Day 4 begins with a very cold/wet trip outside!
I can laugh about this now, but at the time? Not so much!
At midnight, I heard him get up and went to check on him. He was heading to his dog door which is blocked, but it told me he probably needed to go outside again. For future reference, in situations like this, keep all the necessary items, leash, sling, shoes (headlamp- wish I had one now!) BY THE DOOR. I’m running around all sleepy and out of it grabbing stuff while he is looking more desperate by the minute. We get onto the deck and he refuses to go down the steps into the yard. Not surprising after his earlier nose dive. He wants to go down the front stairs. Ok, that’s where the hated ramp is, but there are bushes on my walkway he pees on so down the ramp we go. He managed it the best he ever has and I took him over to a bush which he promptly walked past and BOOKED it across my neighbor’s driveway, into the street heading for the grassy common area next to her house where we have been going for potty walks prior to surgery. Now, it’s not that far under normal circumstances, but way farther than he has gone since surgery and farther than he is supposed to go. During his frantic flight to get there, I hear- wait for it- SPRINKLERS. Yes, the whole area was being watered at midnight. He was clearly planning on going all the way in, but I stopped him on the periphery where he promptly managed to get himself under a juniper bush and peed like a racehorse. His legs were giving out, but I couldn’t get under there to support him without getting wet. So, I got wet. Basically squatted on a sprinkle head. A very cold bidet if you will. 
Now, I don’t know if any of you sleep in rain gear, but I don’t! I had on flip flops, sleep shorts and a tank top AND NOTHING ELSE. There was enough light from the street light on my court to see thankfully. Also, enough light to see ME if any of my neighbors heard me curse when I saw the sprinklers, curse when I got wet, or when I said encouraging baby talk to Fionn to get him back home. After he peed, he wanted to head into the sprinklers again, but I dragged him over to my neighbor’s front yard where he had a HUGE poop. He pooped again in the middle of the court on our way back to the house. He wanted to quit right there in the street which forced me to almost carry him by the sling and his collar back UP the ramp and into the house. I grabbed a bag and went back out to collect his deposits. I was wet, it was cold, but I felt the relief that he must have felt. He managed not to get his incision wet thankfully, but his butt, like mine, was soaked. We both dried off and tried to sleep. He was restless and up and down until around 6 am. Seemed to be tummy trouble because he was licking and swallowing a lot. He has meds for that and I also tossed in a pepto tablet just for the heck of it. Thankfully, he eats up his pills easily with peanut butter or pumpkin.
He’s been soundly sleeping since 6 am with ice packs on his incision.
It’s hard to keep them on a curving body part so I had to get creative :). He rolled over onto his incision after a bit so I was able to massage his front and back legs. I figured his rather long walk/run last night may have tasked his muscles a bit. He’s got more swelling and bruising. Maybe working on a seroma, but nothing too terrible.
He has a “dangly” bit that hangs below the incision when he is standing which looks like edema. I’ll try to get a shot of that next time he’s upright (that may take awhile since he’s rarely upright). He got up and ate and drank like a champ and hopped to the front door, but is uninterested in going outside so he’s laying by the screen. It’s been FOURTEEN hours since he last pooped or peed, but I am learning that when he needs to go he will tell me before he explodes. Patience grasshopper/mom.
So my patience wore thin I have to tell you. After he ate, he laid by the door for another THIRTEEN hours! He was just so out of it. I tried any number of times to encourage him to get up to no avail. He got up once and I wanted to try a support under his front leg and chest before he went out (I assumed he wanted to go out). I had him sit and lifted his paw while holding him up to put a sling up his leg. He yelped really loud and collapsed. I felt terrible, but I have no idea why it hurt him. He stayed there for the rest of the night. I did bring him water and I reduced his tramadol from 150mg to 100mg for his afternoon and nighttime dose to see if he would wake up more. I eventually went to bed around midnight.
Check out Day 5 for a report on our difficult night 🙁
