Well, what a difference an afternoon makes.

Sorry, I should have updated last night, but to be honest, I just needed to SLEEEEEEP zzzzzz.....

Firstly, thanks to ALL of you for your comments, stories and support. It really does help.

So, we left his Fentynal patch on on Sunday morning as he seemed over the worst of the anxiousness. I figured he was spaced out enough for us to deal with, but the pain killers would be still doing a good job for him. So, we let the patch on and watched him the rest pf the day.

He did his usual fitful, anxious, whiny snoozing up to about dinner time, (in fact, for only a couple of hours after I wrote that post). When he woke up this time, he seemed a bit more normal, like there was some life back in his eyes and not just a vacant stare. He cried a little, but more his toilet-time cry. I popped on a rubber soled dog shoe on his back leg for traction , he wasn't keen at first but once he was up he didn't really have much time to think about it. That made a HUGE difference, it seemed to give him a lot more confidence in moving around with the extra traction . He went out for a pee, then came back in and dropped on his bed.

He immediately cried again, got back up, hoped to the back door again, went outside and did the BIGGEST POO YOU'VE EVER SEEN. Emma ran over to me with a two-thumbs-up, we were stoked.

The double trip outside really wore him out, he hopped himself back to bed, getting lower and lower with each bound. This time though, he curled himself up in his old sleeping position, ON HIS WOUND side, snuggled in and went fully sound asleep.

We decided not to give him the tramadol at bed time and just to see how he went with what's left in the pain patch, we let him back in our bed room on his old bed (where he normally sleeps), and he curled back up on the poorly side, (which is good for two reasons - 1, it means the pain must have subsided somewhat to allow him to roll onto that side, and 2 - he can't lick his would as it's underneath him). We all slept sound all night, not a murmur.

He's been great this morning. He's getting a little stronger each time he gets up. He's still eating and drinking well which is great.

The rubber shoe has helped a lot, it makes it far easier for him to get up and down.

Still early days, and I know we could go backward again when the pain patch finally runs out, but we have a huge supply of tramadol in now from the vet so we'll play that by ear. If he keeps going the way he is, we won't give him anything other than his daily feldene tablet.

Oh, for the record he was 165lb before the op. He's not a heavy set dog but he's very tall, his legs are long and gangly.

I totally agree with being as normal as possible. He has beds all over the house, so him sleeping in the lounge isn't out of the ordinary. He normally starts in our bedroom and at some point in the night works his way down to the lounge.

The problem we had was that our bedroom is the furthest point from the back yard for toilet, so we set him up in the lounge. The reason I stayed on there with him is we have hard floors everywhere. I have covered them as best I can, but there are still a few gaps, gaps which he likes to migrate off his bed onto! (Maybe he likes the cool surface of the floor?). Consequently, it is impossible for him to get up from that surface, then he panics and hurts himself. We wouldn't hear him in the night unless he got in strife and yelped loud enough. I really didn't want him to be put in that position. Not only that, but due to his size and the length of his remaining leg, it's been so hard for him to get comfortable without help. If he tried to move or get up he literally couldn't do it as he always gets his leg under him in such a way that he pins it, so a few nights on the sofa is of no real consequence The bedroom and lounge are next to each other, the whole house is on one level and I regularly fall asleep on the sofa watching TV anyway, so staying there the whole night isn't that out of the ordinary for him. He's much stronger now, and with that rubber boot for traction is having a much easier time of getting up and down. He's also worked out when he gets up to move his weight forward more and pivot up off his front legs rather than trying to haul all his weight up on the one back one. He's learning.....

I'll start a new thread in Size Matters for continuation of updates.

Continue the story here if interested :-

http://tripawds.....e/#p147267

Thanks again everyone. We feel so much better after some positive comments and a good nights sleep.

Cheers.