Any advice on helping her with stairs?  Until now we have been carrying her up and down most stairs, but she is pretty unhappy about that.  With sling support she can manage our front stoop cement stairs which are as wide as the stoop (about 6 feet in length).  She sort of goes up and down those in a sideways manner.  However, on a standard staircase (our back deck or the stairs up to our bedroom) she is very tentative and scared, even with us giving maximum support and assistance.  I'm wondering if this is something we should consult a canine PT about.  

The eating is also still a huge issue.  Over the weekend she ate some cooked hamburger, some grilled chicken, and some bites of sliced salami and bologna.  I cooked her a meatloaf with ground beef, peppers, carrots, apple, and rolled oats.  She sniffed at it and turned away.  Since surgery she has only wanted to eat pure protein -- she is not getting a nutritionally balanced diet with carbs and veggies.  And she will only eat hand fed.  I'm torn between knowing that she needs to eat, and worrying that I am creating a behavior that is going to be very hard to break.  

Nilla is still on all of her meds (Mirtazapine, Sucralfate, Misoprostol, Benadryl, Famotidine, and Tramadol).  We had cut the Tramadol to two times/day from three, and beginning tonight we're going to cut her from 50 mg 2x/day to 25 mg 2x/day.  It's really difficult to tell if she's in pain -- she's very stoic -- but I'm not seeing the "in pain behaviors" we saw before the surgery, so I don't think her pain now is intense.  

Sleeping on our main floor is not an option for us.  I made an appointment with the PT at the vet hospital for August 8.  Since it's still over a week away, it will continue to give Nilla time to get stronger and hopefully gain some confidence even on the wide stoop stairs. 

I'll try a liver cake for her.  I don't think she's ever really eaten liver, but at this point I'll try almost anything.  We keep kosher, so I won't cook any pork products for her and I won't cook anything that combines meat and milk.  Unfortunately buying kosher meat and chicken is A LOT more expensive than nonkosher food, which is one of the reasons I got frustrated that she wouldn't eat the meatloaf I cooked for her.  

Yes, the surgeon suggested that we cut back on the Tramadol.  Nilla has always been a bad pill taker so we never put her pills in food she likes.  Years ago I tried that with small cherry tomatoes.  We would poke a hole in the tomato and hid the pill in there.  She was fine with it for a short while, but once she caught on she refused tomatoes, and still to this day refuses them.  Same thing with those pill-pocket things.  These days I make a peanut butter ball with the meds and get it on the roof of her mouth where she has no choice but to swallow it.  

When I try putting food in a dish on the floor she shows no interest in it whatsoever. We have tried leaving it out for her but she is not interested (and often my other lab will eventually eat it -- she's getting fat from Nilla's anorexia).   I have a kid from our local vet coming by mid-day today to give her the sucralfate and to take her out to pee and get some exercise in the yard.  I told him where to find the tupperware of burger and chicken for her, so maybe she'll eat for him a little.  If she does, that also speaks to the behavioral piece of her inappetance.  

Nilla has been wearing the ruffwear webmaster since she was discharged.  We find that it's helpful to help her get up from a laying or seated position, and it's helpful to "steer" her to keep her going in a specific direction.  It has not been helpful at all in providing rear support for her, as the straps only go around the chest and abdomen. We can guide and support her upper body with the harness, but it does nothing for rear support.   

We've had a little setback.  Nilla developed a raw open wound at one of the lower incision sites - most likely from rubbing on the floor or grass when she is sitting.  She is back on antibiotics and back to being confined to an xpen during the day.  The good news is that she is off all other meds and the vet is pleased with her mobility so far.  The bad news is that until the wound heals we cannot progress with any cancer treatments (steroids and/or chemo).  The other issue is that Nilla is back to refusing all food.  She lost 3lbs since being discharged one week ago.  She will nibble a few bites of something each day (chicken, turkey, salmon, bologna, hamburger), but clearly not enough to be sustaining her.  We're continuing the mirtazipine as an appetite stimulant.  I have been reading online about CBD oils.  We live in New York, and from I have read it appears that I can legally buy CBD oil.  I haven't spoken about it with the vet yet, but from I read online most vets do not offer an opinion on it for a variety of medical and legal reasons.  What has been your experience with CBD oils as an appetite stimulant?  Nilla is down to 47 pounds (she should be a 65 pound lab).  She is beginning to look like one of those abandoned dogs on the ASPCA commercials.  Initial pathology results of the leg removed are looking promising for the lack of spread of the cancer and possibly for the MCT not being as aggressive as we first thought, which is great, but if she refuses to eat and continues to get weaker and sicker, then everything we put her through will be for nothing.  Right now getting her to eat is my biggest focus and anxiety.