Hi everyone! I’m going to do as before and make a few updates to this post throughout the day.

7pm: Had a fairly good day overall, but we’ve definitely struggled to get his cocktail of “as needed” medicines just right. And, since the pain management patch is due to wear off in a few hours, it might still change! He’s peed several times outside, but still hasn’t pooped. He had some issues with poo escaping his bum, but it wasn’t too firm, so I don’t think it’s that – he just hasn’t really tried to go. On the plus side, none of his medicines have made him nauseous/sick. I talked to a doctor at Alpenglow and a doctor at LFAH and got advice throughout the day. So right now Dexter’s planned treatment will be no more sedatives, and a bit more tramadol because in the experimental increase of the dosage, it seemed a good result – by experimental I mean there was a concern that he was becoming dysphoric (or “high” you could say) and anxious as a result, but the increase seems to have made him happier, not worse. (It was only a very small increase overall.) Dexter was in better spirits today for sure and even tried to get a toy for a few minutes this afternoon. He clearly WANTS to be better, but isn’t there yet!

I snapped a picture of his underbelly incision and butt areas (the neuter site is out of view) while he was in the crate earlier. Note that we remove the cone when we’re both here watching him and put it on when we feel there’s ANY risk of someone missing a moment.

9am: Spent the 8-9am hour waiting for his medicines to kick in, and finally ended up giving him a 2nd dose of sedative in addition to the painkillers. I did just take him for a walk and he urinated again. Yay! Starting to (hopefully) understand which of his whining noises means pain and which could mean pain from needing to urinate. Really hoping he improves in that area sooner rather than later, for his sake!

Last night we had gotten Dexter settled with some medicines and then out of nowhere… The smoke detector I had literally gotten checked out by the landlord’s handyman LAST WEEK, started chirping. Dexter HATES the sound of high-pitched beeping on a good day… well, 1am is even worse. It totally destroyed his restful state and we didn’t get him back to be settled until around 2am. It seemed like at that point he was starting to feel the sedative and tramadol more. I slept on the couch and my mom watched over him.

5am or so he started to wake up more and so did I, though very tired. Around 6:30 we got him outside for another walk. He didn’t want to use his legs, but he totally could, and he peed more! Yay! Back in the house Drugged-Up Dexter laid in his crate and we gave him medications inside treats, which he took grudgingly, and some food, which he ate quite happily! So yay. We are still trying to get him to drink water, though. The food is very wet, but still, I wish he would drink. At least he is urinating on his own.