Well its been three weeks since Humphrey‘s op so just thought I‘d post another update as I think (hope
) we‘re finally back on track.
Its been a bumpy ride so far and we‘ve had lots of ups and downs and setbacks, we‘ve both been in tears more than once but this morning I really feel we‘ve turned a corner.
We ditched the crate for a puppy run which means I can walk in to change bedding etc and Humphrey’s got more room to manover, plus he has a bed end and the other end for feeding and also where he now stands to tell us he needs to go out.
After he came off the Metacam he was on Novalgin which is milder and also on Gabapentin, a drug used for neurological pain and also for epilepsie. Reading through the side effects, I wasn’t too happy but its apparently commonly used for post operatve spinal surgery, so he took it for nearly a fortnight. He had diarrhea nearly all of the time and was weeing constantly and on Wednesday evening starting pacing around, couldn’t lie down and yelped a couple of times when he wanted to poo. Back to the vet again (I never seem to manage to get my own vet and the other guy is a waste of space) and he said it was just anal glands and emptied them. Back home again and he was pacing, whining, crying, wimpering for over 4 hours, tried to give him water and he pulled away as if it was going to bite him, tried to stroke him and he growled, he was totally disorientated. Back to our own vet on Thursday morning and I told him I was taking him off all the medication, he agreed it was worth a try but gave me some Novalgin just for emergencies.
Came downstairs this morning to a completely dry bed!
, never been so excited about a poo with shape!
, he‘s relaxed and quite happy in his bed. His right leg is considerably weaker, especially the paw but he‘s standing on both legs and has started to walk very short distances unaided. He‘s had 3 lots of hydrotherapy and we‘ve booked another 7 sessions, so we‘ll see how it goes.
I can’t tell you how much better I feel now, the last 3 weeks have been a full time job but we‘re now at a point where we don’t feel we‘re having to watch him 24/7. I feel a bit upset that although the operation had gone really well, all the other problems have basically been caused by over medication and painkillers that were a) maybe not even necessary (?) and b) have weakened and totally upset his system. But, its a learning curve I guess, everyone’s tried to do their best for him but its proof yet again that we know our own pets best and vets really need to listen to what we’re saying instead of just doing everything by the book!
I‘ll try and post a video of him just as soon as I figure out how to do it!
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Have a good weekend everyone and thanks again for all your support!!
Xx
from Jayne and Humph‘
