Whelp Watch

I've had girls with mastitis before, and even had one that had an abscess, but never one like this.

Shine had redness, so the puppies were encouraged to nurse, hot packs were used, cabbage leaves were used (believe it or not, human lactation specialists encourage the use of cabbage leaves to decrease engorgement), and temps were taken. A sudden temp increase to 104.4 said it was going badly. The vet put her on 1000mg of Keflex three times daily. It still went very wrong. The resulting abscess was extensive and painful,and came very close to encroaching on the neighboring mammary gland. Finally that telltale soft spot formed, and I knew (thankfully) that the abscess was going to burst and drain. A tiny pin hole was all I needed. I started to express what I can with gentle massage and more heat. Then I irrigated with saline and betadine solution. The pus just kept coming. That afternoon the vet enlarged the opening, and created a second, and inserted a drain to keep the holes open and allow drainage. I thought I would include a photo here, and document the healing for educational purposes.

Newly drained abscess with drain inserted:


Dian

P.s. Having seen the miraculous effect of the use of cabbage leaves on my own daughter who was in agony, and 15 min later, had obtained great relief (after unsuccessful cool compresses, warm compresses and pumping), I can't balk at it.

Here are a few articles:
www.utmb.edu/erc/facts/Breasts,%20Engorged%20and%20Cabbage.pdf
www.drgreene.com/21_1814.html
www.lactationconsultant.info/cabbagecure.html

Shine shown still getting heat therapy. You can see how red the unaffected mammary gland (at the rear) was in response to the infection of its neighbor.
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Mom and the puppies are all getting yogurt because of the large dose of cephalexin she is getting - yogurt dosage is everyone's favorite parts of the day. The puppies are taking it from a spoon and looking for more.

P.S. The puppies were only kept from nursing while the abscess was actively draining. The mammary gland was manually expressed during this time. The milk is white, and tested perfectly normal.

Dian

One day post drains. The redness is lessening, the swelling is decreasing. There is still an area of concern, but it appears to be just swelling, as I don't feel anything that indicates there is pus in there. Basically, there is no more draining from the wound, and irrigation is easily performed. The skin of the mammary gland is sloughing off, as the swelling pre-abscess rupture was extensive. There will likely be more sloughing of skin over the next few days. There is one spot of deep injury. When the abscess blew, there were two holes right next to each other - one larger than the other. The area seen in this image as blackened skin is the area of the very small pin-prick sized opening. Healing appears to be good at this time. Shine's temps have been normal for 24 hours. She is leaving the drain alone, and does nothing to discourage the puppies from that mammary gland. It functions normally with respect to milk. This is good, as she does not need engorgement at this time. Obviously, we're keeping that teat very clean, and constantly watched.
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Two days post abscess rupture
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Drain removed. Note the redness is gone, and the normal black pigment is returning to the mammary gland
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initial abscessed area is healing well on day 8, however, the troubling spot behind it, which was swollen, but did not yield any pus on irrigation in that direction, is now very hard, swollen, and red. Heat packs to the area being applied. She is still on keflex 3000grams/day. Damn!
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Glad everything is healing up well, and glad you caught it all in time, imagine how it would have gone without your help!

Shine is finally healing nicely. The original area is starting to granulate in, the skin on the nipple is returning, and the secondary site is normal. She had been on 12 days of Keflex, and still the area was engorged, red and painful, so I packed her in cabbage leaves for two hours, two days in a row. After the first treatment (almost immediately) the swelling had decreased markedly. After the second treatment, the area was normal. Take it as you wish (either healing would have occurred naturally, or the cabbage leaves worked). I don't care which worked, I only care that she is healing and everyone is fine.
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Dian

I just came across this thread. I am so glad your girl is healing so nicely. I had a bad case of mastitis on a GSD bitch. With a large litter! We had to drain the abcess as well.

Dian
Are the cabbage leaves used cold out of the fridge, room temp or do you soften them by cooking? Just curious just in case. Also, how many leaves are you using to pack the area and do you just surround the affected area?

Debbie

Debbie,

Sorry it took me so long to respond. Two litters at once is a lot of work ..

I use them cold, and I used about three large leaves. I have a wrap-around (held with velcro) device used for holding hot packs on your back problems I used to hold them to the area. You can see it in one of the photos. I leave the cabbage on until it wilts. Lactation experts state that human mothers should leave them on for 20 min. twice daily. Any more than that can decrease milk production from what I read. I was at a point where I didn't care if that gland produced any more milk, so I used them quite often for two days. She is getting milk from that gland now.

Di

P.S. I read that the studies showed that you could use the leaves cold or at room temp, and it made no difference in reducing engorgement.