathroom vinyl flooring. This will allow Legume to have two rooms to run and play in instead of a cage or pen.