Poor Alvin! After sleeping well last night, I woke up to find that he had urinated all over his bed and himself and was laying in his own urine. He was clearly in pain because he was afraid to move and would stand in place while crying his little heart out. I knew he was really hurting when I couldn't entice him to move with a trail of kibble. I ended up at an emergency hospital with him and he was given stronger pain meds, an anti-inflammatory, and a sedative because he was getting himself worked up. That really did the trick because he is so much more comfortable now and is resting very comfortably. They did literally staple a fentayl patch to his back in four places. As in, literal staples. That guy has to hate me at this point.
I had to take his bed out to wash and dry it, which caused him great distress. He is very attached to one particular bed and he wouldn't get in the other 20 (there was a sale) that I had to offer him. Luckily, when he got stronger pain meds he was able to get in one of the beds and is sound asleep. I have his favorite bed waiting for him when he goes out to go to the bathroom and will put it in his pen then.
It has been very interesting to see the reaction of Stevie and Timmie. When Alvin was crying today, Timmie alternated between pawing at the pen and wanting in, to shaking and wanting me to hold him like a baby. Last night Timmie and Stevie took turns sleeping outside the door of Alvin's pen. They seem over it now but I was able to get a couple of videos of them doing it last night, which I will post later.
Alvin is finding the cone on his head to be a major adjustment. If he rubs against something, he convinces himself that he is stuck and will stay in the same position until I come "free" him. He seems to think he is blind with it on and when he is turned away from me and I call him, he won't turn towards me. It seems to have messed up his sense of balance because he teeters and totters with it on and tries to shake it off. Having Alvin with a cone is just a whole other can of worms.
He is running a fever and the vet asked me to take his temperature every few hours. Ummm, really? Because it took two of them to do it today. Apparently at the surgeon's office Alvin acted totally different and the surgeon told me that he is a normal dog that let them hold him and pet him. At the ER today, Alvin acted much more himself and they saw the unique challenges for him because one can't pet him to comfort him and picking him up results in him thrashing. It is odd because Alvin can act very normal for short periods of time and it is always with strangers. I see the signs of stress for him, such as vigorously wagging his tail but they of course see it as a friendly, relaxed gesture. It was a bit frustrating to try to make the staff at the first hospital understand his challenges when they were seeing none of it.
His odd mouth issues have come back. I put his pill in a piece of hot dog and he simply couldn't figure out how to chew it. It kept popping back out of his mouth to the point that I had to take it away and give him his pill in melted cheese, which he still had difficulty with. For those of you who have read from the beginning, he had a very difficult time chewing and even getting in to his mouth nearly anything that was given to him by hand. We have overcome a great deal of those challenges but they are right back. Alvin tends to go back to mouth problems when stressed out, but even melted cheese?
Whatever the case, it is so good to see him resting comfortably. We have been put through the ringer in the past 48 hours. We left for Monterey at 5:30 AM on Friday. I drove back home that day, only to turn around and do the drive again the next day, but only after taking both Timmie and Maddie to the vet where Maddie proceeded to throw up and defecate all over her carrier in the car (car sickness). Timmie has bad lungs and they are progressively getting worse. He also has something suspicious on his butt and near his penis. He is on some medications to see if those work and if not, it off for biopsies of his lungs, butt, and penis. Maddie just has a little ear infection. After going through that, I went to pick up Alvin and after very little sleep last night and him crying today, we were off to the vet hospital. I will really be okay if I don't see the inside of a vet's office for a few days.
Alvin's knees do look great! They look like totally different knees.
When I got out the leash to take him to the ER today, he tried his best to run from me. I think I may have just created an agoraphobic dog because he wants nothing to do with anything outside of this house. I imagine he wants nothing to do with me but since I am the provider of the kibble, he is stuck with me.
I will keep you all updated and I am optimistic that the worst is over......right? Please tell me the worst is over because this just isn't our idea of fun.
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