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Thursday 6 December 2012

The First Week After Amputation ! Part 2.

              Well,  I know that I was supposed to leave my Fatty alone ........ but I couldn't so I was back in around 10 Minutes, when I pretended that I wanted to go to the Loo !! I was back at Fizzly's door and checking in on my lil girl, and would you have it, she was lying on her bed like Cleopatra and completely asleep !  So I suppose I will have to accept that maybe,  Dai does have a clue sometimes only sometimes though Smile with tongue

            This is a big lesson to us all, please remember that your dog has been through a Huge Operation,  and if they had been a Human they would,  still be inside a hospital for Months ~ let alone Hours. So they do actually deserve to have a good sleep, and just allow them some time to rest and recover. I know this is very easy to say, and unbelievably hard to do ! But they do need time time to sort their head out,  and adjust and the most important thing,  is to find time to just sleep !!

            So I left my Fizzly to sleep and went back to the front room,  hoping that Dai hadn't noticed from which direction I had come from :)  though I knew ~ That he knew ~  that I knew etc  But to his credit he didn't even comment ! I don't think that he even contemplated that,  I wouldn't be checking on her every waking moment, but at least I had realised that Fizzly would be able to fall asleep,  without me watching her 24/7.

           I continued to check on her every few minutes and it was about a couple of hours later before she showed signs of waking, so of course Mission Sort Fizzle's was called into operation ! I called for the cavalry, But as they didn't show up !  I called out for Dai and he arrived ! Complete with our Cot Bumper in hand and a lot of good intentions, we managed to slide the cot bumper under her and my amazing girl and I once again took the lead literally !

          I took off her  Flower  Pot and we got my girl up standing, make sure you allow your dog to steady themselves.  As its the weight difference that is probably, the most unsettling part of the whole amputation, as your dog has more than likely, not used the actual leg properly for ages or in Fizzly's case years ....... but when the leg is removed the entire body, is pushed out of whack as they have lost, almost a quarter of their entire body weight ! 

          So allowing your dog a few moments to get balanced, will prevent them moving too fast and falling over ! Which could also mean that your dog may,  bust open the stitches if they fall down hard enough, if your dog does open stitches then just contact your vet and they will just stitch them up again so don't panic !  Now when your dog does fall over ........

I say WHEN  because there will be a day,  WHEN  THEY  FALL   OVER !!! 

         Do  NOT  try to pick your dog up alone unless they are a Chihuahua !!  because your dog will need to assist in the getting back on their feet business !  They know themselves better than you do no matter how much you love your dog, now don't panic just calmly put your support under their tummy and someone holds the support and another holds the lead .......... Now I did this on my own one time,  and I don't really recommend it,  as my arms are only 2 and you need at least 3 !!!

        But once you know that someone has the support safely in place,  then slowly tell your dog to come on. Then allow your dog to dictate, the when to get up and how fast they want to do it, Dogs aren't stupid and they know their own bodies. So allow them to say when they are ready to move, and when they are ready to get up from the floor ! We were very lucky with Fizzly and her ability, to move very well almost straight away, but I have heard that many other dogs have excelled just as quickly !

                 This was Fizzly and Emma, that 1st Night !

         
             As Fizzly was doing so well, with the walking this helped us so much as I don't think,  I would have liked to have to carry my Fatty, we had fenced off the pond and paths as I said in my previous post. But this was something that Fizzly was definitely unhappy about, we were trying to get her to go to the Loo, and she kept looking down to where she usually went !! Once she realised that we were not going to allow her,  to go anywhere she wanted........... she decided that she would try to make a escape back into her room !!

        We were quicker this time and managed to get her back in order, and we walked around the deck waiting for her to wee or poo ! I basically told her we were not going back,  until she had done something, so we continued waiting, then I had the idea that maybe she would do something,  if the other dogs wee'd somewhere 1st ?? especially Milly as she has no qualms of weeing anywhere ! It worked Milly wee'd on the deck and with Dai holding Fizzly up straight, and using my legs as a balancing pole, my Fizzly did a wee and I was ecstatic :)  

        You will find that you will be so happy with the normally, most ordinary of challenges,  but getting your three legged dog to wee will be one of them !! We could see that she was tired and puffing, so with that Magical moment over we took her back to her room. You will find that the smallest amount of doing something, will tire out your dog immensely so please realise its totally normal, and is nothing to be worried about. I know I said it but I was exactly the same as everyone else I was worried about the most ridiculous things :) 

           Of Course I was scared that she would fall over, or chew her stitches out ........... But I was also afraid that because she had the Flower Pot on that if she drank she may get water in the Flower Pot and Drown herself ............  then the water bowl was too far away as she may fall over ..... then I was worried that if the water bowl was too close she could drown in it .......... !!  Then that she would fall into the pond and drown .......
              
            I had am awful lot of Drowning Worries didn't I ???


Little things like that :) and I'm supposedly the one offering advice !! 

           
              Once we took her back to her bed then I spent ages puffing up her bedding and pushing the duvet so she would have a place to rest her weight on ? Then the cow bag just moved herself over and I had to re ~ puff and re ~ push !! I then tried to get her to drink from the water bowl as I hadn't seen her drinking and I thought that she would drink while the Flower Pot was off !  She decided she didn't want to drink anything, so I was freaking that she would become dehydrated !!

         Now this is where I will tell you to calm, breath and relax your brain !! I wanted her to drink something so I figured I could give her a sloppy dinner !!!     We were lucky once again with our Fizzle's, as she was always a complete Piglet when it came to eating, so her not eating was never a problem. This helps especially when it comes to keeping them hydrated, and getting Pain relief into them, though Fizz if you were not careful would eat, whatever you put her Pill in and then spit the Pill out after eating the goodies !!!

                 We stopped this by squeezing her pill into some cheese or pate, as they are both sticky and will hold the pill inside,  without a Rottweiler being able to figure it out ! It's probably harder with a smaller dog, than when you have a Rottweiler as when they eat, they are rather similar to a Great White Shark !!  Another tip I heard from Tripawds was putting the pill in ice~cream.   Or actually dissolving the whole tablet in water, and spraying it into your dogs mouth, which I think is a really good idea, if you have a real problem getting pills into your dog.

But as you can see My Fizzly didn't have a Small Mouth, so you 

could have shoved the whole Box of Pills not just one or two !!!

              
              So we managed to get her pills into her so her pain was taken care of, and then my lil Piggy Wiggy ate all her dinner, made extra sloppy because I was worried she would dehydrate ...... Once she had eaten her Dinner,  the dreaded Flower Pot was firmly attached to this monster Rottweiler's head,  and I tried pulling it to make sure it stayed on her ! Re ~ Puffed /Pushed her duvet and to be fair to my Fizzly, she just accepted that her Mother is Nuts, and allowed me to fuss around her until I was removed by Dai ??

            Not long after my Fizzly was once again asleep, and even though I checked up on her every 10 minutes, mainly in case she was drowning in her water bowl !  She seemed to be totally at peace, and not in any sort of discomfort apart from hating the Flower Pot ! Not that it stopped her sleeping and all I wanted to do was curl up next to her, and just hold her close because the gaping hole that was left,  for all to see,  was making me feel absolutely awful,  and wondering if I had made the right choice ...............
















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