Good morning! We had a much better night last night than the night before, in that both of us got some actual sleep. There were a couple of small yelps, but none of the louder and more agonized-sounding ones like from the previous night. I gave her a dose of Tramadol around 4am; I think she thought she was having a really good dream at first, as I don’t usually bring her chunks of hot dog in the middle of the night! 😉

She has a small seroma which doesn’t seem to be leaking much at all, and some bruising. I talked to the vet about it yesterday before the clinic closed, and he said that her body should reabsorb the fluid, so no need to bring her in.

She’s a little more enthusiastic about eating today, partly because I’m mixing some wet food in with her normal dry food, not to mention those tasty, tasty (pill-filled) treats of hot dog bites or peanut butter. She’s not at all pleased about being taken outside to do her business, and I’m wondering if that’s because she’s nervous about walking on the grass, or if it’s because she’s feeling some pain. 

At the moment, she is snoozing and working on healing. She’s shown no inclination to bother or lick her incision so far, though I suspect that stage may come when the wound starts to itch as it heals.

Here’s a picture of her, napping next to her toy basket: 

Update: first post-surgery poo happened this morning! She’s still not a big fan of being taken outside to do her business, and gives me many reproachful looks when I encourage her to tinkle, but she gets it done eventually.

She’s still happy to eat the wet food when I put it in her bowl, but she’s a bit picky (or maybe suspicious!) about other food. She got some ice cream as a special treat, which she ate enthusiastically, but turned up her nose at a bite of hamburger. (Probably because her tummy was full of ice cream.) I’ve never known her to turn down any kind of meat in the past. I’m thinking the antibiotic may be upsetting her stomach, but it’s also possible that she thinks things I give her all too often have pills in them.

Right now, she’s being snuggly and napping beside me. 

This morning, Sophie was a little more tired and a little more picky about eating. I was concerned that maybe we overdid it yesterday (we took a car ride to get the ice cream, and later a friend came over to watch a movie), but who knows? It could also be the weather, or the balance of medications in her system.

The excellent news today is that my mother is here for a little while to help, since I have to go back to work. She brought her own tripawd dog, Sasha, who lost her right front leg a little over a year ago (she was running downhill, stepped in a hole, hit a post, and broke her leg in multiple places). I will try to get a picture of the two of them together while they are here. Sasha is a complete goofball, and this whole process has been just a little easier on me, having seen her recovery. And it’s much easier to get Sophie to do her business and eat her food when there’s another dog around doing the same things.