Hi everyone! I do apologize for the length in between these updates. I have been carried away with work and getting my life to some state of ‘normal’ again. Anyway, Dexter! Whenever someone asks me “how is he?” I can only say, “I’m still not sure and it varies day to day, but overall, I think he is improving.” It’s not a resounding answer, I know. And I haven’t had another vet appointment yet to provide any more solidity to this update. In a nutshell, his incontinence and pooping ability in general seems to vary a little more than I’d like but compared to a few weeks ago, I think(?) he is better. The ongoing concern is still that while his left side tries to ‘snap back’ to its proper size, it’s not able to use the muscles as well, and his right (surgically-repaired) side is doing too much of the work… and thus at risk for more herniation. I don’t know if that’s happened until I get another rectal exam done at the next vet visit, but I’m definitely not thrilled that his butt has not really decreased in size over the last 2 weeks, either 🙁 His urinary function is still a bit odd. He pees when he’s startled, which was never remotely an issue before; when he goes outside, he only sometimes seems to start and/or stop peeing when he wants to (so he licks at himself when he’s annoyed about it); he only just ran out of pain medicine for that yesterday (10/12) and so I’m not yet sure if I’ll need to refill the prescription or if his pain has improved.
These are the reasons why I’m going to schedule a vet visit within the next few days or possibly this weekend. He’s also running low on rimadyl anti-inflammatory pain medicine, and I’m not sure if it’s still helping or not, but Dr. Collins will know!