Some days I can’t remember how long it has been since Sunny’s surgery due to lack of sleep. Today was one of those days. Sunny decided that everyone should get up around 4 am for some reason. From then on he wouldn’t just sit and be quiet unless one of us was petting him. I wondered if this was due to pain, but today he has not shown any signs that he is in pain so I’m stumped. While it certainly could be linked to pain, I’m just not sure it is. I think the tramadol may be effecting his sleep schedule since he tends to sleep so well after his dose. I think this is leading him to sleep more during the day then he normally would thus he is getting up earlier. Normally we get up at 5:30 am. The Rimadyl was indeed causing some of the odd behaviors we saw because now that he is off of it they have disappeared. I’m thinking that if tonight he is worse than last night that maybe we need to discuss him potentially going back on the Rimadyl or trying gabapentin. However, I hope that is not necessary so our next priority can be getting him off the tramadol in the hopes that he will sleep and eat better off of everything. Getting the last of his sutures out will probably also help.
Today Sunny did ok taking his medication. He is still taking his pills in the pill pockets but sometimes I have to offer them to him several times. He also refused his afternoon tramadol until 5:30 pm which was three hours late. This is also kind of why I think he isn’t in much pain. During that time he just slept and didn’t show any indications that he was in any discomfort like we saw earlier on when he would refuse pain medication at the appropriate time. We even went outside during that time and he just walked around exploring like normal. As a result I did debate just dropping the tramadol back to twice a day but I would really like to give it at least another day so the Rimadyl should be completely out of his system. In the mean time we are also going to try putting the tramadol in empty gel capsules and put those in the pill pockets. In theory this should also help shield him from the bitter taste that tramadol supposedly has.
Sunny’s bruising today appears to be a little darker towards the center, however it is no longer expanding and around the edges it is looking better. We are going to continue to watch it, but as long as it is healing I’m not going to worry about taking him to the vet again since it isn’t his favorite place right now. I also saw him laying on his amputation side or both sides like he used to so I don’t think it is bothering. It is times like this I wish he could talk to us which would make things much easier!
Sunny relaxing on his new bed.
This afternoon I was happy to see that Sunny decided to give laying on his new orthopedic bed a try! He slept on it for about an hour which I guess is about as good as it is going to get. While I wanted him to use this post surgery I’m not too surprised he isn’t using it since he views our bed as his dog bed. It’s just unfortunate that those pesky humans also try to sleep in it. This may also lead to some of his discomfort at night since he can’t spread out as much with both of us in the bed. I’ve noticed that on nights when Pete gives up and goes to sleep in our guest bedroom Sunny seems to sleep better. Honey on the other hand has decided to sleep on the new dog bed at night since Sunny isn’t, so at least it is being used.
You can also see in the photo above I tried using the clear cone Sunny came home with following surgery a little bit today. I think he likes this e-collar better since he can see out of the sides. Unfortunately though, it is too small for him (17″) given how much a cockers mouth/nose sticks out. I’m sure it was fine for him after surgery though given all the drugs in his system. After wearing it for about an hour Sunny decided to lick his stitches at which point I had to quickly switch him back over to his black comfy cone. On the plus side I was able to clean the comfy cone while it was off him. I’m debating buying a larger clear e-collar, however he should be out of his current one within a week so I’m not sure it is worth it.
Here is to hoping Sunny sleeps better tonight since I’ve got some errands to run tomorrow. We are slowly but surely leaving him at home now for brief trial periods and all seems to be going according to plan. At this point I should be able to get back into the office once he gets off his tramadol three times a day. I just hope by then he starts sleeping through the night since it isn’t going to be pretty if he doesn’t.
