Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

Alright, folks. Help me think positive. Ate breakfast. Lots of nausea during the day. But ate mid day snack. More nausea. Definitely loose stool. Initially turning down treats when offered, but will eat them if you leave them with him. Initially turns down peanut butter when I give it to him as a treat with his pills. Did not eat dinner when offered. Turned away. He got his next set of meds a little early, and we're going to give them some time to work and see if he'll eat then. He's not totally depressed, but not bright, and not feeling great. But this isn't unusual, right? We are day 3 post-chemo. I just need reassurance that this isn't an indication that we are going down the awful path we went down last time. 🙁 We're working to keep him hydrated and happy. We have his PT workup in the morning, 9:00. I'm almost afraid he won't be well enough for it, but I'm still going to bring him in. His leg weakness and back issues absolutely have to be checked out. So, positive thoughts for Mosby, I'm hoping he'll eat dinner a little later on tonight, and be feeling great tomorrow. 

Yes, I'm going to see how tonight goes (I hope we can all sleep through the night ... his tummy is upset) and hope for a much, much, much better day tomorrow. He did not want dinner, even after his meds should have kicked in. His attitude is ... what you'd expect for a dog feeling sick. I 100% agree he's not up for PT tomorrow, but I'm keeping the appointment mainly because she's a vet and it will be good to see a vet and have him evaluated. And even though it's not tummy related, he needs to have his pain issues evaluated.

Poor Mosby. Tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow he will wake up, eat breakfast, and have a good day. I am sure of it. 

That's hilarious! I think it would scare Mosby! 

I would say that today was better. He ate breakfast on the "second" try after turning down the first offer. He had a nice visit with the PT vet. She did not find anything obviously wrong/painful with his remaining hind limb. Felt he was ambulating well. Her one concern with respect to his back is that we need to rule out metastasis to the spine. She said that the area of concern should be visible on his lung xrays, and if not we will get another set done. She was getting them from the other vet, and I didn't hear anything back today, so I will call tomorrow morning. We discussed his meds, and have re-worked them. Working on the assumption that it's muscle spasms, we're adding methocarbamol (muscle relaxer) and raising his gabapentin dose (which was actually almost sub-therapeutic anyway). We're also going to tail off the tramadol and stop it. She is the second vet to tell me that many vets do not believe tramadol has a pain relieving effect in dogs, because dogs do not have the pain receptor that humans have that tramadol is designed for. But it does definitely have a sedative effect. So it is often prescribed if only for that reason, and while that is helpful in dogs that need a sedative, it's not therapeutic for Mosby's back. 

The rest of the day went ok. We hung out at home. His GI symptoms have improved a lot. We re-stocked his favorite food and he ate a full can for dinner. He's been bright and interested in things. He's been drinking well. So, while I still get super spooked by pretty much any odd behavior he has and am still afraid of jinxing things, overall he is doing ok especially when you compare it to the same Monday 3 weeks ago. That's night and day. 

It's kind of sad, I was sitting in my chair this evening, and Mosby came over to see me and then laid down at my feet. I looked over at my husband nervously and said "Is this normal? I don't remember. Is he coming over because he wants to be near me or because something is wrong?" I have forgotten normal. It turned out he just wanted to be petted. Which is great! But, man, to be in a position where you automatically think worst case scenario -- I know you all understand that too well. 

On to the next day!