Day 2- 12 More Days of Stitches

The second day of Koda being home is almost over. I've decided that waiting 16-20 weeks for recovery sounds like a lifetime. I'm going to look forward to milestones instead. Our first milestone will be his stitches coming out in 12 days, and then we can see about getting Koda into physical therapy. The atrophy on his left hind leg has really set in. It looks skinny and feeble. You can now see his hip bones. I've got him on a comfy bed, now that his anal leakage has subsided. He was getting a red sore on his hip. Hopefully this will help to solve that. I don't want to see him with sores like those dogs on Animal Planet's Animal Cops who have been abused.

Last night was a bit tough, but nowhere near the night before. I was sleeping with Koda on the floor when he decided that he wanted to try and get up in the middle of the night. He swore I was going to let him run around the house. He really wanted to get into my bed, and there's just no way I can allow that. If he fell off, or tried to jump off, it would be devastating. I had to put him in his crate alone in my bedroom and he was not a happy dog. He cried to be with me, but eventually settled down. He did wake up a few times and cried. I ended up sleeping on the floor next to him to calm him down. He got up at around 7:30 am, and he went out to pee. The sling is a bit ridiculous, but his Ruffwear harness we use to hike has just the right handle to lift him up.

Koda refused breakfast this morning. I put him in his expen and he was restless, so once again I laid next to him and he settled in. I've learned that lack of sleep gets me really agitated. I've been a grump all day, and any little thing will completely get on my nerves. Not Koda of course. He can do no wrong, but I went to the store to get chicken and cottage cheese for Koda and everyone there got on my nerves, from the rude woman who almost ran over me, to the store employee who wouldn't answer my question, to the woman who was on her phone while getting checked out and wasn't paying attention. I couldn't wait to get home. Oh, and yes I did find something else that Koda absolutely had to have today! But it was a good thing because he did eat the chicken and cottage cheese. I think the pills are upsetting his stomach a bit. Just my guess. The good news for today is that Koda drank water! Woo hoo!!! Just a little, but it was good to see him drink.

Koda's not using the leg at all today. He's in pain. More so than yesterday. I'm assuming it's because all of the anaesthesia, morphine, and good stuff is out of his system. The leg is also starting to bruise and the stitches were bleeding a little. He likes to lay on it all day. I hope that's not adding to his pain, but he must know his limits. I'm trusting in Koda on this one.

Here are a couple of pics from this evening. The bruising is difficult to see because he's got black fur. It definitely looks more agitated than yesterday.

He also let me ice the leg tonight. Poor Koda Bear and his bare butt. He does like it when I scratch it though.

We tried to go out this evening to go pee, but Koda refused to use that leg at all. I'm not going to worry about it. He knows what he's doing, and I'm glad to see him having some limits. But I hope I'm not up in the middle of the night going out to pee. I really need some sleep tonight to be able to function, and not sleep on the floor. My back is really starting to hurt.

Since Koda is in considerable pain today, he had a Tramadol at 8 am, one again at 2 pm. The vet tech said technically I could give one every six hours if I see that he needs it. I'm not trying to do this everyday, but he needed it today. Then he got Metacam at 8 pm. He gets this once every 24 hours. I'm going to give him another Tramadol at 10 pm just to top him off. It's a lot for today, but he needs it. I'm not giving him any sedatives at this time. But I have those too just in case!

Hopefully we both sleep through the night so I can stop being cranky with people.