Vain My Story
Vain, aka CTW So Vain, is a stunning, 3½-year-old red brindle male born June 25, 2005. His sire is Kiowa Sweet Trey and his dam is CTW Tiki Carol. Vain’s Grade AA racing career ended Tuesday, November 25, 2008, while schooling at Valley Race Park in Harlingen, TX. His racing career started on December 21, 2006, at Corpus Christi, TX, moving to Wheeling Downs in West Virginia, then Gulf Greyhound Park in La Marque, TX. Vain was transported by GALT volunteers from Harlingen to Austin, where he was evaluated by Dr. Stephanie Beardsley of Central Texas Veterinary Specialty Hospital. Vain has a fracture of his 2nd and 3rd metatarsal bones as well as compound fractures of his 4th and 5th metatarsal bones. Surgery was performed on Wednesday, November 26. Vain will need to be kept very quiet for the next 6-8 weeks while in a splint with bandage changes every 7-10 days. It is not known at this time if Vain is small animal or cat tolerant.
Update 12/18/08
Vain was released to his foster home, requiring bandage changes every other day. However, because of the draining of the compound fractures, on 12/11 Dr. Beardsley decided it was best to keep Vain at CTVSH. A culture had been taken on 12/9, which indicated two different bacterial infections were present. The best drug to combat these infections requires daily injections of Amikacin, which stings a lot and is very hard on his kidneys, so frequent urine tests are required to monitor any possible damage. Vain is also receiving daily bandage changes since there is a steady amount of discharge from the wounds. CTVSH is leaving the compound fracture areas as open as possible to dry out. Obviously Vain has become a favorite of the medical staff there!
Update 1/13/09
Another culture was done on 12/28/08 to determine if the Amikacin was tackling the infection. Sadly another bacteria was found that was independent of the other two, and Imipenim was implemented into his medication therapy. It has been two weeks now that Vain has been on this new regime. An x-ray was done that now shows part of the bones to be dead. Vain is scheduled for an amputation on Thursday, January 15 with Dr. Stephen Kerpsack performing the surgery. Vain has now been an inpatient at CTVSH for 30 days, and the staff loves him! An update will be posted when surgery is completed. Please keep Vain in your thoughts for a safe and successful surgery.
Update 1/24/09
Vain’s surgery went very, very well. He has been in his foster home for 5 days now and is adjusting to his new life. His sutures will be taken out around 1/30/09. GALT’s most sincere thanks to Dr. Stephanie Beardsley and her loving staff for taking such exceptional care of Vain during his 45 days of being in their clinic.
