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In this Episode:
Series 1 Episode Guide:
Super Vets
We first met Taggy in Episode two suffering with a severe skin infection which destroyed 20% of her skin. She was critically ill and spent nearly two weeks in intensive care before undergoing a major skin graft. After a total of five weeks in hospital Taggy was discharged to recuperate but had areas on her side, stomach and leg where the skin had not grown back. Further surgery was anticipated.
During a check-up surgeon Dan Brockman was pleased that one of the wounds (on her side) was healing well and would probably close by itself. Scar tissue was developing on the front of her hind leg and the tight skin made it difficult for Taggy to fully extend her leg. On the inside of her leg down to the ankle there were still areas without skin. Dan decided to give Taggy several weeks to get her strength back and put a little more weight on before her next surgery.
When Taggy returned for surgery the wound on her side had completely closed. The scar tissues however, needed to be released and the remaining open areas closed.
To release the scar tissue a ‘Z' shaped incision was made on the front of Taggy's hind leg in the middle of the tissue. Dan then dissected the scar tissue and skin free from the underlying tissue to create additional movement before stretching and closing the Z-shaped incision in in such a way that this helped create more length in the section of skin and further reduce the tightness.
Dan and his team then turned their attention to the remaining areas on Taggy's leg. The original skin flap was stretched and surrounding healthy skin was also moved to close the remaining areas. Many sutures and staples were used to hold the skin edges together.
In the days after surgery, as with the first surgery, some small areas of the wounds broke down and small holes appeared between the skin edges. However after a week of dressing changes these small holes started to started to close in and Taggy was allowed to go home.
A month after surgery Dan saw Taggy for a check-up. Her wounds had healed well and there was no longer any skin tension preventing leg movement. There was one small area that had not fully healed, but Dan was confident it would close over the following few weeks, and that Taggy would not need to return.
It was nearly six months between Taggy's first visit to the hospital and her final discharge. Over that time she spent over six weeks in hospital, with daily anaesthetics in the first week to clean her wounds, daily dressing changes for three weeks and two major skin reconstruction surgeries. Throughout this Taggy remained a co-operative and happy patient, and not only survived the disease that nearly took her life, but kept all her legs and is now 100% back to health.
Taggy's owners have answered some of the questions many of you might be asking such as what was it like caring for Taggy when she came home from hospital and we have their answers for you here.
