Post-Op Day Three

Walter has had a rough time of it. I think he probably came home too soon. He was unable to hold down even a small amount of water. It was more of a full reflux rather than a vomit. I gave him some Pepcid and until about 3 this morning only gave him ice cubes to lick. He seems to be doing much better. This morning he ate a jar of chicken baby food and washed it down with some low sodium chicken broth. He has always been very trim but is starting to look a bit peckish. This is the first food offered to him that he would eat. I keep checking him for dehydration and he is ok.

The other dogs know that something is up with him and have left him alone. Usually there is quite a bit of poodle play going on here. Dogs are so funny. And poodles in particular really seem to have some sort of emotional intelligence that I have never seen in other dogs. Very strange. I am sure he is hurting. They gave him a fentanyl patch but I have been giving him an oral pain medication as well. I think too often we assume dogs are not in pain when they really are. We expect indications of pain like we see in humans but evolution has made dogs very different. Last summer his mother Ruby ended up with a six inch shard of glass in her side. It was millimeters away from her intestines. She did not make a sound. It is too complicated to even explain how she ended up with glass in her. I am still not able to discuss why Walter had access to a towel in the dog yard that he was able to chew up. I am too mad about it still.

For the next few days Walter will be lying around in his sick chair. Next week I am going to start taking him out for some short walks to build his muscles back up. I am not sure if dogs loose as much muscle mass from inactivity as humans do, but it would not surprise me. Humans can lose something like 20% in three days of inactivity. That is a lot. I just took the picture of Walter in his chair. He is pretty darn loopy.