Category: Uncategorized

Ahhh, massage therapy!

I think I found a little bit of heaven this morning. I also got confirmation that I’ve trained my Woman really well. She gave me a massage. I think that’s what she called it. I don’t really care what it’s called, it was blissful. I was laying on the floor by the fire, all warm and cozy, and then she made things even better! She started rubbing my neck and shoulder, and it was delightful!

I tried to maintain my reputation as unconcerned and proud, but I don’t think I did a very good job. I accidentally made some yummy noises and had a little gas. That was kind of embarrassing.

I hope she does it again soon. I don’t want her to know that, but I really hopes she does. I hope some of you guys reading this get massages. If you don’t, you should come over here and let my Woman give you a massage. I’ve trained her really well.

Love, D.

Ruff, ruff day

Dakota isn’t feeling up to writing down his feelings today so I will try my best to do half as well as he does at this blogging business.

Yesterday Dakota had a hard day. He had a few times where his incision or his shoulder was bumped and he yelped. Evelyn was playing and got very exuberant and jumped at Dakota like she’s used to doing. She landed on that poor shoulder and Dakota yelped something awful and then tried to eat Evelyn. I rescued her and sat with Dakota trying to calm him. He was trembling and very shaky. I convinced him to  lay down and then sat beside him until he seemed to calm down.

Later in the day, D must have gotten bumped somehow when he was going outside. I’m not sure if he brushed against the door jamb or if he stepped over the threshold funny or what, but he went through the same yelping and trembling. I went out with him and he appeared to become distracted and able to check out the scenery.

Dakota did spend a lot of time worrying his incision site yesterday. He completely soaked the shirt I had on him. Even though he’s wearing a shirt, he can still irritate the wound with all the licking. I had to put him back in the pink fleece that he hates. It’s really thick, so he can lick all he wants but it doesn’t get wet. I made him sleep in it, too.

After the second yelping episode, I gave Dakota a single Tramadol. He’s been off all pain meds since day 11 or so, but I didn’t know what else to do. I also hoped it would sedate him enough to interrupt the constant licking.

This morning, Dakota did the yelping again when he went down the single step into the back of the house. He even tried to bail out and not do the step down, but hey, with one front leg there’s really no bailing out. I had to go out with him to encourage him to pee. He was convinced, I think, that only pain would come from moving around.

Also, the inside of the pink fleece is stained this morning with seepage. I guess Dakota has irritated this thing enough to where it is leaking. I think I’m going to paint some vinegar close to the incision line and see if that stops the licking. If not, I have Cholula and Tabasco!

Dakota has eaten well so I don’t think anything serious is going on. Still, it’s disturbing to hear him cry out so. These are not minor yelps like when you step on a tail; these are the “oh dear lord I’ve been hit by a bus!” kinds of cries.

So that’s the report for 2 1/2 weeks. Hopefully Dakota will feel better this afternoon. If he does, perhaps he can post an update himself.

I went for a car ride and did not barf

My Woman took me in the car today, and I tried really hard to act like I wanted to go. When I saw the leash, I knew the drill. I decided to have a little fun, though, and I drug her down the driveway to the back of the car. She kept saying, “Dakota, wait!” She wanted to open the back of the car and then help me jump in, but I wanted to jump before she opened the car. That actually doesn’t work out very well, to be honest.

I went to the post office because there were 3 boxes waiting for us there. It was like Christmas! Three boxes! And 2 of them were for me. One was from Jim and Rene. It was the anxiety wrap that I’m going to test out and then review. My Woman and Jim and Rene are hoping that it will help me in the car. My Woman also hopes it will help when I lick everything  because I’m nervous. I don’t care about that. I like licking holes in the carpet.

The other package was from Spirit Indi, or maybe she’s Angel Indi. Her pawrent is Raina and when Indi was a tripawd, she had this pawsome red harness that helped her get around. Unfortunately, Indi didn’t get to use it very long because she got much sicker and then went to heaven. Raina said I could have it, and that is the most special thing ever. So Indi’s harness came and my Woman put it on me and took my picture and said it made her want to cry because it was such an honor to put Indi’s harness on me. I’m not sure what that was about, but the harness smelled really good. It smelled like Indi, and she was a girl dog so I liked it.

I also went to the v-e-t and got weighed. My Man and Woman have been giving me less food, which ticks me off, but they say it’s to help me get around better now that I am a tripawd. I refused to get on the scale so my Woman hauled me onto it and the v-e-t petted my head while I sulked. When I had my surgery, I weighed 86 pounds. Today I weighed 78 pounds. So how much did my leg weigh? That’s the magic question.

I wished I hadn’t lost any weight because my Woman said that she would quit my diet if it wasn’t working. She said if I hadn’t lost weight, she would let me have more food because I have been unhappy with less food. She didn’t think I understood what that meant, but I did. So I hoped I was still 86 pounds. But you know what? I’m kinda proud that I lost 8 pounds in 2 weeks.

After the v-e-t, we came home. I had a busy morning. I slobbered a lot in the car because it makes me nervous to go for rides. So there is my story of how I went for a car ride but I did not barf.

Love, D.

This is me wearing Indi's harness. It smells so nice...like Indi.

Stitches out, fighting with the roommate; it’s a normal day!

Seroma, day 10 (not too big)

Today is day 10 for Dakota and we celebrated by getting his stitches removed. I wanted to wait a couple of days more, but Dakota had been going to town trying to scratch the awful itch they created, and I wanted to have that abdominal bruising looked at. Turns out day 10 is perfectly fine for suture removal and everything had closed up nicely.

Dakota does have a smallish seroma, which I suspected, but it isn’t large enough to require any treatment. After the stitches were out, there was some fluid oozing in one reddened area so I think it may find its own drain. Sounds nasty, doesn’t it? A couple of days ago Dakota did begin licking the incision and irritated a spot, and this is where the oozing is coming form.

The bruising is ok, although of course no one will commit to saying it’s actually from the surgery. There have been all kinds of caveats issued: It could be a platelet disorder that only last week manifested; it could be internal bleeding from who knows what that just popped up…I don’t think so.

After we got back home, Dakota’s bulldog Evelyn (the worst roommate in the world, remember) tried to snag a bone from his mouth. Evelyn had been left home with at least 5 bones while we were gone, but once we got home the only one she couldn’t live without was the one Dakota picked up. They really went at it for a moment, and I had to intervene. All I could envision was Dakota’s shoulder tearing open and everything falling apart. It was really rather frightening. In retrospect, Dakota now cares if Evelyn wants to steal from him. Several days ago he would probably not have lifted his head to protest.

So the mending continues and I’m hopeful that Dakota will regain more strength every day. He is doing much better outside, avoiding obstacles and not falling down. The worst navigation challenges come from his persistent running into people, especially me. He often doesn’t seem to know what to do with his body and just rams right into my legs. I think he wants me to move out of his way, but I just can’t always do that. He also needs to learn to moderate his speed. I understand why faster is easier for him, but boy is it fast! I’m very sure he can slow down a bit and still keep up good momentum.

Now the challenge will be to keep Dakota quiet for another week so the seroma can resolve. Oh yeah, and he absolutely can’t keep licking at the incision, either. I guess he’s still going to be modeling some tasteful duds for the next week or so.