To update those who came in late….
This week Nolan had to have a tumour removed from his foot. It was a benign tumour, which had grown into one of the pads on his foot, and round the bones of one toe, and out the top, where it ulcerated. The vet had to remove the affected toe.
I consider this to be a fairly major operation…I know if I had a toe amputated, I’d be a cot case, and carry on no end. Nolan on the other hand, once he’d recovered from his anaesthetic, came home, and acted as though he was wondering what all the fuss was about. He didn’t even limp! As long as he still got his regular meals, and people were nice to him, he was happy…. I must admit, I think if I poked his foot he might have jumped a bit….
Of course once he had the dressing and bandages removed he got a bit enthusiastic about wanting to wash it, and as a preventative I put his elizabethan collar on. This of course has caused its own set of problems, because it’s hard for him to get used to it; but he carries on regardless. He finds it difficult to manoeuvre at times, and I have to insist on certain routes through the house and yard; at times I actually have to push him back because he won’t fit with the collar on, so he can go a different way. He will walk up the hall, decide to turn round, and get stuck, so I have to get him to do a “three point turn” so he can go where he wanted to. He keeps bumping into my legs with his collar, and I’m sure I’ll end up with endless bruises from it….but I’m counting down the days to when it can come off…
I’ve been touched by the number of people who have rung here or whom I have seen down the street, who have asked me how he is. One lady actually came to the house to visit him! He really is a loved dog. One lady suggested I bring him to church with me today if I was worried about leaving him alone. I didn’t have to….he’d got over his clinginess, and had settled back into his attitude of oh well Mum is going out, Mum will be back, I’ll just have a snooze. I also knew he wouldn’t do anything to his stitches….the collar sees to that.
I am truly amazed at how well he has done, and continues to do. There is always a risk with an anaesthetic, particularly to older animals….but Nolan has just bounced back. He must have a fantastic constitution. It will be another week or so before his stitches come out, but I am confident there will be no major glitches.
Around the same time that Nolan started having his adventures, I got an email from my elder daughter. Where she lives, there are several dogs, and she has “inherited” the task of caring for them. (I think it’s a case of like mother like daughter…) One of the dogs she cares for is Daisy, Gypsy’s older half sister; around the same size, but less like a toilet brush. She also had a tumour, in fact this is the second one she’s had recently. It also had to come out …it was benign but causing problems. A big problem was that the vet had developed Parkinsons Disease, which made operating particularly difficult for him, so he would “save up” his surgical procedures, and get another vet to come and do it all for him. So it happened poor Daisy had to wait almost to the end of the day before it was her turn in the operating theatre….and she hadn’t had anything to eat since the night before! By the morning after the procedure she was ravenous! The staff gave her some breakfast before she was picked up to come home, but that wasn’t enough; when she arrived home she went through her starvation routine, and Julie gave her some breakfast. Daisy is normally only fed once a day, but Julie felt very sorry for her, thinking she hadn’t had anything to eat for something like 36 hours. Daisy of course was delighted with two breakfasts…she was simply making up for lost time…
Like Nolan she has recovered well. Julie said the only time there is a problem is if someone actually bumps her on the wound site….
I decided long ago that animals in general cope with medical problems much better than we humans…they have no hang ups, and just get on with getting better!
Mamaroo's Diary 