Love is a warm scrotal sack

Riddle got neutered last Thursday, the same day that Annie was spayed.  He bounced back first.  He ate the same day and acted like everything was fine.  Annie had a more invasive surgery and she took a couple of days and had to be coaxed to eat with some chicken and rice on the second day after surgery.  Once she got back to eating and got her pain meds in her, she recovered quickly too and by the weekend she didn't act as if she had any problem. 


Riddle, on the other hand, got too active too soon and is paying the price for it now.  I'm not as good about keeping the males quiet after surgery as I am with the females.  I kept him crated most of the time for the first couple of days along with Annie, but I probably gave him more outdoor time since he seemed to be feeling fine.  And he may have been licking himself as he laid in the crate, bored with nothing much else to do.  For whatever reason, his scrotum became quite swollen and enlarged, making it appear as if he hadn't even been neutered.  Actually, it's even bigger than that, about the size of small grapefruit or a very large orange.  I noticed it on Saturday and immediately started him on antibiotics.  This is not an unusual occurrence with large males after being neutered.  It looks terrible and it looks painful, but the testicles are gone so there really isn't much there to be hurting except the swollen tissue itself.  He didn't seem to be bothered by it, but it's one of those things that makes any guy who sees it cringe, because we just imagine how painful it must be. 

I took Bo to the vet Monday morning for his second round of heartworm treatment, so I took Riddle along as well even though it was already looking a little better.  They checked him over and it didn't seem to be infected or filled with fluid that needed to be drained, it was just swollen.  The prescription, which I knew, was to continue the antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drug, put a cone on him so he can't lick it, keep him crated, and apply warm compresses two or three times a day.  Yeah, right.  Sure, that's gonna happen.  But I picked up some acepromazine (a tranquilizer) from the vet, and we are giving it a try.  With enough ace in a dog, you can do most anything to him, and I really like Riddle and I want to move him next weekend, so we are going to make this better. 

Nothing says "I love you" like a warm compress on a sore scrotum.