1/24- Chemo went well yesterday. She almost seems like she feels better when she comes home, but I know the first 48 hours are more the tell as to how they do. 

I talked with the doc about pain management . He is weaning her off the steroids. 20 mg every other day vs. every day. He doesn't think she's painful. He thinks her stopping and starting as she is walking is that she could be just tired. That could be. Maybe she just needs to build her endurance. I don't know. He did prescribe 100 mg amantadine every 12 hours as needed for pain. If she improves, then we know she was painful. If no change, then we know she doesn't need it and just needs to build her endurance. 

Figuring out what these dogs need post-surgery is kind of like trying to put together a puzzle in the dark. Your eyes can adjust just enough to make out shapes and some colors, but overall, the effort to piece things together becomes a systematic trial and error process based on the small amount of perception one has in the dark. 

Thanks for the advice. The vet boarding thing happened 10 days before chemo, so I don't think it had anything to do with an injury sustained while boarding. Chemo was on Wednesday the 14th. They used her front leg for chemo admin this time. 

I started the CBD oil the following day on Thursday. The CBD oil was pharmacy grade oil we got from the vet's office, so no worries on quality or contents of the oil. 

Per the instructions, I isolated the oil at least 90 minutes from all other medications. On Thursday, less than 15 minutes from administering the oil, she started licking the carpet and being VERY vocal. Like I had to sit on the floor with her to work and keep her from crying. As weird as she is, she never licks the carpet. I know that CBD oil has no THC, and because the CBD oil we used comes from hemp, there's no toxicity issues there, but she was licking the freaking carpet and singing the song of her people. 

I looked up the ONE university sponsored study on CBD oil and was underwhelmed. Could not find anything on how exactly CBD affected dogs- only that it works because it affects the nervous system- something about cannibinoid receptors (?). BUT, I thought I'd give it a go the next day. 

Friday, I isolated it from other meds again and gave it to her as directed. This time, she starts whipping her head around and vocalizing like invisible rabid clowns are coming to eat her. Then, she starts involuntarily bicycling her back right leg and turning to look at it like, "what the heck, man??" She was a little weak on it that night, but the more time lapsed from the dose, the better function became.

I decided to give one more go yesterday. I gave her the drops. Before the dose she was totally fine. She walked to me to get the medicine. About 15 minutes later she gets up and immediately falls over. I went around and helped her up, and her back right leg starts cycling again and kicking out to the side like some sort of nerve was being stimulated or something. She refused to put any weight on it and when we helped her get across the room, she would just cycle it like she was swimming. As the day went on, she got better to a point, but did not regain actual function to bear weight. She would place her foot, but not "use" the leg. The harness had to go back on, but fortunately, she knew she needed the help, so she didn't fight it. 

This morning, we let her try to get up on her own and she could not. I gave her a good massage and this afternoon gave her amantadine to see if that helped her any. It did not improve function at all, which makes me suspect this is not pain related. She was able to put some weight on it earlier, so she feels it again, but I am still pretty worried. 

I'll call the vet in the morning to see what he recommends if she has not improved. I mean, we don't have clinical trials on CBD oil. We don't know exactly how it works or how it affects certain types of dogs- (elderly, large, small, etc.). What works for one dog may not work for another. Who knows? The only thing I know is that the problem directly coincided with the CBD oil.