Reece could not understand why we made her wear the cone last night. Just because we didn't want to get up to a bloody mess with staples torn out and a fentanyl patch that had been removed-and eaten!-just didn't seem like good enough reasons to her. Too bad, so sad, she wore the cone anyway, but it did make for a rough night.

She's eating, drinking, peeing, pooping, playing and just generally carrying on like nothing happened. We're keeping her activities down to a dull roar but she continues to amaze us. It says quite a bit to me that her pain level at 48 hours after surgery is no more that she was enduring before the surgery. I've been trying to read here about caring for her but it seems Reece has skipped many chapters and jumped way ahead--or didn't read the book at all, being a dog. 

I just put a t-shirt on her for the first time and tightened the excess fabric at her neck and upper back by folding it along her back and fastening it with binder clips so that she can't duck and pull her head through it and so it doesn't interfere with her good front leg. She's not wild about it but I keep explaining that her choices are that or the cone. I'm not sure she understands the choice but that doesn't matter. 

I really need to do better with my sentence structure. I didn't want to get up to a patch that had been removed and eaten (another reason for the cone last night) but it's intact until it comes off sometime in the next hour. Reece had tried to mess with the patch a couple of times during the day and I was concerned about what she might try overnight.

It's rainy here today and she finally slowed down a little. My husband took a nap in the recliner with Reece on his lap so now she's ready to go again. Although she's not fond of the t-shirt, she's tolerating it, so I count that as a win. 

Reading some here today, I realize just exactly how different--and easy--it has been for us with this amputation so far. Reece is young and still growing, which probably helps with her healing. She already knew how to function as a tripod and to function as one in our house, so we haven't had to change much. Most significantly, there's no cancer looming. Reece's leg loss was as a result of an injury (probably hit by a car while she was stray) and the leg was already toast when she left the shelter and went to her first foster (who had to pass her on for schedule reasons). There's no couda, shouda, wouda, oughta looming in our world. While we certainly wish things could have been different for her, we're doing all we can to help her with the life she's been dealt. 

Is there any product which is appropriate to put on the amputation site which helps with the itching? My husband's dermatologist had him get Aquaphor Healing Ointment to use on the staples he had in his head earlier this year but I don't know if that's something that can be used on dogs. I hate not having a vet to talk to in this scenario. 

Thanks for that suggestion. Because of the foster program, I can't get in touch with the vet directly. There are at least two layers between me and them. So far, no big signs of itching, but it's early days yet and I wanted to be prepared. 

Reece really doesn't seem to have a clue that she's just had major surgery.