I have the best dog ever

[tavalon]

He had to have surgery 5 days ago and you know how most dogs have to wear the cone of shame because they won't leave the stitches alone? We only had to tell him twice to stop and now he comes over, lays beside me, and looks at me, shows belly and lets me safely scratch his itch. We are letting him lick the site where he had the IV and it's like he gets that that is the only acceptable spot.

Now, for a gripe, let's say I cut your chest and belly and took out 4 fatty tumors. Would you find it acceptable to go home on Ibuprofen? Oh, and your doctor wanted you to have absolute bedrest during the first two days and again, just ibuprofen. One of my housemates picked him up from the Vet and didn't know what Rimadyl was (doggy profen). I took one look at that and said, uh no, not my dog. I should have called the vet right then but we still had some tramadol from his bout with arthritis (kind of like vicodin only not) so I added that to his regimen for two days. He was down just like the vet wanted. I'm planning to go with him for his stitches removal and I think, no, I know we're going to have a discussion about adequate pain management following surgery.

Anyway, just wanted to brag upon my dog of great excellence!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. good doggie

hoping for pix when I opened the thread. oh well.

[tavalon]

2. Sorry, I suck at embedding pictures

In some ways, I'm a very savvy user, other ways, a fucking luddite. Imagine, if you will, a big gallumping, always happy black standard poodle, but mostly shaved, no pom poms for this dog.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. sounds gorgeous!

give his belly a gentle rub for me :loveya:

[marzipanni]

6. I love standard poodles

Two were part of my family when I was growing up. Such smart dogs, and such characters. We used to clip them ourselves most of the time, a simple puppy cut. This is Mimi- .

my boyfriend called her "BaboonQueen"


I hope your big boy is back to his old gallumping self ASAP!

[tavalon]

8. Excellent!

That's Oly in a nutshell except we have him completely shaved down. He loves rambling in the woods and besides we knew he was about to get a baby's butt shave on his belly.

He's already back to his gallumping self and his impish side is coming out again. He'll wait until he's sure I'm watching and then he'll make a tentative motion towards his stitches but when I tell him no, I swear he smiles and comes over as if to say "I'm being so great about this, how about a treat?" I swear sometimes I wonder who trains who, and other times it's quite obvious that he runs things in his nonchalant way. Which is funny because he is a retired service dog. He was a rescue when his owner had to go live with her daughter. Since he is Mr. Perfection, with one exception, I have assume the daughter had cats. Unfortunately, if it's a cat, he considers it prey.

I was so worried about his anesthesia, because he's a bit long on the tooth, but we're past that and I just hope all the biopsies are benign.

[elleng]

7. LOVE to imagine that; met one once.

GOOD story.

[riderinthestorm]

4. I had a JRT kicked by a horse. Leg completely shattered in 5 places.

The vet patched him up with 16 pins and sent him home with a fentanyl patch, and pain killers up the wazoo. Strict confinement directives and major warnings about permanent leg damage if the dog didn't stay 'calm".

Within the 1st 5 minutes of getting him home and confined in the kitchen with baby gates, he had climbed the baby gate and jumped up on the sofa. 24 hours after surgery!! So I confined him to the laundry room (with an oak door and a dead bolt). He jumped onto the top of the dryer and curled up in the laundry basket after spending at least 2 hours body slamming himself against the door.

So I took off the fentanyl patch, took him off all pain meds and let him sleep with me. He never once tried to jump up, or on, or over anything for 5 days.

Sometimes minimal pain relief meds are prescribed because it's the only way to keep the dog from inflicting further damage. Pain is a way our bodies tell us to "slow down", rest, and recuperate. My Jack Russell Terrier had such a high pain threshold, he HAD to be taken off ALL meds to facilitate recuperation.

Good luck with your dog! Hugs!

[tavalon]

9. That's a really good point that this human nurse didn't even think about!

I'm so used to the adage that adequate pain relief means quicker recovery and luckily, being the easy going dog he was, he just crawled into his crate (that has a foam rubber cushion folded over four times and then his blanky) and slept most of the two days we even brought his food and water over. After the two days, if we didn't have the stitches and the shave, it would be hard to distinguish him from his usual self.

That is definitely an angle I didn't think of, but as all the doctors and vets in our life know, I'm likely as not to adjust as I see fit. But had he not had his own tramadol, I still think I would have called for stronger meds. He looked miserable. He has put up with me listening to his lungs and his belly as he had a slight aspiration during surgery.

[tavalon]

10. I just realized that JRT is Jack Russell Terrier

Are they ever calm? Never having had one, I thought they were perpetual motion machines. Wow, I'm glad he was able to get past that!

[pacalo]

5. I wish I had read this before my dog was neutered. I'll never forget the way he walked when I

went to pick him up.

I don't remember what pain medication I was given for him; I assumed the vet gave me the best he could. After reading this, I'll be more vigilant.