Stubborn neck abscess

[Dan5350]

My GP Buddy has an abscess on his cheek/neck that I have been dealing with for six months or so. He had surgery to clean the abscess out and he was on a few basic antibiotics with no improvement. I had a second procedure done with a ten day hospital stay to clean it again. After the second procedure he lost half of his body weight and eventually could not stand up. The vet hydrated him under his skin and he started to liven up and in a few days began eating again on his own all the while still having a stinky abscess on his neck. I had s culture performed and a custom compound antibiotic made for him and after 5 weeks he had no real improvement. I took him off of all meds and I have been syringe feeding him a mix of ground up hay, Steele cut oats and super sugar crisp breakfast cereal and he had actually gained some weight back but still has the abscess. Is this abscess going to win or is there some trick to healing them? I gave a fantastic vet that has really tried to help but we really have not gotten anywhere.

 

[DM030819]

@Dan5350 You haven't mentioned flushing the abscess daily/multiple times a day. Are you keeping the abscess open and flushing it yourself at home?

Antibiotics alone aren't usually enough so they need to be kept open and clean so they can heal from the inside out.

 

[Flutterby]

or you could ask your vet to remove the whole abscess capsule surgically so that it can be closed up.

 

[Dan5350]

or you could ask your vet to remove the whole abscess capsule surgically so that it can be closed up.

My GP Buddy has an abscess on his cheek/neck that I have been dealing with for six months or so. He had surgery to clean the abscess out and he was on a few basic antibiotics with no improvement. I had a second procedure done with a ten day hospital stay to clean it again. After the second procedure he lost half of his body weight and eventually could not stand up. The vet hydrated him under his skin and he started to liven up and in a few days began eating again on his own all the while still having a stinky abscess on his neck. I had s culture performed and a custom compound antibiotic made for him and after 5 weeks he had no real improvement. I took him off of all meds and I have been syringe feeding him a mix of ground up hay, Steele cut oats and super sugar crisp breakfast cereal and he had actually gained some weight back but still has the abscess. Is this abscess going to win or is there some trick to healing them? I gave a fantastic vet that has really tried to help but we really have not gotten anywhere.

 

[Dan5350]

I should have included that it started out as an infected tooth, not just a regular abscess. The original procedure was to remove the abcsess.

 

[Betsy]

Christian had an abscess removed around 10 weeks ago. It was this size:-


and was just about to rupture. It may be worth considering going down the abscess removal route. Then you are pretty certain that it won't come back.