Day 2 - almost back to normal

Hershey got more and more back to her good old self in the evening but was very sleepy and rested for most of the night. She was able to regain her appetite and apparently she was dehydrated because she kept drinking long drinks of water. I had read about bloat when the dog takes in too much air when drinking, so I raised the water bowl by putting it on an inverted bin - it has helped reduced the air intake and also her sloppiness. She had to go outside fairly often too - her system must have been turned all upside down - if I ate only two meals a day and had missed one, I would be too.

I let her out a few times at night and she slept through the night okay I think. I woke her at 6 am (as I got up myself) and gave her half of her breakfast. She then went back to bed until 8 am when we got up for good, had more breakfast and a short walk around the block.

She's still slower than normal but she's now interested in her toys again, and will gobble up any food I give her.

Giving her the medication has been very easy, I used the pill-in-cheese trick and she doesn't even realize she's taking it. I also had to give her a squirt of pain-killer yesterday in her mouth; I did this immediately after a small portion of dinner and the cheese. Apparently it tastes sweet but the delivery method is strange; anyhow, it wasn't a problem at all.

One other thing that the vet has had me do is put a little bootie (a heavy plastic bag with string) on her foot if she's going out to pee or walk in moist grass. I haven't had a problem putting it on, and she walks with it on alright, however she does look awful funny and it makes a strange noise as she scrapes it on the ground while on our concrete steps. And once, when I didn't take it off when we went inside right away, she sat down to have a good scratch of her ear - she certainly looked shocked to find a puffy bag instead of her itch-relieving claws! I can't help but laugh, but of course I do fell bad for her too!

I did consider letting her sleep in our room or having both of us sleep on the living room couches last nigh, but figured it would be better to simply have her sleep in her crate as though everything were normal. I think that was the right decision and it'll take her mind off the fact that something strange occurred. She did try to nibble at her foot bandage; so I put some electrical tape where the pad was not covered by the wristband thing - it looks more secure now, she's less likely to chew on the tape and it'll keep her bandage dry too. Her tummy scar is healing nicely too - where it was reddish yesterday, it is now normal coloured and the skin is obviously healing. It feels funny to find normal skin under all the fur - a fairly large area was shaved for the operation, hopefully it won't be itchy as it grows back.

We're going to take it easy today too; I will leave her alone for a while as I have an appointment this morning, but be back for the lunch hour. She'll likely come with me to a meeting I have this afternoon for an hour or two and then we'll be back home for the rest of the day. But at the rate things are going she'll likely be 100% normal by Monday!