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Becoming a Tripawd at 13

Tag: surgery (Page 2 of 3)

Tapering Down

This morning we were up bight and early for a few reasons.  First and for most Sunny needed his tramadol at 6:15 am, but I also wanted to get him into the vet first thing to beat the Saturday rush.  Since our vet opens at 8 am on Saturday it unfortunately didn’t make sense to go back to bed no matter how much I wanted too.  Overall Sunny has been taking his medications slightly better today.  We have used cheese, wet dog food, and canned pumpkin.  At this point I am rotating methods frequently to try and keep his suspicions down.  I also want to try and introduce pill pockets again since they worked so well for so long.  Overall, last night he slept pretty well although he still insist on getting up for at least a few minutes around 2 am.  Last night as I was sitting there looking at my iPad while petting him around 2:30 am and all I could think of was the last time I was up this late was probably in my 20’s during my party days.  Oh how things have changed.

When we got to the vet everyone in the office had to see how Sunny was doing.  It was our first time at our regular vet since he had his amputation.  We are lucky enough that we have been visiting the same practice and seeing the same vets for the past 7 years so everyone knows our dogs well.  As soon as we got into see Dr. Porter she said exactly what I knew she would say.  That the suture that came untied was ok and wouldn’t be a problem.  I figured this would be the case, but I also knew that since it was the weekend if I didn’t take him in it would come undone tomorrow when no one is open.  Dr. Porter also said his incision looked great.  When I told her it had been 10 days she said lets take some out.  So we took out every other stitch.  The reaming stitches will just stay in next week just to be safe since he is on the older side.  That said we saw and immediate improvement in Sunny’s attitude just by removing half of them.  So many people from Tripawds said this would make a difference and boy were they right!

We also discussed Sunny’s medication and she also felt given how well overall he seems to be doing that we could discontinue the Rimadyl.  He had his last dose this morning around 11 am.  Dr. Bailey at GVR told me the same thing Wednesday, but I can’t help but worry.  I know the only way to tell if they continue to need it is to stop.  She also suggested that we may be able to start tapering the tramadol back from three times a day to only two since he is also on the t-relief.   That would be a huge improvement since it would allow me to return to work.  Right now my plan is to wait until Monday to begin tapering that back since I want to make sure there is a sufficient time to see if he is ok without the Rimadyl.  I just don’t want to cut too much at once.

When we got home Sunny was more active than he has been.  He even went and found his ball for the first time since his surgery!  Great signs all around.  He spent most of the afternoon sleeping which wasn’t too surprising given all the morning activity.  This evening we also continued to do his physical therapy exercises at home.  Last but not least for the first time this afternoon we saw him laying down on the side of his amputation!  It was only for about 10 minutes, but still.  Either way it is clear we are really starting to make some progress.

Opposite Day

While I didn’t get the memo, apparently Sunny is celebrating opposite day today.  For most of the day he has been somewhat difficult when he isn’t sleeping.  This morning he decided he no longer liked the pill pockets and started to refuse his medication.  I’m not sure if it is because he felt better, or because he wasn’t hungry, but obviously this was not going to work.  We were able to get him his first dose of tramadol at his scheduled time (5:30 am), but after that its been an uphill battle.  Around noon I finally got him to take his rimadyl and t-pain in some wet food and to eat his breakfast.  It was a struggle though.  I tried cheese, peanut butter, pill pockets, a peanut butter sandwich, a banana, nothing worked!  We gave him a pepcin last night since his appetite has been off and on in hopes of settling his stomach, but I’m wondering if it made things worse?

Later this afternoon he once again scoffed when I attempted to give him his second tramadol of the day.  Two hours later I was able to convince him to take it using a Kraft single.  I think by that time he may have been in a little discomfort.  I was hoping that wouldn’t happen, but ultimately I wasn’t too surprised given how off his medication schedule became.  Thankfully, as of tomorrow he will be 10 days post surgery and will go off the rimadyl.  While everything looks ok his behavior is ok all things considered, I plan to take him to our local vet just for a quick once over.  I noticed this evening one of his sutures came untied.  I doesn’t look like it will come out, but I also don’t want to risk a Sunday vet visit.  We were originally planning to wait until the two week mark to have his sutures removed, but since he will be at 10 days tomorrow in theory, if we are lucky, they could come out.  I’m not banking on that, but who knows?  Sunny is on his tramadol through Wednesday and will continue on his t-pain for a while.  We can also re-evaluate his pain medication again which will be helpful since I need a few replacement pills for today’s failed attempts.  I think for the most part when we can stick to his medication schedule he does ok since he doesn’t really show any of the typical signs that he is in any pain or discomfort.  For me though, at the end of the day if he is eating, drinking, eventually taking his meds, going to the bathroom and appears to be ok, I’m happy.

Last night we decided it was clear we would not keep Sunny on the hypericum.  It is just too difficult to give him and honestly that negative experience could explain his behavior today.  I read online today that you can try dissolving the pills in milk or heavy cream instead of water so maybe we will try that, but I’m not sure it is worth it.  I’m also not convinced that will work since you are not supposed to mix it with food or give within 15 minutes of eating.  I think right now with everything that is going on the less pills the better for both him and us.

Other than that its been a typical day for Sunny in that we did a little walking outside in the backyard and slept.  We also worked on his physical therapy exercises at home.  We are doing them on his nice new orthopedic bed that he has ignored in the hope that maybe he will use it.  He wasn’t impressed.

Sunny working on his physical therapy with Pete.

Sunny working on his physical therapy with Pete.

I hope tomorrow goes better!

Looking Forward

Now that we have made it through the first week after surgery we are looking forward towards the future.  Lots of stuff will begin to happen over the next week as Sunny hopefully goes off all of his pain medications and get his sutures removed.  Getting him off of he pain medications will be a big win for me since it will allow me  I’m also happy to report that he slept through last night!  I’m not sure if it was because he was tired due to our trip to GVR or because of the new homeopathic medications, but we were ecstatic either way.  I’m hoping maybe he has turned a corner and this will once again become the norm.  All that said we will likely stop giving him the hypericum.  We have not found a good way to give it to him.  He is not a fan of us just putting the tiny pills directly into his mouth (he actually spit one out) and he would not drink water that I dissolved them into.  I was able to dissolve them into a very small amount of water I can put into a syringe and put directly into his mouth, but he hates it so much I have to wonder if the benefits out weigh the negative experience of him receiving it?  At a minimum there is no way we can give it to him three times a day.  Right now I’m just thinking this will be something we try in the evening before bed and if we are successful, then great, if not we may just have to give up after a few days of trying.  It would be much easier if you could just give it with food!

Sunny ate what amounted to his full diet today for the first time since coming home even though it is still containing wet food.  All in all he seems to be doing better with each passing day.  We made more trips than we have been outside today and he showed interest in exploring the yard.  All in all a lot of positive developments.   I also started working with him on his at home exercises to help build his core strength.  I know we still have a long road ahead of us, but I can’t help but start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Sunny

Sunny

We called BluePearl today to see if they biopsy results were back since they originally told us it would only be three to five days.  They said they were still waiting on the bone to calcify.  We couldn’t help but laugh imaging them dissolving the whole leg.  In actuality though this likely means that the sarcoma had invaded the toe it was perched upon.  It just reconfirmed for me that we made the right decision to amputate.  Hopefully we will soon have the additional lab results to once again confirm this.  They are still treating him as cured so we are optimistic this wont change.

One Week!

We made it!  We are now one week post surgery.  Today was a busy day for Sunny.  Last night he did not sleep all that well.  Sunny was up on and off all night and a result so was I.  I’m honestly not sure why this is at this point since I don’t think it is related to pain.  During the day he is able to sleep and doesn’t seem bothered so it only seems to be at the ideal times of between midnight and 4 am. Lucky us!

Today we had our first appointment at Georgia Veterinary Rehabilitation and Pain Management (GVR) with Dr. Bailey.  We really like that place.  One of our other dogs, Sweeney, went there following back surgery and it was amazing the difference it made in terms of his recovery.  Dr. Bailey said overall he looks like he is doing well on just three legs.  She gave us a list of exercises we can start at home now.  Starting in June he will go weekly to do some swimming.  The main goal there is to build up his core strength.  We may also try some acupuncture on his hips once he starts sleeping on both sides.  Currently he is not sleeping on the side where his leg was amputated.  At this point we mostly need to wait for his incision to continue healing  and the sutures to come out.  We are also starting him on two new homeopathic pain medications, one related to soft tissue pain and the other related to nerve pain, to see if that helps him in terms of sleeping at night.  Dr. Bailey suggested what we are seeing at night may be related to the tramadol.  We also discussed putting him on Gabapentin, however I’m personally not sure if we need to go that far.  Dr. Bailey told us she has seen dogs with similar behavior and Gabapentin has not helped where the homeopathic options have.  Thus, we will try them first.  Overall though, today’s visit was helpful in terms of gauging where Sunny is in his overall recovery and fitness.

Sunny relaxing at GVR.

Sunny relaxing at GVR while Dr. Bailey examines him.

Sunny also received mail today!  He will be sporting his new bandanna very soon. Currently he is sleeping since today was the most active day he has had since his surgery.  Thanks again to everyone at Tripawds!  You have been an invaluable resource.  Dr. Bailey also made sure to mention how awesome you guys are today and wanted to make sure I was aware of your site.

Sunny's mail.

Sunny’s mail.

Later tonight after dinner we will celebrate Sunny’s one week ampuversary with peanut butter Kong’s.  🙂

 

One Hop Forward, Two Hops Backwards

Last night was rough.  No way around it.  Sunny first got up around 1:30 am howling for some reason.  Thankfully a few pets later Sunny got comfortable again and went back sleep.  Unfortunately, he was up again at 3:30 am howling.  We tried going outside, having a drink a water, but nothing seemed to work.  Sunny couldn’t seem to get get comfortable and was panting so around 4:15 am I decided to give him his tramadol an hour early since the previous day we had been stretching it to 9 hours from 8.  About 15 minutes after getting his tramadol Sunny seemed to settle back down and slept a little.  When Pete got up for work just before 6 am Sunny went out, had some breakfast and got his second set of medication.  After this though he again seemed to find it difficult to get comfortable and was up and down/howling, etc. until around 9 am.  Since then thankfully he has been able to get comfortable and sleep.

With the exception of his panting/howling at 4:15 am I’m not sure any of this is necessarily related to pain.  Sunny tends to suffer from separation anxiety from us from time to time.  Sunny was the first dog we adopted after college.  We ended up with a second dog because Sunny would howl all day while we were at work and he was alone.  Once we got a second dog to keep him company that seemed to stop.  From time to time we still see it, but Sunny usually will stop howling once we come to where he is.  So I’m not sure what is now leading him to howl more even when we are right beside him.  Some of what I saw this morning may have been because Pete left to go to work.  I also think it is probably a combination of the surgery, recovery and his medications contributing to the increase we are seeing currently.

Sunny has spent most of the day in bed resting.  He has even showed very little interest in going outside.  Yesterday we noticed an increase in his activity so I think he may have over done it a little.  This may also explain the pain early this morning.  However, I’m happy to report he seems to be doing much better now.  He also seems to be getting better at navigating life on three legs.  I know we will probably continue to see this back and forth as he gets his strength back.  This afternoon for the first time he also ate from his food bowl on his own.  Previously we were bringing it to him or holding it up.  When he gets his e-collar off we will introduce his raised food bowls.  Right now they just prove too challenging.  In the photo below you can also see the bath mats we put down for him.

Can I please eat in peace dad?

Can I please eat in peace dad?

His incision and bruising continue to heal.  I think all and all this is probably as good as it can be doing right now.  He has been doing so well since coming home I have to remind myself that today is only day 5 since his surgery.  Sunny has been such a trooper I think we easily forge that.

Sunny incision as it continues to heal.

Sunny’s incision as it continues to heal.

 

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