OK – so maybe I was a little overly optimistic yesterday. I read so many posts about the first weeks being so hard, about questioning putting her through the whole thing – I guess our truth is somewhere between my high hopes yesterday and the worst I was imagining. Today she is seeping more from her stitches, she seems so sad and she has a cough. I’m really worried. Don’t know if she’ll get to come home tomorrow or not. Keep the good thoughts coming!
Author: Judy
Roger and I have adopted many furbabies in our 35 years of marriage. Baby is a 6 yr. old 155lb English Mastiff who came to us when she was 1 1/2 yrs old along with her 'brother' Toby (a Landseer Newfoundland). We adopted them from Gentle Giants rescue and they are, indeed, both Gentle Giants. Baby was diagnosed with bone cancer in January 2012. She just had her surgery on January 27th, 2012 to remove her right rear leg. She is recovering beautifully we are thrilled to have her with us!
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We had lots of seeping on days 4, 6, and 9 and it totally stressed me out – my vet even came to the house several times to check on us. We are two weeks post amputation yesterday. Got our stitches out. Had our first chemo last thursday and about 70% of normal.
We will keep you in our thoughts.
Congrats on getting the stitches out. Are you seeing signs of the pre-surgery happy dog? I hope so. Best of luck with the chemo. Thanks for your encouragement. It means a lot.
the first two weeks can definitely be full of ups and downs. don’t get discouraged. baby is in good hands, and knows how much you love her. try to remain very brave and happy around baby, our pups really react to our emotions and you don’t want her to feel scared. paws crossed this is just a little bump in a very long road ahead.
charon & spirit gayle
All Tasha did was sleep for the first week. She seemed so sad and was just not herself. She had no trouble eating or going out to go the bathroom but her personality wasn’t the same. All I can say is hang in there. Between having major surgery, losing a limb and being on all the medication these dogs just aren’t themselves. You will see in a few weeks Baby will be back to herself and doing great!
I think it was about day 4 that I wrote a blog entry saying how depressed Dakota was and how discouraged I was. I think that the first few days, their bodies are still loaded up with the anesthesia and surgical pain meds. It takes a few days to metabolize and get it out of their systems. Then, they bonk. At least Dakota did.
Depressed and sad is exactly how I thought of Dakota, but it was short-term. He did act like he was awfully confused and pretty anxious. I made sure to be strong and confident around him so it would not feed his anxiety.
Once Baby is home, she will be much more confident. She will see that you are there, the pack is together and life progresses. Just make it easy for her with traction and so forth, and once she’s completely off her pain meds she will blossom.
Shari
One day at a time. This part is really hard, but you’ve gotta know that you and Baby will get through this. It just feels really sucky right now. Hang in there.
Becky and Sparky (tripawd for 4 years)