I am very concerned about our Sarge (I was told this would happen). He was understandably under the weather on day 1 one (second day post op), but day 3 he was up and around, doing his boxer wiggle when we would come into the room, he had a sparkle in his eye and a little bounce in his step. He literally was improving hour by hour. His progress was amazing to me. The last 2 days he has actually regressed and it seems that every hour is a struggle. He was having no issues standing up, walking outside to go potty and was even begging to go for a walk with his housemates. We stayed with him or had his grandpawrents stay with him, the last 2 days we have left him alone for a few hours at a time.
I almost fear he is favoring his back leg and he will turn around and almost nip at his knee. OF course I am now wondering if his knee has taken too much of a beating. Also some of the areas around the incision are “twitching“. We now are having to carry him out to potty and all he does is potty and look at us to go back inside to lay down. I called the vet and they seemed to be unconcerned. He was drinking out of his water dish, and I am now having to drop water in his mouth with a 10cc syringe, also he will no longer eat without us hand feeding him extra special yummies.
Please tell me that a significant regression like this is all part of the process and not something to raise concerns! Reading others posts, I see that 2 weeks can be a turning point. I might just need to wait and let this time pass. It just makes me depressed to see him act so depressed. I know a lot of websites say dogs do not get “depressed” that we humanize our babies. I feel strongly that this is not true. We hear of dogs refusing to eat and starving to death after the loss of their human loved one or a fellow fur buddy…. that is depression.
SO ready for 2 weeks to get here…. then the chemo starts. :oZ
Author: c1nicolei
Sarge has been the the love of my life since we rescued him in 2007. He was thought to be a carcass on the side of the road in our community park. As I walked over to look at the pitiful dead dog, I soon realized he was still breathing, barely. We rushed him to the vet and although severely malnourished and in a terrible state, with TLC he miraculously pulled through. Snap shot ahead to 6/2014, we decide to go outside to play fetch, he was so excited and full of energy, doing his typical bouncy boxer pelvic shuffle. He took a nasty tumble and the sounds that followed was nothing short of heart piercing. My heart stopped, because I knew it was bad, very bad. I am a PA, not a veterinarian, but I knew instantly the leg was broken badly. I splinted him and rushed him to the vet. What initially was going to be an orthopedic surgery to repair a broken radius and ulna, quickly turned into, "Your dog sustained a pathological cancer, we think he has osteosarcoma". I could not even hear what I was being told. How could this seemingly happy, healthy, FULL of life dog have CANCER?? The BX confirmed my worst fears. This whole process took over a week. In that time I researched every aspect of canine osteosarcoma I could find and I had already made up my mind, we were going to fight this, not for me, but I knew he was not done living!!! Making the decision to amputate was not one taken lightly. We ensured there were no macro mets and that his blood work looked stable. I also decided if we amputated we would also do chemo. Sarge had his leg amputated 2 days ago and I am amazed at his hour by hour improvement. We start chemo in 2 weeks. I will keep everyone updated and love reading stories on here that give me hope that he will be able to be a happy, pain free normal Sarge!!! This is when we joined TRIPAWDS! What a wonderful, reassuring supportive community! I love you TRIPAWDS!
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Okay! Do your deep breathing exercise right now…..really…..nere we go! B R E A T H E……B R E AT H E…….B R E A T H E…
Yes, little “crashes” li,e this are very, very common, especially if he is over doing it!. Sl ei es when dogs feel a little too good in the beginning(maybe hosp. meds still in their system, etc),they won’t just lay still and rest as they should. Dogs who dkn’t feel tha well will just get up to potty and that’s it.
I can distinctly remember on Day 5 Happy Hannah, who wasn’t doing well at all with recovery anyway, crashed even further. I stayed connected to this site like glue and they pulled me through.
In fact, I didn’t start her chemo j til the end of week three because her recovery was so rough. Until I saw her get skme sparkle back, i wasn’t going to “risk” compromising her any further. And by the way, she sailed through it with no problems!,
Now, can you take his temp? Otherwise, I would take him to the vet just to rule out fever.
The other suggestion……what pain meds does he take, how often? Quite often thismis the time when meds need to be upped…or lowered…..yeah, catch 22!
The twitching is probably nerve endings firing off trying to figure out where they are supposed to go and that can be painful.
I do think he needs to have his knee checked out just to make sure he hasn’t strainedmit…or pulled a muscle in jis backmor neck…all common issues sometimes in recovery.
For now, rest, rest, rest. Check on upping his pain meds. Give him whatever it takes to get him to eat and drink.
My Happy Hannah would not drink in her own for over a wee,….eating no problem…but would not drink! I resorted to putting a scoop of ice creamminmin water….I would pjt tne bowl in front of ner…let her taste the ice cream first from a spoon, then have her nose follow that spoon to the water swirled with ice cream. Yeah, it worked!,
Please keep us posted and please stay yconnected. Sarge WILL feel better and his sparkle will come shining through! I know this stinks right mow, but it will all be worth it!
Hugs to you and Sarge! I’ll look forward to your update on everything.
Sally and HappyHannah
Thank you SO much for your comment. I actually cried last night wondering WHY I was putting him through this! I feel so much guilt right now! I hear that is normal, but to see my baby hurt so much and not seem to have the will to do anything breaks my heart. He has an appointment tomorrow and I can’t be there since I have to attend a mandatory work project. :o( Hope I can look back on these days and others can read this blog and know it will get better!!