Ripp’s Story, part 6—Ripp Comes Home With a Really Bad Haircut

The team did a CT scan just 

before Ripp’s surgery.

I did warn you, right? About the haircut? Even so, even I was a bit taken aback. We’ll get to that in a moment. But, first things first. When I arrived at the vet school, the senior student and resident who have been involved in Ripp’s surgery and progress went through all the discharge instructions before bringing Ripp out. They also showed me a sample of his CT scan. This imaging technique (CT = computed tomography) takes a series of pictures in different planes, front to back, and then uses computer magic (yes, a highly technical term!) to reconstruct a 3D image of whatever it is the medical team needs to look at. In Ripp’s case, it was the inner structures of his ears. They did this scan just before he went into surgery, to give the team a good idea of what was going to be involved. In this sample image, which was taken from the perspective of looking straight at Ripp, all the bright white parts are bone or highly calcified cartilage. The bone at the top is his skull, and of course you’d expect to see that. All of the bright white in the middle should NOT be there, and removing it was the goal of his surgery. The arrow on the right points at his right ear canal (to him, this would be his left ear). Although the canal is somewhat open to begin with, it is lined with bony, calcified tissue. This same structure on the other side, his right ear canal, is pretty much closed up. The arrow toward the middle of the photo points to his left middle ear. This is a round structure, and you can see that it’s lined with more bright white tissue, which wouldn’t be there in a normal healthy ear. This extra tissue was also removed during surgery.

OK, yeah, channeling the Easter Bunny here. 

But he still has those big, beautiful ears. 

He looks happy, too. ;-)

There’s a close up of Ripp’s left ear. 

The arrow points to the stitches where they 

closed the ear up. All the diseased 

inside parts were removed.

Ripp’s aftercare will be surprisingly simple: give him lots of pain meds for the next few days, decreasing them based on his behavior; keep him on antibiotics for the next 3–4 weeks, to make sure every last bit of infection is gone; and remove the sutures in 14 days. OK, now let’s get the boy home! So, now the haircut. Believe me, I would NOT be showing these pictures if people didn’t already know how handsome Ripp is! He’s been shaved from just behind his eyes to the base of his neck, including his ears. At the moment, his is a face that only the extended GSRA family could love. ;-) Adding insult to injury, his ears are smeared with a white ointment that makes him look like a GSD dressed up as the Easter Bunny! Poor guy…. But honestly, given what his life has been recently, do you think he cares? I don’t! He is very sleepy from the pain meds but happy to be back in a familiar environment. And, the surgery pain is fading fast, leaving…… nothing! No more pain! When has he felt THAT? No time recently, that’s for sure. So, although Ripp looks a bit pitiful in the photos here, please do not feel sorry for him. Yes, he has some recovering to do, but the worst is truly behind him. And YOU made that happen, with your generous outpouring of support. You’ve truly changed this boy’s life, and we will never forget it.

I gotta say, patting a bald-headed dog is

 kind of weird. But I’m getting used to it. In addition to 

the Easter Bunny, he has a sort of Yoda look going on. ;-)

One of his pain meds makes him pretty sleepy, but he’s happy to be home. The two red bandages are where his IV catheters were attached; they were removed this morning. The tan bandage on his rear leg (far right in the photo) is his fentanyl patch. This helps with the post-surgery pain, but it can be removed tomorrow.