Today has been one week since Maddie’s surgery!! Overall I think she is doing great. We have had a few hiccups but those were mostly because we’ve had to rearrange our house to keep Maddie and her brother Chimmy separated. She still will not even tolerate the sight of him and now, when she hears him bark, she growls. I have no idea what is up with that – they’ve been best friends since she was a puppy. But I’m taking it as a que from her that she needs space. I’m hopeful that when she is fully healed and has her energy back again, she will at least be able to spend some time with him. If not, we will adapt. If she can adapt to life on three legs, we can surely adapt to dividing up the house! Thank goodness I have two back doors lol and that there are four of us here, so someone is usually around for both dogs. Maddie is now only taking the antibiotic, Tramadol and Gabapentin. She only has a couple days of Gabapentin left and I’m a little worried because the doctor just said to stop cold turkey. Everything I’ve read says wean them off, so I think I will just wean her off with what remains. Instead of two pills twice a day, I’m going to pull back to one and see how that goes. We have plenty of tramadol which does seem to work for her. Her pain seems well controlled. The biggest issue we seem to have is that she gets so winded so quickly. We have not been able to increase the distance of her potty breaks at all. If anything, she cannot go as far now as she did when she first came home. So we just hop out the back door (which is about 2 feet from her beds), hop over the patio and onto the grass then back again, so maybe a total of 20 feet each way. The first day or two she seemed a lot more energetic. I am going to call the vet today to make an appointment for her stitch removal and I will ask them about this. Of course, now that I type this I’m wondering if that is because she is in pain? She’s not showing any other pain symptoms, she’s not panting, she’s resting very comfortably, she lays on both sides equally and she doesn’t mind at all when we ice her incision which we’ve continued to do regularly. I really wish she could tell us how she feels!
Hiya!
Good to hear Maddie is doing so well 🙂 I really think the first week is the toughest. Anesthesia is out of her system, any inject-able meds are gone too. She was feeling really good with a lot of the heavy drugs they gave her. Different meds and pain meds can make them act differently, and she might be very protective of her boo boo, knowing she is not in shape to play with her brother? I think even with good pain management it is expected that she will be a bit sore. She is a big girl, yes? It is going to take a bit for her to be back up on her feet and walking further. My tripawd is a kitty, but I was a veterinary tech for a long time. That is a big surgery, she is going to need down time. I think you will see very soon that her personality will come back, and little by little so will her energy. Dogs and cats do not like to show pain, it’s part of their survival instincts. Sometimes they show it in ways that we would not expect. I do not know enough about Gabapentin as far as weaning off is concerned, but weaning off of any pain med as they continue to heal always made sense to me. Happy Ampuversary and wishing you all a smooth recovery 🙂
Jackie
Thank you for the reply! Yes, she is a VERY BIG girl lol. Pre-Surgery she fluctuated between 167 and 169. Believe it or not, her post surgery weight was 157. Who knew a leg weighed that much???? I agree with everyone here who thinks her behavior is just protective. My daughter said it’s fight or flight reflex – if they cannot run they go into protect mode, which makes sense to me. She is doing really well and I feel guilty for being so focused on this stupid little issue. We have worked out the separation and if worse comes to worse, we can stay this way.
HAPPY ONE WEEK AMPUVERSARY MADDIE!!! 🙂 🙂
As far as just going the short distance to potty and then back in to rest is not unusw at all.
Now I’m certainly no Vet and not giving Vet advice regarding tapering the Gabapentin. I think it’s more important to do that when there has been long term use involved,as opposed to just a couple of weeks. I think there was a question about that under Ask A Vet. If I can dind it, I’ll post it. Anyway, it certw wont hurt to taper since you have her on Tramadol to help with pain management.
DoesMaddie show any I terest in just laying outside on a blanket? Sometimes dogs just enjoy being outside in the su shine and fresh air, without having to walk around.
As far as Chimmy…hmmmm…interesting. I still think it will get back to nor al when Maddie starts ro feel better. It could indicate that she is still in pain and just doing a good job of masking it. Dogs are so stoic.
What’s your confidence level like with Maddie? Does she see you as her strong confident pack leader? Just throwing this out there, but maybe she senses yiur uneasiness (if that’s the case) avout her ecovery and feels like she needs to be the strong one to “rotect” herself from sweet Chimmy. Have no clue…just looking for anynither possible reasons other than needing time to recover!
Now, back to the ONE WEEK AMPUVERSARY CELEBRATION!!! That calls for steak and ice cream! 🙂
Lots of hugs!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
PS regarding being winded. I know you’ve gotten some input in the dorums. O e crazy thi g I’ll throw out is checking for fever. We have seen a dog or two seem to “catch” pneumonia from being at the Vets, foing through surgery. I really, really, relly doibt thatsw the case. She’s eating and feeling good! Just leaviw no stone u turned! 🙂