She has been improving. I was worried at first. The first day she did well and pretty much laid around. We let her sleep in our bed because the vet said it would be ok and she gave me a hard time about her crate. She never goes off the bed at night. MISTAKE. Her dad accidentally touched her in the wrong spot and she yelped and moved down the bed. I held her on my chest for an hour, then had to put her back on the mattress. As I placed a pillow nearby to prevent another touch or bump I BRUSHED against her back end and she yelped again and took off! She was down her steps (which are not pet steps and are a bit higher) and made it to bedroom door. After that I took her downstairs and slept...Earlier that day she tried to twist away when her dad brought an ice pack in a towel over to me. The next day she leaped off the sofa when I was sitting beside her, because I reached toward her with an ice pack. I talked to the vet and she said she should be fine, just watch her. She believed she was reacting in more of an anticipatory way than actual pain.
The next night I gave her TRAZADONE. Love that stuff! I gave it to her at 11:00 and put her in crate at 11:30. She whined on and off for about 15 minutes but went to sleep and slept well all night! She was improved in the morning so I think the rest helped her. It is a pretty small dose but it helps. I hadn't realized it is used for crate training. The vet said it was for anxiety, but she had had seemed pretty normal.
She is getting better each day. Now we are to the point where she is thinking about jumping on or off the sofa. She wants to be up there with us so we have to sit on the floor with her, or make a barrier so she can't jump down. I bought one of those 6 sided baby gates so I can block both sofas. I'm crating her if I go out for short times during the day. She didn't poop until Thurs evening and her surgery had been Saturday. I fed her canned pumpkin, a little on Wed and some more on Thurs for lunch. Her right leg is still dragging, but she is becoming more aware of it. The vet said her awareness of what the leg is doing (proprioception) would be one of the later things to come back. She is licking it and trying to scratch her face with it. When I let her out of her crate yesterday she tried to run and jump with excitement!
I cant imagine how she would have recovered without surgery. The one problem I still have is that she will NOT lie on her side and let me do range of motion exercises. She will stand and walk some, and can squat to pee. I took her in the car hoping that wold make a poop come (it usually does--because we take her for rides to the park and she goes right away when we get there) he tried so hard to stand and look out in her snoozer seat. She did pretty well with that, so I think the little bit of exercise in the carseat is helpful. |