Thank you everyone for your support and input.. Yes Fred is stable right now, as the vet said the spleen shouldn't be bothering him at the moment.. In terms of the danger of it bursting, I don't know if anyone can speak about it with any certainty.. I think that's the nature of hemangiosarcoma.. 

And sorry, I dont know your name.. Murphy parent.. yes that is a very tough decision.. it really is one of the worst things about this whole process is having to make them.  On the other hand it's a huge benefit, to have that option, to relieve someone of their pain. 

Cannabutter -- cannabis infused coconut oil.. I made a batch the other day and last night was trying to figure out the right amount to give to Fred by trying it myself first. I was way way off in the measurements.. It was quite an experience, not exactly a positive one.. I am still stoned.. Need to get a syringe for precise measurements and repeat this with a much much smaller amount.

A stroller sounds like it may be a good idea. I do drive him to different places, like a local park where all he wanted to do for years is go around sniffing picnic tables and looking for scraps of food which I would never let him do -- now we go there to do just that.  I do take him for lots of short walk and I try to take him to different places with lots of smells.  I also now take him to work with me.. I suspect tripawds can get away with a lot of things four legged dogs cant. I kind of wish we had a handicapped sticker for the car.

Regarding pain meds I am still trying to figure out what's going on.. it seemed that taking him off carprofen wasn't working out, he seemed to be much less active without it and i feel like he would seem uncomfortable at night.  But then it could've been a coincidence because I observed the same behavior yesterday with carprofen, and to me it appears to be more nausea or a stomachache rather than pain coming from surgery site (although how can you really tell for sure).  Later in the evening he threw up and he seemed much better after so now I wonder if it's the meds that are making him nauseous or giving him a stomachache.. I tried giving him tramadol before bed and that doesn't necessarily seem to be helping. I suppose I can try to up the dosage.  This is another reason reason I wanted to try to cannabutter. Supposedly once you get the amount right and they develop tolerance to the psychoactive effects, you can use it for pain relief with much less side effects that any meds.. will let you know once I figure out how that's done.. 

Sorry for the ranting post.. the cannabutter is yet to fully wear out from last night.. 

It looks like we've moved on to a new stage, which doesn't seem to be very consistent but there is pattern emerging..

The breathing tends to be very rapid and shallow and he doesn't seem to sleep very much, just kind of lays there with his eyes open.  Very difficult to say but there don't seem to be any obvious signs of pain - also giving tramadol doesn't seem to affect this much. I give him two tramadols before bed, and he wakes up around 4am.. I give him two more, this morning he calmed down and seemed okay, but when I look at him he is not sleeping...

 He still eats, not with the same enthusiasm as before, but it's not hard to get him to eat.. and goes out and sniffs things and seems to be interested in being outside.. obviously not the extent in the past, but still.. Could this be the cancer moving into his lungs? Or heart?  I will take him for an x-ray, if this continues but thought I'd get some feedback.. 

Thank you everyone!!

I just counted the breaths and it's exactly 40, which seems high for him, but considering everything that's going on, probably not terribly high.  He does seem to have developed a tendency to overheat very easily, often just from laying on a soft surface even when it's 70-75 degrees.  He does have very thick coat.  I will try propping his head up on a pillow next time he looks like he's uncomfortable to see if that helps.

I will hold off on the x-rays for now. The notes on what's normal were very helpful -- thank you again. Honestly I feel guilty taking him to the vet even if it's for bloodwork, just because of how traumatic it is.  I do it if I feel like it's necessary, but it's always a big consideration.

I got the Cerenia pills as was suggested earlier and they seem to help a lot.  Even when he doesn't sleep he doesn't look uncomfortable.  It also seems to have brought back to an almost normal level the amount of things he finds and eats in various parking lots and picnic areas. Never thought that would actually make me happy.  Not sure if I've overreacted about the breathing and the not sleeping.. I usually wake up when he wakes in the middle of the night and then I can't go back to sleep and that has been going on for a while. I may be losing it a bit. My boyfriend seems so much more chill about everything, but I guess someone needs to stay sane.

There are definitely times when it does look like something bad is going on, but then shortly after he jumps off the bed and runs into the back yard to look for cats or to go into the kitchen to beg for food. 

We are 4 weeks post op today. It's funny how perspective changes.. when you first have to process the idea of amputation and how horrible and inconcievable it seems and first.. and now it seems like the least of our worries. 

Thank you again, everyone, for your support and advice.. 

Interesting.. Fred is on metronimic chemo as of two days ago, but I suspect that won't have side-effects for a while. I assumed that food would make it worse, but may be worth a shot.  

We don't really have anyone else in our houseful that wants food at 3am so we should be okay there 🙂 Thank you!