This is going to be a bit long in order to accommodate all the various people who are asking me for updates! I just don’t have the mental capacity to answer everyone individually as much as I appreciate the concern.

Dexter had a fairly good day at the hospital, but he was stressed and annoyed that he was not home, so he was whining a lot. He also still was not urinating normally 🙁 The doctor decided to give him a catheter at around 3:30pm. He and I decided that Dexter should still come home at 5 because of how stressed he seemed to be with all the whining. He got injectable antibiotic instead of the pill I’ll be administering; he still has the pain patch on for through tomorrow night and then I’ll start him on Tramadol right before taking it off; he has a stool softener 3x a day for now as well; he has a Vetprofen (Rimadyl) prescription for pain and inflammation; he has a bladder medicine Bethanechol (more on that in a bit). He did eat some food at the vet’s (a bit of chicken breast) and just had about 3 Tablespoons of canned food about an hour ago.

The concern right now is if he can’t urinate on his own soon. He’s “dribbling” so there’s at least some flow going on and there isn’t any sign of blockage – it seems like the bladder being moved and sutured into place was successful and didn’t cause any damage, but either from the pain or some kind of inflammation, he hasn’t been able to get his normal function back yet. Thus, Dr Eshelman prescribed 3 days worth of Bethanechol in order to help his bladder contract as well as his sphincter to open more easily. Since Dexter has some dribble going on, and was fully emptied with the catheter earlier, he has some time before I have to start worrying – hopefully the medicine helps and he is going in a medium- to normal-sized amount by tomorrow morning. If not – I will have to go back to LFAH or maybe even back to Alpenglow for another hospitalization.

Otherwise, he is resting now in his bigger crate (pictures below). He walked outside without any stumbling or difficulty except that he didn’t really want to do much. But he did have more than enough strength to try and pull me back to the house, so I had to quickly scoop him up and carry him back! He will be closely monitored all night as we try to get him to urinate and keep giving him the chance to defecate as well.

The cost of things is slowly inching up to the budget I have, even though I went over the goal. I can’t update the goal bar right now because I’m simply too tired and hungry from all this (including the new adventure of The Pharmacy They Called Didn’t Actually Have Bethanechol And No One Nearby Does; Let’s Drive Far Away And Without Phone Battery Either! – my favorite) but please consider a few bucks if you can spare it. Thanks and here are some pictures of Dexter waiting to go home from the surgeon’s. (WordPress is fighting me lately but hopefully they are rotated properly. It keeps lying and showing them as fine until I hit publish and then they aren’t fine. But then they are fine again in Edit mode. Sigh)