POD#5 - turning a corner

Wilbur seems to be doing a lot better. He seems more full of energy and generally a little happier. We've been trying to take him out for a few short walks a day (one block or less) to get some movement over his shoulder joint and to get his brain stimulated with the outside smells. He gets SO excited for his walks and stays excited for a few minutes when we get home. These pics are of him post walk - tongue-lolling, head on bed with beautiful, big, brown begging eyes and finally a few of his peek-a-boo staples. The staples come out on POD#14.

POD#4

Wilbur's pretty much the same as yesterday. We went out again - this time to Safeway. Apparently the fringes of the Safeway parking lot are a treasure trove of disgusting bits of trash which are heavenly to Wilbur. He really enjoyed exploring the parking lot. Now he's busy resting. We will post again tomorrow.

POD#3

Wilbur and I ran a few errands today. He looks ridiculously cute with his cone head smooshed between the seats. I'm still not sure how he got from the 'way back' into the back seat. It must have been pretty entertaining for the random passersby who happened upon the scene.

Here's a video of him in the yard, so you can see that he's managing fairly well.

POD #2

POD is "post op day" shorthand.
Wilbur's a little more sore than he was yesterday but still getting around. We're all going to have a quiet night. Here are a few pics from around the yard at dinner time.

Wibur had a good night

As far as I can tell, Wilbur slept pretty well. I guess big doses of narcotic have their benefits. He wasn't restless, and only needed to reposition himself a few times. I can't imagine how uncomfortable it must be to have to sleep with a plastic cone on your head - poor guy. I'm off to work, but Quinn or I will post later with more pics.

Homecoming #3 . . . continued curse of the cone

Wilbur's home again. He's back to limping from loafing spot to loafing spot. Although he's clearly in more pain today than he was yesterday, he still looks way better than that very first time we brought him home.

He's now on Keflex (antibiotics) 1g twice a day, tramadol (narcotic) twice a day, and meticam (meloxicam - anti-inflammatory) once a day. He had been off meds completely.

He's able to get down the stairs by himself, but he's back to moving more slowly in general.
When we took him into the yard after dinner he took the longest pee I've ever seen a dog take. It was reminiscent of the Austin Powers scene only longer. I'm guessing they took his catheter out but left the IV in . . . his fluid balance was a little off.

So we're back to daily progress posts, feel free to check back.

Blog back on - broken shoulder

Well crappy news. . . Quinn took Wilbur to the ortho yesterday to check out his R shoulder since he still hadn't been using it very much. It turns out he has an articular scapular fracture and superscapular nerve damage. They took him to the OR yesterday afternoon and were in there for several hours. Because the leg's been healing for four weeks, everything was pretty well stuck down and it was a pretty tough surgery. They put in one pin, but they're not sure in the long run whether that will make a difference. He will definitely end up with some pretty bad arthritis in that leg.

He's still in the hospital, and he did well with the surgery. They think we'll be able to pick him up tonight.

We will try to post pics later.