April 9th, 2020

Yesterday marked our third week since surgery. This week has been a bit odd for us, but we did have a lot of big accomplishments!

Earlier this week I assisted Akeela out onto our patio, so that she could watch the geese and our neighbor dogs. By the second day she was able to make it in and outside completely by herself! There is an 8 inch step where the heater runs, so it takes some effort for her to get over it. I went to grab something from the other room one day and I heard a little thump. When I came back into the room she was standing inside. Guess she didn’t want to be left alone!

Instead of a quick out-and-in potty break, we now take 15-20 minute slow sniff walks around the complex. We do these about 3 times a day – in addition to about 2 normal quick breaks. We have stairs outside our unit, so every time we are heading back in we do our run through the following rehab moves: front ups, front ups with weight shifting, and cookie stretchers. The other rehab moves are a little more challenging for her and she gets frustrated pretty quickly, so we only do them once a day. Those would be sit-to-stands, backing up, circling, and leg hurdles.

She has always been an *incredibly* picky eater. Her ‘regular’ diet consists of 1 cup of American Journey dog kibble, 1 cup of Dr Marty’s raw dehydrated food, 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin, 1-2 cups of boiled chicken (one of the worse smells imaginable), 1 TB beef liver powder, and a scoop of her powdered multi-vitamin. She has eaten this combination for about 5 years now, though I occasionally have to mix in some random variations to keep her interested – like salt free canned tuna. Since surgery I have had to hand feed her every meal, otherwise she won’t eat. Nothing quite like getting a sloppy handful of boiled chicken and beef liver! Well, today marked the first day since surgery that she willingly ate her dinner out of the bowl. It’s the little wins 🙂

She has always been an alpha and will lift a back leg to mark her territory. She has attempted to do this a couple of times now since surgery. She had her right front leg amputated (still such a difficult word for me to say and write), which makes it a quite challenging – and a little comical – to watch when she tries to lift her back right leg to pee as well. Turns out dogs don’t have such good balance when standing only on one back and front leg of the same side…..

Although she has been getting back to her more energized and sassy self, we have had a couple of unfortunate hiccups along the way. When she is moving she doesn’t seem to be in any discomfort or pain, but she will act very uncomfortable when she tries to lay down. She will be dead asleep and all of a sudden jump up out of nowhere. She will look around confused and startled and will sometimes even bolt across the room. Occasionally she will even let out a little yelp 🙁 Night time seems to be the worst and most noticeable, because she will pace around the bedroom and pant heavily.

It’s difficult, because we are seeing so much progress in other aspects, but then she has these obvious bouts of pain. After speaking with her new oncologist, we are back on Gabapentin. I was a little resistant to get her back on it only because the 300 mg pills completely knock her out – I routinely have to check her breathing throughout the day to make sure she’s still alive! We dropped her down to 200 mg, which seems to be helping a little more. She is back to sleeping most of the day, but she is still able to get up and go outside for extended walks. It was difficult to even get her out of bed when she was taking the 300 mg dose.

She is still getting Carprofen (anti-inflamatory) 2x’s per day, in addition to CBD oil and the Dasaquin joint supplement. I am hoping that this magic combination will help her feel better and recover comfortably. Fortunately we have not seen any negative side effects of the chemotherapy, so I am very fortunate for that.

Chemo and rehab visit #2 next Wednesday, so we’ll have another update then!

Akeela and Sabreezle, enjoying our spring views <3