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Barmy Blue's Bland Blog

She's Back

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Well She survived the surgery. Now she needs to survive the recovery.
I was semi-violently gardening yesterday and got scratched up pretty good by thorns. The climbing rose has been out of control for a few years but it was too hard to cut back. But the neighbors have cut back their plants that it was tangled in so now i can have a go at it. I did it yesterday because I wouldn't want to do it after today if it didn't go well. And it needs to be done because it's affecting the house. I felt my middle fingertip go a bit numb. It was practically dark while I was finishing clearing up. Turns out I had a little thorn in there. I got it out when I came inside but my finger still hurts. I can't put pressure on my middle finger. It's surprising how much you rely on one part of your body and don't notice until you can't use it. In truth I actually can use it. It just hurts a bit. I know what you're thinking. How did you type all that yesterday? I worked around it.
I only had maybe 3 hours or so sleep. After writing my feelings up I had the sudden flash of inspiration. I want a cast of her paws. I tried a couple of years ago but it didn't work out and she was uncooperative so in the end the extra salt dough was in the fridge so long I decided to get rid of it and didn't try again. I'd need mum to help handle the dog and they didn't come out very well so I threw them away. We don't shave between her paw pads, she's sensitive about her paws, so the impression doesn't come out clearly to begin with. So at maybe 1am-ish I decided to do it again because I might never get to do it again. I'd eaten half my stone cold dinner (I did the same thing I've done today, do dinner then type THEN eat) got to making the dough and after we were done I heated it and finished eating it.
The dough seemed fine. I used flour that went out of date in 2014 but aside from that it seemed good. She was laying on her back so perfect for paws if I press it in. I had mum help soothe/keep an eye on her so she wouldn't bite me for disturbing her. I had several failures which I won't bore you with. I ended up with 4 paws I was satisfied enough with. One is stuck to the paper (like the first ones I tried) I remembered that as I was scooping the failed/just not quite good enough/could do better prints off of the baking paper. I dusted it with flour for the later ones and they've come off nicely. I hope it doesn't affect their longevity though. Then I had to stay up for 3 hours to bake them. I had a nap in the chair but it was uncomfortable.
So. We took Yuki in for her surgery. According to the vet she's lost more weight (no surprise with the age and the tooth pain) but she seemed surprised. That didn't inspire confidence. Not in the vet, we have full confidence but she can't fight nature. She tells us it's a maybe 85% risk. The "exploded" gum is worse too. A cat went in before us and didn't come out so it was to be operated on too (I asked later, she said it was okay too. There was a cat in there last time too, on a drip). Mum filled in a consent form while we were in the other room. We took her to the back and put her in the cage like last time. We're both upset but not bawling our eyes out uncontrollably (you need to hold those things in because the vet has stuff to be doing. But it's not worth bawling your eyes out until it actually goes wrong anyway) and we came home.
Mum set to cleaning up the pee yui did this morning (mum stayed up while I went to bed but took Yui out a bit too late because she wanted to take her out at normal kind of time so she might get to see a friend or two before everything and all). Then she kept busy hoovering stuff and things. I, unhelpfully, occupied myself buy letting my game console update (I don't turn it on often, usually to update then have a little play while I'm there) then decided to justify having turned it on by playing Untitled Goose Game (the goose from yesterday inspired me) because it's a nice calm game where you can just mess around with limited goals (you can do the goals if you want but they're not required to have fun). Then the vet called while mum was upstairs so I had to answer. 3 hours sleep and I'm not super great at getting information from the vet over the phone at the best of times (I don't think I ask the right questions for example). Yuki survived and is doing as well as can be expected and can be picked up later (I was a bit confused by that and thought we might call to see if we can get her then or if she was ready for pickup. She was ready for pickup, I wasn't thinking clearly) and relayed it as best I could to mum. Then I carried on playing the game. Had a bit of breakfast at last (I wasn't sure if I'd go for a nap or not. I didn't because I was into the game and because I wouldn't be able to sleep well anyway but I didn't want to eat if I was going to go to bed for a nap).
Mum nipped out to get thank you gifts for the vet and some more dangle meat for the dog and then we went to get her.
13 teeth out and a hole where the "exploded" gum was, it couldn't be salvaged. So we have to irrigate it with salt water (mum didn't hear the salt bit but I'm sure it is salt water) after she eats. She was on strong painkillers (equivalent to morphine for dogs) and she'll have antibiotics from tomorrow and we still have the painkiller for after. She was covered in blood laying on the floor (her gums were bleeding on and off). She didn't want to stand but didn't actually want to sit either but she just couldn't hold herself up. Getting her out to the car was insane. She wouldn't move and in the end (as we struggled along, mum pulling from the front and me trying to hold up the back and push, we got her a bit of the way along but not far, the vet came out to assist). The trick is to get her going and not let her stop and once we were moving the vet went back and we carried on with mostly success. We got her in the front so I had to sit in the back and getting her out was just as fun, her legs were under her and she ended up half falling out, half being held. We got her out nd inside and settled and I went to bed for 4 or so hours.
She's had a little food now and I need to take her out to see if she wants to pee again before I settle down to eat my, now stone cold, dinner. Bye.

*Update*
Well she's been a bit livelier today, understandably. Mum gave her her first antibiotic (the vet would've given her one yesterday I assume) and the yogurt I got. It went out of date on the 18th but it was in the fridge the whole time and unopened and mum checked it and it seemed good to her (and she would know, goat yogurt is part of her daily breakfast) did I tell you why I got yogurt? I think I did. She tried her on a little bit because she's never had yogurt before but opted to crush the pill (it's a big pill she tells me), wet a slice of dangle meat (yes I like calling it that) and sort of dip it in so it stuck to the wet meat. She started taking it, realized it was different and stopped but eventually took it anyway and while mum was away she finished the sample of yogurt. It states that it's good for 3 days but I doubt she'll eat all of it so mum will finish it off if need be. I don't actually like yogurt. I don't like the sour taste which is hilarious since I'm giving occasional fermented yogurts a go to see if it improves my digestive health. I have maybe a day or so on and a day off because I suspect I'm lactose intolerant so flooding myself with dairy is not a smart idea. Anyway. I'll save the ins and outs of my digestive system for another time.
She's been brighter today. Yesterday she kept turning her head away and only seemed to lay on the bad side (where the "exploded" gum was) so we couldn't get a good look at it. We're supposed to flush it after she eats. I thought it was a hole, like a kind of pocket like thing sort of but I've got a better look today when she was reaching for some dangle meat and I think a better description is a dip maybe. Which is great if that's the case because she's very sensitive about it, understandably, so won't let us hold her and inject the water. We have a syringe for the painkiller so the vet said we could use that but today we've made a change I'll tell you later. It's a syringe but no needle of course. But since she won't let us get in there we kind of tried to sort of shoot it at the area in question and reward her with dangle meat after. For now we're mainly looking to get her used to the idea because this is it now, we HAVE to do this every time she eats or she could get infected. I'm hoping she'll get used to it fast so we can do a better job and ensure it's clean.
This morning when I got up I noticed she was laying on the better side so the bad one was exposed and thought how perfect that position would be for flushing. Then she moved to the door and lay on the bad side again. She still has some teeth. The vet said ideally they should all be out but she just took the REALLY bad ones and that we MUST clean the teeth she has. Last time she had surgery for the lump removal she cleaned her teeth and took a couple of rotten ones but couldn't do them all and we were supposed to clean her teeth but I didn't. At first I didn't want to mess with her after surgery and after that it was a combination of laziness and the dog being uncooperative and then things carried on downhill until we got to this point. Again I'm not doing her teeth yet. I think my concerns right now are justified. She JUST had surgery. But yes I'm going to need to actually do the work this time because I doubt we'll be so lucky next time. (the vet said before it that huskies and German shepherds are more tricky with anesthesia. So that wasn't worrying at all . Anyway)
She dripped blood in the car on the way home because her mouth was bleeding. We kept shuffling some tissues round when she moved to catch it and she had her paw pressed into mum's leg for stability while I was limited in the back. Mum put her yoga mat (yes she has one. It's a thick one and I fold it up and put it behind the seat so she's cushioned when she jumps up. She's stumbled getting in and there are hard things in a car and she's an old lady now. So when she does stumble at least it's soft and it gives her a better footing to jump up onto the back seat) on the seat for cushioning and for wipe clean after. Mum's on blood thinners which, aside from making cuts bleed more, can cause more/heavier bruising so it'll be interesting to see if she gets a paw bruise. For turns and bumps I had to lean right over and try to hook my hand round Yui's shoulder to steady her because she wasn't secured at all. I had to adjust my seatbelt a bit oddly to start with but leaning like that rather negated the purpose of the seatbelt I think.
I said she's been brighter today. Mum needed to go the the pharmacy and run some errands and while she was there she planned to get a syringe so we could have one for painkiller and one for water and I requested a thermometer if possible because we've never had one and it feels like we should for emergencies. If nothing else we can see if the dog has a fever in the future. She got them. Yuki was sleeping by the door so she was waiting for me to take her out (we aim for about 4 or so hours between walks to build up pee but not to much that she goes in the house). So we decided to go out together. Last time that happened we followed her to the pharmacy, dog's choice. Today she did the same thing. When mum went in she didn't notice at first. But she stopped and sniffed then looked round and looked so confused why mum wasn't there. Aren't I good enough for you dog?
Later we fed her, gave her the painkiller (it has to be in food) and I had come up with a plan. Try, as best as we can, to wrap her in a towel. Wear my head light, maybe cover her eyes a bit so she's not blinded, have one of us get her in a sort of headlock and hold her snout and the other goes in with the syringe. It kind of worked. We forgot the light. i wrapped her but it's mostly her head I focused on, covered her eyes and mum syringed. She got snappy again but the towel stayed on long enough for me to adjust it each time and even though she was unhappy with the whole thing I think it went better than yesterday. Mum's not sure if she aimed right but I think she got close at least and we rewarded her with dangle meat quickly so hopefully we'll get better at it. Because of the towel I felt safer handling her. Without it I'd have backed off then been hesitant and it would've been a lot of fuss where we all just got annoyed. So yeah. Towel is a better option.
She's been a bit whiny today. She was whiny since we got her yesterday, but that's all understandable. Of course she's still uncomfortable. But yeah, she's seeming more like her old self today which is really nice to see. She does seem a bit weak on her back legs though, kind of squats a bit when she's standing but hopefully it'll go away when she's recovered, a little exercise might help. I wonder did she always do that and I just didn't notice, she is old after all.

In other news the foxes have been making noise (I hear them running down the side of the house) and we saw one of the babies out front tonight. I don't like that. Out front is dangerous and they're still small but they're pretty independent so I probably don't need to worry. I put some food out back to keep them occupied where it's safe. I think they're weaned, they're eating solids very eagerly.
I worried that that troublesome goose might be a harbinger of doom as it was such an odd thing. I've never seen a goose in the streets before and I've lived here my whole life, admittedly I don't get out much but still. But the goose did inspire me to have a family river walk and play Goose Game while we waited so maybe it was some kind of blessing goose. More likely it was just a normal goose though.
Also the vet trimmed her dew claws. I did need to do that. The one I trimmed was still a bit long but i didn't know how short to cut it and the internet says not to go too far the first time until they're used to it. I think she's a bit mad at us for all this. Well, I would be mad at someone for letting all this happen to their dog so I don't see why she wouldn't be a bit annoyed, since she has to try and clean up our mess.

And you may wonder sometimes is it Yui or Yuki and did I make a mistake sometimes? Usually no. It is Yuki but Yui is one of her many nicknames and it saves time and space to write Yui and if there's one thing my blogs need it's a lower character count

Updated 04-23-2022 at 09:08 PM by Bluebiird

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Comments

  1. Danik 2016's Avatar
    Congrats! It seems everything went as well as possible!
    Wishing Yuki a good and fast recovery!
    And if you can, now the worst part seems to be over, try to get some more sleep and eat well!