Yesterday was another terrible day at the vet and today is one of our worst recovery days ever.
Gari had the first molar on his lower right removed. The tooth was dead and decaying inside the bone. In fact, there was a tunnel through the bone from the first molar to the incisor he had taken out last time. This kept the incisor hole from healing up correctly. Instead the whole thing is full of old food and debris. They couldn’t close it this time because in order to clean it out completely, he would need to be intubated, which is a procedure we have not yet faced.
The second molar is also dead and will need to be extraced. That wasn’t done this time because he was already under for a long time and had enough trauma to his mouth for a lifetime, let alone a single vet visit.
The worst thing is that he is unable to stand or walk or even sit up today. Yesterday when we left the vet, he was able to walk fairly well, but he deteriorated during the car drive home. We basically had to lift and drag him into the house. He sat in his sphinx position all night and is still in it now. This is similar to what happened to Caplin Rous when he got neutered. He is not eating, but at least he is drinking. This is especially good since we learned that he has elevated levels of kidney enzymes, which is something new. Drinking lots of water is important for that.
Right now we don’t know exactly why he is having this bad reaction. It could be because of his kidneys or it could be something else. Because of my experience with Caplin, I am hopeful this will pass in a few days. In the meantime I am trying to keep him as comfortable as possible.
I’ll try to get some video and photos later but right now I’m busy just dealing with this, and the fact that we got into a small accident on our drive to the vet’s. No one was hurt but Gari was thrown into the front seat, like he needed more drama.
Please, no prayers or religious references. If they help you, feel free to say them silently or whatever, but they don’t help us and I’d rather not deal with that now.
Just a quick update on how Garibaldi Rous is doing, which is surprisingly well! He is a resilient little capybara if he is anything! In the photo above, you can see that he went out for a walk around the house today. Now that Stacy Winnick has finally left, it seems we can rid ourselves of the Seattle weather that she brought with her. Today the sun was out and it got into the low 60s, perfect for Gari’s first serious venture outside since he lost his tooth. He didn’t spend too much time outside today but tomorrow will be even warmer and I am going to move his little wading pool back outside so I think he’ll enjoy that.