Post op day 4 & 5 – off come the bandages

Day 4

Day four was again up and down, with its own set of complications and accomplishments. Meggmoo, our gooseberry, was not interested in food at all. Breakfast, nope, lunch nope, dinner, hand fed after pleading!!

This made things difficult given the vet said she strictly needs food with her daily rimadyl medication or she’ll be sick. She ended up reluctantly eating one cheese slice. That counts right? She hasn’t been sick anyway!

She ran up the steps, again, much to my horror because she ran faster than she ever has as a quad dog, I was sure she’d slip!

She spent the rest of the day snoozing while I stressed over the fact 1) she wasn’t eating 2) she was /still/ managing to do too much exercise (including trying to jump up onto the couch) and 3) we were quickly approaching day 5 and she still hadn’t pooped yet! Pumpkin, sweet potato & lamb baby food to the rescue!

Day 5

Once again, Meg showed no interest in food. It isn’t uncommon for Meg to not want breakfast, but damn it is irritating when she is recovering! She had a few bites of chicken for breakfast, and another cheese slice with her rimadyl. Once again she seemed pretty worn out and sore – she has been shaking most of the day. It is hard to tell what is her natural chihuahua shake and what is pain.

At around midday, Meg shot up from sleep and raced to the door. This was promising given she hadn’t wee’d since the night before! She did a long wee and then stayed in the garden. I held my breath and she squatted her bum down, trying to balance. And there it was. A long waited for, very orange and smelly poop. Finally! 5 days in the making.

This afternoon we all made the trip to the vets for a check up! Vet says we can lower Meg’s tramadol to see if that improves her appetite, but I pointed out her pain issues and she was just as confused as me with what to do. Back to trial and error! The fentanyl patch and wound bandage came off, all was looking well. Then came the big news – the biopsy results from the lymph node in the cancer leg. The vet started saying there is good news and bad news (oh god!) but it seems mostly good, there were mast cells in the lymph BUT they weren’t cancerous (yet?). The vet wasn’t surprised given the tumour was pretty large and close to the lymph. So reluctantly for now, she is seemingly in the clear, but not out of the woods. Chances are we got all the cancer, but a cell or two could’ve been missed and could’ve spread. For now we sit and we wait for any signs of spread to the organs, or any new lumps for that matter, and then we looking into chemo options.

Honestly, I’ve expected the entire time that her cancer journey wasn’t over, and I’m expecting in the future we’ll face a choice of what to do. For now though, I am just happy that she *might* be cancer free, and can get on with living her happy little Meg life.

She is doing a great job of that this afternoon, running around the house like a lunatic (I think she is happy to be bandage free), we’re struggling to keep her still!

Crazy eyes! Hyperactivity episode underway
Crazy eyes! Hyperactivity episode underway. How did I end up behind a pillow?!

Settle down Meggymoo, still another 9 days until those stitches come out!

6 thoughts on “Post op day 4 & 5 – off come the bandages”

  1. Oh sweet little Meg sounds like she’s doing fantastically! Yayy meg’s. That picture is hilarious, those eyes say a 1000 thoughts! xx

    1. “how did I end up under a cushion, where is sistah, why can’t I feel my leg stILL, how do I get down from teh couch?! Heck I must run!”

  2. Hang in there, it takes some dogs longer to want to eat. I think I shared that Nitro wouldn’t eat for the first 7-8 days, and we resorted to spooning yogurt down his throat. Did you say your vet doesn’t want to use gabapentin? It seems that a lot of them do use it, Nitro had it even before the amp, in combination with tramadol. Just something to think about. You might think about making a purée of something tasty and nutritious and spooning it in – sounds harsh, but desparate times call for desparate measures. Good luck.

    Paula and Nitro

    1. No gabapentin, but maybe that will change today because she has reacted to both the tramadol and the rimadyl, not to mention most of her pain seems sudden phantom pain!

      Will try some cruel to be kind tactics today after I speak to the vet, not eating is causing her more problems now that it’s caused the rimadyl to upset her tummy

  3. Happy poop dance! That calls for a celebration in itself. And maybe she will feel more like eating now that her digestive tract is moving again.

    1. Happy poop dance has been cut short by two very runny poops and vomiting – rimadyl reaction apparently! Still doesn’t want to eat. Hopefully anti-acids will help

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