Things are slowly but surely getting better for Remington. He had only been having like 1-2 inch poos, but this morning he had a nice normal 6 inch one. (Sorry if I gross you out with his bowel movement updates, but they are important!) We have been letting him be without his cone when he is on the bed with us, but when we are sleeping or any other time the cone stays on. He seems to enjoy the moments that he is cone free! He still is not drinking water very well except when it is poured over his food, so we started letting him drink water out of one of our cups. For some reason he seems to think this is a special water since his Mom and Dad drink their water like this. I don't care how we get him to drink as long as it works. I think if we could get more water in him it would help a lot with his bowel movements since it would hopefully flush those meds out of his system faster. He is still not wanting to walk very much, but Dan and I have been petting him and praising him when he stands and walks normally hopefully to build his confidence up some. The razor burns on his bum are finally starting to scab over. Once they do this I think it will help with the pain and the walking. He has been sleeping and eating very well, but he wants to physically lay completely on top of us most of the time as if he is seeking protection from some unknown source.
Left side bum burn on day six... and this actually looks better...
Resting without the cone.
Snuggles with his Dad.
Snuggles with his Mom.
Drinking water out of a cup. Don't worry this glass will get washed very good afterward. Also, notice the right side of his bum. This is the other bum burn. This side is not nearly as bad as the left. If you look back at the pictures of his bum right after surgery, there really is a huge improvement.
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Day 7
I'm pretty tired today... things might finally be starting to catch up with me. I've not slept well for going on 6 nights because of a sick dog and then last night the storms were crazy. We actually had golf ball size hail! I've never been that scared during a storm... I thought our windows were gonna bust! I'm one tired pup.
Nothing much has change with Remington since yesterday. I'm getting frustrated mostly because I keep thinking that he should be back to normal by now. However, I keep reminding myself that this was a huge surgery and it will take a while. Remington had diarrhea for the first time this morning. I guess when Dan took him out he noticed his stool was very loose... instead of Remington just finishing out his business... he got freaked out and slammed his tail against his bum causing you know what to get ALL over him. Dan said it took 15 or more wet wipes to get him cleaned up. We've been making him drink more water lately so I don't know if that is what caused the diarrhea or what. The good thing is that Remington is finally letting us look and touch the surgery area. There are days that I think this whole ordeal is just never going to end. I sometimes wonder if Remington will ever be the same again.
Dan goes back to work tomorrow. I'm dreading this. I have treasured having him around so much these past three days. He is my rock and is able to stay calm in situations when I normally freak out. I admire this about him. I'm nervous to have to deal with Remington by myself again even if he is better than those first few days I took care of him.
Dan and I were talking about the surgery last night again and I think we have changed our minds about whether we would do it again. Even though I have heard some dogs recover fairly easily from this surgery, I probably would not ever do this surgery on another dog again seeing what Remington has gone through. We knew things were gonna be rough, but his recovery has been extremely hard on him and us both. Like I said, I worry about him never being the same old Remington he was before. But, if we hadn't done the surgery now... it was pretty certain we would have had to do it later. I guess the good thing is we did it while he had fairly healthy glands that were easier to take out than if they were not. Even so, I would never wish a dog to have to go through something like this if he didn't have to.
On a more random note, I was googling "dogs with razor burn after surgery" just to see what came up... I found the below picture of a boxer after he had just had knee surgery...
Really... I can't complain about Remington's razor burn as I think this is worse... YIKES!
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Day 8
Brandy gave us our last follow up call today to see how Remington was doing. I told her pretty good except for a few things here and there, mostly him still not wanting to walk that much. She said that she hopes once the razor burn heals he should be back to normal. She also told me that they had gotten the results back from the lab on Remington's anal glands. I guess they sent them there to see if they were normal or not. She said that everything checked out okay, that there was only mild inflammation to them. We won't be talking to her anymore unless we need to... sadly I'm gonna miss her... ALOT!
I do think Remington is finally starting to feel more like himself. When I got home from work last night he jumped off the bed and grabbed a toy to greet me with. This is his usual routine, but since the surgery he would hardly move when I came home. I was so surprised to see him do this and it made both Dan and I soooo HAPPY! It was a little hint of the old Remington Bear :)
The cone is staying off Remington's head more and more now. He only has it on when he goes outside to potty and when we are not able to watch him. He spent a lampshade free evening in the kitchen with us last night while I cooked dinner. I haven't cooked for over a week now!!! WOW! He didn't even mess with the surgery site, just mostly wanted to be close to us.
I mean seriously... doesn't he look like he feels 10 times better than he has been!
I'm taking a half day personal day again today so I can be with him during the day while Dan is gone. Even though I'm taking it to take care of Remi, I think I might use it to get a nap in... I'm exhausted!!! It's funny how things don't slow down when you need them to :)
2 comments:
I found this really helpful since my JRT suffers with his anal glands. We just had them squeezed today--again. So, I've been searching to find out more about the operation. A personal experience blogged means more than all the medical reports. Thanks!!
Hello. Thank you for this blog. I just had this surgery for my 80 lb shep/chow/husky mix and he is on day three. I read the Day 2 part of the blog two weeks ago it of curiosity, and now I’m reading to check on his recovery. Prior to surgery, he was at the vet every two weeks for expression — no fun for him and he was starting to hate the vet. The surgeon said that he had never seen glands the size of Otis’s in all his years of surgery. That makes me happy that I elected to have it done. Reading your blog and finding out that Remington didn’t have a BM for six days is helping me worry less about Otis. Thank you for writing it.
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