Tag: surgery (Page 2 of 3)

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.

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.

I hope tomorrow goes better!