We’ve been lucky so far with a minimum of complications, so now that we’re facing a bit of a setback, we’re trying our best not to get too frustrated.
Aspen had her two-week check-up with the surgeon today, and we felt uneasy going in due to the following issue.
For most of her recovery, Aspen hardly paid any attention to the incision. She still wore a cone whenever she was unsupervised, but she rarely was rare as my wife or I were with her most of the time – I was lucky enough to have 3 weeks of vacation left to spend from last year. When we were with her, she got a reprieve from the cone and simply wore a t-shirt to cover the incision.
Unfortunately, we got lulled into a false sense of security. It took us far too long to realize that over the past 2-3 days, Aspen had become very interested in the incision. She’s as sneaky and stubborn as they come, and kept licking the area very quietly and discreetly until the t-shirt was left thoroughly soaked. Although the incision stayed closed, the area she seemed to focus on was red, puffy, and raw-looking.
At today’s exam, the surgeon was concerned that an infection could flare up, so for the next ten days Aspen will be a conehead at all times. She’s also back on antibiotics for a week. We truly love having a big dog like Aspen …except when her size means that each twice-daily dose of antibiotics consists of four huge capsules that she somehow detects (and refuses) no matter what kind of delicious/stinky food we try to hide them in! Finally, they stapled not only the irritated area, but the entire length of the incision (originally she only had stitches.) She seemed to be in quite a bit of discomfort/pain from that for the rest of the day.
So today was kind of a bummer, but that’s how it goes.
So sorry to hear that, what a total bummer. Yeah, they can be so sneaky when it comes to incisions. The cone of shame is no fun for anyone. Hope the incision heals quickly without any issues.
P.S. Try giving her the pills in pieces of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It seems to be working for other members this week!
My dog is very hard to give pills. I am one of the members Jerry mentioned above. PB sandwich pockets have been working great for us. I take 1/3 to a half slice of bread, slather pb on it, put the pills in the center, and fold the bread over. Then I smoosh around the edges to seal it. If we are doing a few pills I may drop an extra dollop of pb onto the pills before folding. Lastly, put some PB somewhere on the outside. My dog usually will start by licking the outside edge. Then he will grab the whole piece and gulp it down. Good luck!!
By any chance have you heard of these? A friend uses them and to be double safe she slathers it with liverwurst or cheese or something your dog luvs:-)
https://www.pillstashios.com/
Hang in there 🤗
Thanks for the suggestions, we’ll definitely give them a try! The difficult part is to “trick” her the same way more than once or twice. It’s almost like a sci-fi movie where the enemy robots constantly adapt to the way you attack them and won’t be fooled anymore.
Cheese. Try shoving the pills in cheese. Give some “normal” pieces in between the “loaded” pieces. Hopefully she will get so excited about chunks of cheese she will swallow some whole.
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