We are still working on helping poor Anchovy through her injury. I REALLY want to see this little one SURVIVE and Hubby FEELS sure that she IS PREGNANT!
She has shown some improvement in a lot of areas (swelling mobility etc.), still has a wonderful appetite, attitude etc. but has some even worse problems also. She stinks terrible and is very obvious Gangrenous, to make matters worse last night we discovered a large area that had no sign of injury that now is burst open and raw and infected. It is the top of her thigh on the inside and is very gross and real big and bad. All of her affected skin on her outside leg (thigh)seems dead. Basically it seems that she has half a rotten leg. And she acts pretty much like it doesn't even bother her. She is one awesome goat!
A very prominent and trusted doctor said to me a couple of days ago "I know it sounds gross, but if you could find some maggots..." Well, that was all it took for me. I had already told Hubby last week that I felt she was a perfect candidate for maggot therapy.
So, now we are trying to get flies to lay their eggs on some meat and I am hoping to hatch some maggots to put on her leg to clean it up. I am afraid it may be her only chance to even live much less have a leg.
I have been researching this on-line and still am trying to find tips for specifics. If any of you know anything about this and have any tips please let me know.
I am also concerned about the antibiotic and if it will continue to help for only a certain time frame or if I should swap out to something else. I am going to try to talk to someone about that but if you all have an opinion it is welcomed here!
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So sorry little maggots! I forgot to say how we began to notice maggots floating in her soaking water. Sure enough they had been under her skin eating all that dead flesh we were smelling the whole time that I was procrastinating about how I would get some and then keep the maggots on her! HA HA! How cool!
The picture in the previous post is still real gross you may not want to look at it, if you haven't already! But it is a sure sign of life and if you had seen what was under the scab that came off you would understand how beautiful this looks!
Ya'll remember my joke about the southern Fairytale: Well ya'll ain't gone believe this s***! I am convinced this is a fairytale that will have a happy ending!
God is SSSOOOOOOOO GOOD! All of us who thought Anchovy would benefit from maggot therapy were right and we do not have to wait any longer to know that it has definitely helped. WE DID NOT START MAGGOT THERAPY TONIGHT-GOD ALREADY DID THAT!
We put her in water with lots of antibacterial soap and salt like we have done twice before, except instead of her back legs in a bucket we had all of her standing in water. Wanted to soak her skin that had become more of a scab off. Well after soaking for a long time I decided that was as good as it was going to get for now so I cut off all of it that had separated from her (now REMEMBER this is her SKIN not just a scab) and it was very nasty and gross and smelled horrible but underneath was bloody(not bleeding-but bloody)beautiful live flesh. This is very good! Unfortunately she has no skin here now but what is there is very alive and healthy looking! We still have a lot of SPACE to go (under her thigh near her tummy and udder-really scares me & there is still the whole bottom part of her leg )but this is a real improvement and much of the rot is gone therefor I feel more convinced than ever that she will be fine later!
I am sure that she is worse than & has been through more than any of you realize. It didn't seem so bad when you couldn't see it in person, but it has been one of the worse things I have ever SEEN or SMELLED in my life.
My hubby almost lost his leg in a bike accident over 20 years ago and had an external fixator, still has screws in his ankles and spent a year recovering, had 4 pins through his leg (in one side and out the other), surgery to put marrow from his hip into his leg, all kinds of stuff. And they even got infected at one point. That was NOTHING compared to this. And yes I took care of his wounds too. I mean this has truly been awful and I hope none of you EVER have to go through anything like this but if you do you will have all my love and support coming your way. WE thank you for all of yours and your continued prayers too!
Here is a pic of what it looked like after she finished soaking. As you can see she has live flesh with no skin covering it but hubby says it will eventually grow back over the flesh.
I believe the maggots have finished their work on this part but hope to see a few new ones soon on her lower leg and maybe on her upper thigh. If not if we decide she needs a few we won't hesitate to put some on her! They are truly awesome creatures!
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Way to go, Margaret! I think you very brave and strong. It does look healthy under that scabby area. Keep us posted! I can't wait to hear what I feel will be very good news. :)
Forgot the pic
Will tell you more in a little bit. Have to do some work 0n her. Have delayed this long enough and now I know why. God wanted me to wait because of what is happening. We were fixing to do it and wow! what a change for the better. Treatment is still on but should be easier because all the dead skin is separating away from her leg like a scab. have posted photo so you can see what I mean and I believe this looks really good and bloody underneath also which is a great sign. We are putting her in to soak so thatr skin will fall off and then we will wrap her with her maggots. Yes, wrapping will be a trick (huge part of my delay so far-trying to figure that out), but I think we figured it out close enough thatr I can do it now. Th enormal gauzes and wraps and a pair of pantyhose cut in half are going to help. MORE...DETAIL...LATER!
I was glad to see you were giving her antibiotic shots along the way, too. Mr C says it couldn't hurt & would probable keep it from getting any worse. I forgot to say the article we read stated that the maggots don't eat the healthy tissue, they will stay pretty much were they're needed & there is no pain from them either. They seem to actually help the pain as they clean up the dead tissue. The bad part is I don't know how your going to get them to stay in that crease in her leg??? Mr C said to tell ya in just a few days you should see an improvement in the tissue as they clean it up. The new tissue will granulate & be red, then bright pink as it heals.
I could not tell how deep the tear was...was it through the muscle or just the outer most skin tissue just before muscle?
Thanks a lot, I am game because I feel at this point that it may be the only way to save her. I totally agree with MrC and yourself! I feel strongly at this point that what you are saying is where we are at right now. I believe that we either do this and help her get over this or she will get septic!
Margaret,
Sorry to leave you hanging all day but we finally got rain from the coast & it knocked out my connection...I love the pic of you guys! Animals have so much love to give us!
Ok thanks for the pics. It gives me a better idea of what's going on. It looks & sounds like you have done everything you could do for her. Mr C & I were talking lastnight & her injuries look like they would benefit from the Maggot Therapy if you're game. Mr C says that they will not eat healthy tissue they only clean up the necrotic/ dead tissue . The article we read states they also secrete an enzyme that helps to regenerate healthy tissue. Mr C said whe he did this in the hospital they had to count the number of critters they put on & removed everytime. Guess they wanted to make sure they didn't start breeding in the rooms. He said they placed them on the wound covered it lightly with 4X4 sterile guaze and left it a day or so. When they removed the guaze a day or so after the necrotic tissue would be gone or what was left would dtick to the gauze and be discarded. Apparently the younger the maggots the better off because they tend to pupate in 7-10 days.
I totally understand not wanting to take her to a vet, it's not always the cost, but as you stated for some animals in strange situations they just give up. So we all do the best we can & leave the rest up to the guardian angels & prayer.
Mr C's main concern was that if it contnued to fester & die off she perhaps could get "septic" and you would surely loose her. Septic - looselt defined as being an state where the infection just takes over her whole body. It doesn't seem to help that it is in a really bad spot on her either. It's hard to not move that part of her body...I will definetly have you both in my utmost prayers. MsC
(edited for typos)
OK, the first picture of Chovies leg is the area of the original injury. The black part ( I put BLUE KOTE on it once and it has been dark since) is all skin over her thigh that all appears to be dead now and I am sure it will all fall off. The little hole that has a spot at the bottom of it that looks like pus is above the top stitch I put in and that is pus. Of course her leg was all ripped open but the gash itself were I stitched was about 4 inces with 2 stitches about 1 inch apart in the center and the rest was left open to drain.
The second picture is what I just discovered there a couple of days ago. She had been so swelled up the first week and finally the thigh started going down and now I wonder since we found this if it went down because the pressure caused it to erupt through here were she did not even seem injured before. So anyway this is under her thigh were it connects to her body, I am sure you can see by the teat you see there about where it is located. It didn't bother me quite so bad when the injury was initially on the leg but now that it is so much higher it really worries me because it is to close to internal body parts and future udder tissue etc.
Lord help my baby through this!
Poor baby, she is a very luck girl to have you Margaret! I am betting you will see her through this, you seem like a can do person and she will benefit from that.
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