Thank you all for your advice and support...this is all so stressful so we really appreciate it. She had seen an orthopedic specialist before the amputation, and I took her back to see him last week and all he had to say was that it's probably phantom pain , and that he had never seen this type of behavior before (he's the one I told about Gabapentin and he said, "oh, yeah, that would probably work!") So I have an appointment for a third opinion on Monday with a vet who specializes in rehab and does acupuncture, and meanwhile I'm bringing Olive into our regular vet tomorrow to check out her incision because it looks like she has a tiny stitch poking out, and I thought they should all be dissolved by now. She's so miserable, I wish I could just sit with her all day and love on her...

I will definitely check out Ollie's story and the dangling nerve that Sally mentioned, so thank you again for sharing.

You are all wonderful, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Suzi and Olive

Yes, she had a different suture poking out before that got trimmed back, and the rest was supposed to dissolve, but this is a smaller thread, and she yowls when we touch it, so I don't know what to think...I just read Ollie's pain saga and it really sounds like the same thing, and the video is similar to what Olive is going through, so I'm going to mention the sciatic nerve issue to the vet tomorrow. I think I will also give her 50mg of the gaba tonight, to see if that helps and helps her sleep...she's so restless, even when you think she's curled up sleeping, her tail is twitching and she's gazing off, not necessarily sleeping.

Thank you!

Thanks so much for checking in, Sally. I did mention the nerve thing, and she said that they have to cut through a lot of nerves during surgery, and she was massaging Olive's hip while we were talking and Olive was not howling in pain, so I think she ruled that out. Olive was definitely letting the doctor touch her more than she has been letting us, so we don't know if her adrenaline was just so high that she wasn't as uncomfortable as she normally is, or she was playing tough guy for the doctor 🙂 The increased Gaba is, I think , borderline for her, because she seems almost at the sedation point, so I don't want to up it again yet, but she is still seizing up more often than she is not. I have my fingers crossed for the acupuncture.

Thanks again for checking in!

Thanks so much, Jackie. We just got back from Olive's first visit to the rehab vet, and she had her first acupuncture today. She did very well with the needles, and he also gave her a shot of an anti-inflammatory. He wants to see her again this week, and he is going to consult with some of his colleagues about her situation, because it's not something he has seen post-op. He agrees that it could be a nerve issue that has to be dealt with by opening her up again, but he wants to hold off and see how she does with acupuncture and anti-inflammatories first. I'm hoping she is comfortable enough to take a nice, long nap today, because she has been so uncomfortable. I know that acupuncture takes a few visits to show progress, so we'll try to stay patient.

Thanks again!