Month: February 2016

Chloe had a really good night last night. So great, that we slept through our alarm to give her 2 am dose of Tramadol, and she slept thru it as well! BIG oops. But, she didn’t seem to miss that dose this morning. We are going to try decreasing her pills, to 2 Tramadol every 6 hours, and see if that still works well.

I’m back at work today, but my husband Joe is home with her – I told him I needed pictures today! I snapped this quick one as she was seeing me out the door at 6:45 am.

See how great she looks?! Her skin looks much less inflamed around her incision/stitches. So proud of this girl. We can tell her muscles are tired by the end of the day, but no one could have ever convinced me that she’d be doing this great, 8 days post amputation. They truly are amazing animals.

Life lesson number 1: Be More Dog.

One week! It’s gone by quickly, yet not at all.

Our Chloe-Bear is doing so great. Last night was another good one. Pain was managed, and she didn’t yelp out once. She had no anxiety attacks and slept most the night – two potty breaks. Her amp site looks to be calming down – it doesn’t look as bruised, the skin tone is evening out, and there is very little fluid build up. Amazing!

She is still a little picky with her food, so we are doing 1 cup of kibble (soaked in broth) with 1 can of wet food, and she’s leaving a little in the bowl each meal. She has started to get very picky about her treats/meds, so we’ve had to break out the cream cheese & braunschweiger. Yuck! We have fed her a limited ingredient potato & duck kibble for most of her life with great success and very few stinky Boxer toots, but with all the “junk food” she’s been eating post-amp, the toots are burning our eyes!

My dad stopped by unexpected, and Chloe happily wagged her nub for him. She even kidney beaned! Jenson got over excited and smushed into her amp site, which did give her some pain. I’m impressed with her, though, she recovers so fast from those painful moments and goes right back to being her happy self.

Our house was a little chaotic today – both of our kids were home sick, and our dishwasher recently broke but the new one was delivered today. She barked and wagged her nub for the delivery guys, and tried to “help” Joe work on the installation. She handled the excitement like a pro, though. Joe picked up a second dog bed at Costco because Jenson has started to bed hog. I did see her curl up tight today – first time since surgery.

I will be back at work tomorrow, but Joe will be home with the dogs (and the kids, who still had fevers today). Hoping for another day like today! Woof!!

 

Day 6 – high paws!

Last night was so much better. Was it because we removed the fentanyl patch? Because of the essential oils? Because we are just one day further into healing? I don’t know, but I feel relieved. Our entire house needed the sleep we got last night. Chloe yelped out in (phantom?) pain once, and went out to potty twice. She had her overnight meds as scheduled, but all in all a really great night.

Today has been mostly good. Her appetite is improving – she ate two full meals at her normal time. Meals were half kibble (softened with chicken broth) and canned food. I hope we can slowly transition to kibble only over the next week.

Mobility has improved a little bit more, and once again Chloe tried to push the boundaries by attempting to climb up on the couch. She has been a little needy, wanting to sit right next to us at inconvenient times – like when I tried to wash dishes and again when I was chopping veggies. Small price to pay, though. We are so glad to have seen some improvement today!

Tonight wraps up day 5 with our new Tripawd.

The fourth night, into our fifth day was another tough one. She whined and panted all night, with a few yelps from what I assume is phantom pain. We didn’t sleep at all, and felt very discouraged this morning.

Chloe’s vet visit went well today. We all agreed that removing the fentanyl patch was the best first step. We are hoping that without it, she has less symptoms of anxiety. Her pain seems well managed during the day, and there were no missed doses overnight. It seemed like the overnight unrest was anxiety driven, not pain driven. We hope the absence of fentanyl helps. If she still seems anxious on Monday, we are going to discuss it with the vet then.

Her fluid build up is minimal, and the stinker jumped up on our three year old’s bed tonight!! Not an approved activity, that’s for sure. Her spirits, appetite, and physical ability showed some improvement today. I only hope that she has a good night of rest.

We added a dose of Benadryl tonight, hoping that helps her sleep. I also dropped some clove and lavender essential oils on the edge of her bedding, as a friend swears by that for pet anxiety. It can’t hurt! And as things are currently calm in the house, we are all tucked into bed. Alarms are set for her next dose of pain meds – hoping to sleep at least until then.

Here we are, mid-way through the fourth day. Last night was h.a.r.d. Chloe yelped out around 2 am, and vocalized for a good 5 seconds. She was very upset, confused, and restless. We tried medicine, food, going out to potty, massage, laying with her, but nothing was calming her down. She was quite panicked for the rest of the night – whining and panting, then pacing, until morning.

We brought her back into the vet this morning – they looked her over from head to toe. Her fluid build up looks great – better than they expected. She doesn’t have any signs of constipation. Her gas is out of control, which I assume is from the canned dog food and ground beef. I am going to boil some chicken for her this afternoon, I hope that might be an acceptable food for her that might alleviate the toxic gas. The vet prescribed another med for her – gabapentin.

We were able to get her to eat a bit when we got home, and then gave her a dose of gabapentin and she finally relaxed! First time in 8+ hours. It was a relief to us to see her finally calm. I know we’ll have ups and downs, but it’s really so hard to feel powerless in those situations. Hopefully adding the new med will help us better manage her pain. Picture below is of that first restful moment. I thought it was kind of funny how she leaned part of her body off the dog bed, as if she was trying to raise the sore area.

 

Outside going potty and getting some fresh sniffs. It’s raining here today, so the snow is rapidly melting and uncovering all sorts of soggy nature in the yard which I know is right up her alley. Pre-amputation, today is the kind of day that she’d want to spend outside as much as possible. We’d be cursing her when she stubbornly refused to come in, and using up all the towels cleaning her paws and undercarriage. Soon enough, she’ll be back at it I’m sure. She looks her youngest when she’s outside – hardly 6 years old in my opinion. For not liking the extremes of the weather, she really loves being outside and our 40 degree day is a welcome change from winter.

 

A dear friend sent Chloe a basket of get well treats. Thankfully, Chloe and Jenson both alerted me to the big white truck outside that dropped the package at the door. I may have missed the delivery, had they not barked for a minute straight. 😉

 

My wish is for a restful day and especially overnight. Tomorrow, we are scheduled to go in at 10:30 to have her pain patch removed. If her pain still seems on the higher end of things, the vet said we could discuss putting a fresh patch on. We will see.