King is home. He’s totally zonked on tramadol, and was drinking water like mad, partly because of nerves and partly because the tramadol. He hadn’t eaten before I brought him home, which might also be due to the tramadol. I need to give him his next dose soon, so I hope he’s in the mood for a little cheese. Otherwise, I will have to toss pills down his throat and I hate doing that.
I hate tramadol. It seems to be the pain reliever of choice for dogs, but it upsets King’s stomach and whoozies him out. The dose I gave him for his arthritis was bad enough, but this dose is 2x larger and more frequent. The surgeon said I can taper it fairly quickly and I think I will. I’m not sure it’s helping if King keeps burping and refusing to eat.
King rode home in Kuro’s hatchback, which was a first. But it had more room than the backseat, as well as a more stable ledge for support of the ramp I bought a few years ago to use if/when he could no longer jump onto the backseat. King doesn’t like the ramp, and has refused to use it in the past. But today he really wanted out of the car, and he wobbled down while I supported him from the side. I was prepared to ask my neighbor to help lift him out, but I’m glad it worked out this way. Didn’t have to grab him around his belly.
He’ll have to wear the cone for the next couple of weeks. He and Gaby can’t play.
He’s sleeping now. He ate a couple of nibbles of hamburger meat. A few hypoallergenic biscuits. He refused everything else. I will try a little rice with broth later.
Biopsy results early next week.
On the discharge summary, the surgeon wrote that he’s “an outstanding boy!”
I know.
We use tramadol because it is inexpensive even for large dogs, and it remains uncontrolled in most states. The human abuse potential is a lot lower than other options, although it does happen. However, if King doesn’t tolerate it very well, there are many other options–don’t be afraid to ask your regular vet about them.
I am glad that he’s home where he can be waited on tail and foot!
I am going to ask tomorrow. I am sure that King is sore, and I don’t want him to go without a painkiller, but he and tramadol just don’t seem to be friends.
I also realize he’s still recovering from major surgery and that because he’s older, that will take longer, too.
Multi-modal pain management is the bomb. In addition to whatever narcotics he is prescribed, you might also consider non-medication based techniques. For example, one of the simplest is hot/cold therapy for the incision site.
Thanks. I am keeping an eye on him, and he doesn’t seem to be uncomfortable at this point. He does seem to be exhausted. Sleeping a lot.
How does the hot/cold work? Like for muscles, 10 to 30 minutes alternating heat/cold?
I phoned my vet this morning. One of King’s issues was the feeding, of course–tramadol upsets his tum, so he doesn’t eat, so his tum gets more upset. Vet suggested bland diet/cooked chicken breast. I ran out and bought some chicken, and served King a good handful of diced meat with rice. He ate it. I also gave him a 10mg famotidine to settle his possible acid stomach. In another hour or two, I will try to feed him again.
Excellent news! Gotta have energy to heal
Basically, cold to reduce swelling and heat to increase blood flow to the site and promote healing. Cold is more important in immediate post-op period (bag of frozen peas in a towel works), while heat is more important in the days afterward (hot wet towel in plastic baggie works or a nuked rice pillow). 10-15 minutes 2-3x/day. If the incision site doesn’t look swollen, I would probably go with the heat at this point.