A week after the digit deletion surgery (you can see the gap created by the removal of infected bone), the medical team is dismayed to see this persistent infection is still present and spreading to what was healthy bone. (the haze around the bone ends)
Fortunately, during the surgery, the medical team took swabs to culture the bacteria. Doing in-house cultures has greatly improved our ability to successfully treat our patients.
After many meetings it was decided to try antibiotic beads.
The beads are created by mixing the antibiotics which have proven successful in the culture process. They are poured into a mold, left to cure for a short while, then surgically inserted into the infected site. They will slowly dissolve and absorb into the swan's system over time.
This is only done when results are not being achieved using systemic antibiotics - either oral or intravenously. We need to place the antibiotics exactly where they need to be to best treat the infection.
We reached out to the leading veterinary antibiotic bead company Kerrier, and asked for their assistance. We are fortunate that they donated this first kit to us so we could test and see how successful something like this might be for our patients.
The swan was prepped for another surgery and we inserted the antibiotic beads.