02/05/2025
It's been just over two and a half weeks since we took Xander in to DoveLewis to be treated for a large chest laceration caused by his mate. We've had our hands full with his post-operative care. Since his operation, he was on two weeks of clavamox antibiotics, antiinflammatories, and sedative pain meds as needed.
Two days after surgery, we followed up with our normal exotic vet to continue his recovery. We decided at that time to add silver sulfadiazine ointment daily. SSD cream is commonly used with wounds and burns to help prevent or treat infection. It is an antibiotic that can kill bacteria and prevent growth from happening. The dark raised lumps you see on some of the pictures are a mixture of scabbing and SSD cream residue leftover.
Due to the high range of motion area that the wound is located, some of the stitches started to separate, and the wound that had been fully closed started to do what's known as dehiscence. This is the fancy medical term for the wound opening up and exposing some of the underlying tissue. This was expected, and we kept a close eye on the wound to ensure there was no infection. We sent pictures daily to our vet, and some of the discharge from the wound was mildly concerning to him, so last Friday we took him in to get a culture swab done as well as stitches removed and the wound cleaned. While we were taking him in, we had to swap out his previous satellite e-collar for a silicone e-collar because his original collar was rubbing the skin around his neck raw, creating a completely separate and unrelated wound.
With help from the vet tech, our vet and the tech were able to take two swabs that were sent for culture, and they were able to remove the buildup around Xander's wound to show a vastly improved area. Xander is going through, what the vet described as, secondary intention healing. This is when the wound edges aren't connected, and the wound is healing basically from the inside out. Secondary intention healing does take longer than primary intention healing (where a wound is sutured or glued closed). At this stage, he has skin cells that are starting to cover the existing granulation tissue. He may or may not get another scab during this phase.
So while all of this is going on, we have to keep Xander in a small parakeet cage to restrict movement and reduce the risk of reinjury. That, paired with being alone, is taking a toll on poor Xander, and three nights ago he started to overgroom and self-mutilate the tip of his tail, which we discovered he could reach with the silicone e-collar. We made the decision to recreate the satellite e-collar with extra moleskin padding to prevent him from reaching his tail, and we also used SSD cream on his tail before wrapping it in sterile gauze and vet wrap. We are currently waiting for bonding buddies to arrive from Sugar Glider Bonding Buddies , so we are hoping that will help. In the meantime, we keep his bonding bag on us to try and help relieve some of the stress.
I'll update again once we have culture results.
Don't forget to keep emergency supplies on hand! So far, we've had to use: sterile gauze, vet wrap, q-tips, cotton balls, satellite e-collar, silicone cupcake e-collar, Vetricyn Plus, sterile saline solution, gloves, and moleskin. All of these products and more in our Exotic Medical Supply Kits - www.geekygliders.com
Providing exotic pet owners with critical supplies they need when immediate vet care isn't possible.
