osteomyelitis – Page 3 – The Ongoing Adventures of Sheba

Happy Fourth of July! (Tripawd Day 4)

***UPDATE 7/5: Fireworks didn’t stop til 2am ish. Sheba and Buster both tried to get under my twin bed. Sheba ended up ON my bed and stayed there for hours. We’re still trying to sleep it off. ***

Happy 4th of July to the Tripawds Community! And a very special thank you to the men, women, and pups in the Armed Forces who set their own lives aside so we can live ours!

Its surprisingly quiet right now, but I doubt it will last. I love my local first responders, I really do, and I know the job SUCKS sometimes (which is why I don’t do it anymore)! But if you, as a department, say you’re going to enforce the fireworks ban, at least ACT like you’re freaking trying! Patrol, be more visible, SOMETHING!

Sheba and I spent most of the day sleeping. Her fentanyl patch is wearing off so I started supplement with Tramadol (as directed by my vet, of course!). We’re not yet back up to full pre-op dose, but I expect we will be tomorrow. New patch goes on Wednesday if we still feel we need it. We have a visit with the surgeon anyway. There’s a reddened area on Sheba’s underbelly on the side facing the good leg. It looks like either REALLY bad razor burn (they shaved over a spot that have been shaved for ultrasound a few days before) or some blood pooling from surgery. Since she has VERY sensitive skin I’m apt to believe its just razor burn and since there’s no sign of infection the tech said we could wait til Wednesday.

Excitement of the day: we’re eating normal again! Sheba is now eating normal amounts of food and she’s not spitting her kibbles out any more! She seems to have gotten the hang peeing, though we do have to support her a bit using the harness so she can keep her balance. Poop by the end of the week, maybe?

what is this sleep thing and why hooman need so much?! (Grandma catches Cynthia and Sheba sleeping but isn’t sneaky enough to snap a pic without Sheba waking up!)

I came back from putting my dishes away and Sheba looked at me like we'd had an earthquake! Who knows, its CA, maybe we did — I came back from putting my dishes away and Sheba looked at me like we’d had an earthquake! Who knows, its CA, maybe we did

Tripawd Day 3

I work 6 hours on Sundays, which means 8 hours away from home. Let me tell you, I have never been so happy to go to work! The fireworks were horrible last night and the only way to keep Sheba quite was to hang out with her in my room, which is not set up for her aside from a bed. In grandma’s room her bed is enclosed in a pen. In my room its just pushed into a corner. Fortunately, once she got comfortable she didn’t get up again except to readjust a few times. So I got to sleep in my own bed until 3 am meds, then we moved back to grandma’s room for some more solid zzz’s. Not much else to report, two more weeks of sleep deprivation to go!

Tripawd Day 2

Last night was Sheba’s first night home. Since I’ve got school and work all week my aunt and I agreed that I’d sleep with Sheba and be on “duty” at her bedside during the day today. The neighborhood (illegal) fireworks that lasted all night didn’t help her anxiety and she was restless until I was finally able to restart her on trazodone around 1am. She keeps staring at her incision and flexing her muscles like she’s trying to find her leg. Hoping the gabapentin will help with that. She finally ate this morning, but only the chicken, not kibbles. towards the end I had to pick out the remaining chicken pieces for her because she’s too drugged to pick around the kibbles.

Mostly slept today, but she did get up enough times for us to get her Webmaster harness on, adjusted, and then attached the brush guard. I really wish we had been able to fit it prior to surgery but the first harness was too small so the replacement didn’t come in until the afternoon of surgery. But yay for Amazon Prime and free next day shipping! Fortunately, Sheba seems to be ok with this harness, we were worried she’d protest because its bigger than her previous walking harness (looks like a harness a lot of the front-leg tripawds use). So far she hasn’t had any side effects from the antibiotic or antifungal. Hopefully that continues to go well.

Tripawd Day 1

Sheba came home today!

Ruth went and picked her up around noon. Our vet’s office is specialists during the day and emergency at night. the poor emergency vet, not realizing Sheba is tolerant to sedatives, was concerned with the doses the surgeon was ordering. While she was heavily sedated, Sheba remained wired all night. Everyone decided it’d be better for her to come home. Good thing we’ve got human medical experience and aren’t afraid of scary incisions and round-the-clock meds!

Our neighbor was kind enough to drive up to Fremont with my aunt (I was working). He lost his furbaby to osteosarcoma a while back and didn’t want poor Sheebs to ride in the back seat alone. Once settled in, Sheba slept next to our neighbor the whole way home. A bit fussy when moved from car to house, she’s been sleeping all afternoon, aside from meds and a bit of heavy drinking (WATER, of course!). She has refused dinner, the surgeon said that’s to be expected, but we’ve really got to push food tomorrow because the antifungal has to be taken on a full stomach. Aside from regular meds, our surgeon prescribed cefpodoxime (an antibiotic) and itraconazole (an antifungal). When the fungal ID and susceptibility comes in we’ll switch antifungals if warranted. The surgeon highlighted “gastrointestinal upset – call if it occurs”….WTF, Sheebs just recovered from stress colitis, lets just upset her guts some more?! Poor babe. I’m hoping she figures out how to poop real quick!

My poor naked baby is cold, she’s never cold! Darn doc even shaved her tail!

right after coming home from the penitentiary