Today, our second day after surgery, was much better than the first. Maggie hardly whimpered today. She showed a little bit of interest in some canned dog food and favorites like pretzel pieces and bologna, eating only a bite or two, but no dry dog food. She continues to drink water whenever she is thirsty, even walking to her bowl a few feet away. We are thrilled to see her more perked up today. It was a beautiful day here and she enjoyed some of the sunshine outside on the grass. Today, her tail wagged, opposed to yesterday when it was between her legs and she seemed to enjoy some company that came to see how she is doing.
Unfortunately, today Maggie started to lick her stitches. Having throughly researched this, I knew we could not let her continue to do so. We went to K-Mart and bought her a child-size white t-shirt and tied it up on her back. She actually doesn’t seem to mind it at all and it makes me feel better in case I miss her bothering with it. Here is a picture of her in her T-Shirt having a quick encounter with her friend Tela, our cat.
Maggie has been refusing to take her meds, even with peanut butter – the usual favorite. We have been putting it on the roof of her mouth for her to lick off. I will have to research some other ways to get her meds down effectively.
All-in-all I would categorize today as a good day overall. We, and Maggie, still have a lot to learn about walking on three legs. Maggie’s balance is a little off and sometimes she gets tripped up and falls, but we are glad she is so close to the ground that it doesn’t bother her too much. We will see what tomorrow brings and hope for the very best!
To all of you out there going through the same thing, our prayers are with you and your loved ones. We hope the very best for you all!
Glad to hear Maggie is on the mend. Thanks for sharing her story. Here’s to even better days ahead!
Hey Maggie’s Family,
I just saw your post in the forums from the other day. I’m so glad to read that the whimpering is subsiding. Yoda had that too, probably caused by the Fentanyl patch (I probably spelled that wrong) he was given for pain after his amputation. He too rarely ever whimpered, so I get ya on how nerve-wracking that is.
Regarding pill-taking, Yoda had trouble with that too. Hiding it in peanut butter or another treat worked for months and months, but then it seemed he tasted the Tramadol for the first time and wouldn’t trust anything I gave him. He also happened to suffer some severe nausea right after, making it all even tougher. Anyway, I posted out a cry for help on pill-taking tips and if you can sift through my worried rambilng, you may find some helpful stuff: http://tripawds.com/forums/tips-and-resources/desperately-need-tips-on-getting-yoda-to-take-his-meds/?value=727&type=9&include=0&search=1&ret=all
(If that link doesn’t copy-paste well, also try using the search function at the site and search for “Yoda” and “pills” or “meds” and it should turn up.)
In Yoda’s case, trying to hide the pills in anything only put him off more and more types of treats, so opening his mouth and popping it behind his tongue was the only the solution. It’s tricky, but you get better at it with persistance. Then he was much happier to get a treat after to get rid of any bad taste in his mouth.
Best wishes for a speedy and uneventful recovery!
Glad to hear that Maggie is doing better today!! Yay!! It’s very important to get those meds into her though… so if the instructions others post here don’t work for you, you should really bring her back to the vet’s and maybe have a vet tech demonstrate it for you, and make sure you don’t leave until you feel comfortable with doing it yourself.
So I wonder what Tila the cat is thinking about her new 3-legged buddy… in a T-shirt!! 🙂
Hope that Maggie continues to do better each day!
Jake’s Mom