Bear

Bear presented recently to Dr Abby with a severe case of cellulitis of his tail. Cellulitis is a serious infection of the deeper layers and structures of the skin. The cause is not always found, but in Bear’s case we suspected a minor tail tip injury led to entry of bacteria. When Bear was presented to the practice, the infection had already spread up his tail all the way to the base. Due to Bear’s thick coat, the swelling was difficult to see, and Bear is a very brave dog and did not show signs of pain until his symptoms were quite advanced. We started him on antibiotics and several pain relief medications. At this stage we were worried about the infection spreading further and causing potential systemic sepsis - a generalised and potentially fatal infection.

Between our team of qualified nurses and our vets Dr Abby and Dr Rebecca, Bear went through several tail bandage changes to both treat his infection fully and allow time for the full extent of Bear’s tissue damage to reveal itself. The nature of his wounds mean that these pictures are too graphic for Facebook, but Bear and his family were troopers throughout. Thankfully after 2 weeks of regular treatment, a healthy tissue bed had formed on his tail where large sections of his skin had sadly died, and we were able to proceed to surgery. Dr Rebecca performed a complex tail amputation, as Bear’s skin was very damaged, and only a short amount of the tail was salvageable.

Thanks to the dedication of the team, his family and most importantly Bear being an excellent patient, he is now in recovery with his new, albeit smaller, but happier tail.

As you can imagine, there were several costs associated with Bear’s treatment. However, thankfully Bear was insured and on our Pet Health Club Plus, which helped greatly in managing his treatment costs.

Bear’s treatment regime involved antibiotics, pain relief, regular visits to the surgery for bandage changes, blood work to make sure his anaesthetic was safe, and the surgery itself.

Bear’s Pet Health Club Plus membership was very handy to his parents throughout his treatment and because he was a member of this, his family made some impressive savings over his treatment course in addition to the normal savings on Bear’s routine flea and worming treatments and his vaccinations!

These savings can be broken down as follows:

So! thanks to being a member of our Pet Health Club Plus, Bear’s family saved a total of £568.44! And he is still looking as gorgeous as ever!