The Big Snip Part 2
Adding a Shmoo to the family has proven more time consuming and complicated than previously thought. Although I knew that we were a family of basically calm, boring people and dog, I hadn't realized quite HOW calm our life was pre-Shmoo.
Don't get me wrong, he is indeed a lovely boy. But he needs energy and attention and the three of us are learning how best to accommodate that need so that everyone is happy.
The "big snip" complicated matters more than we had thought they would. First, unlike Maggie, Shmoo is a stitch puller. Within hours of waking up from the anesthesia he had already pulled out a stitch. So we had to go back to the vet for the dreaded E-collar. You know those plastic cone things. Of course, a 70-pound dog with a giant plastic cone on its head who is suffering from the aftereffects of anesthesia is a bit of a challenge. He had trouble walking, eating, playing, etc. He was clearly uncomfortable and they don't tend to give a lot of pain medication here for animals.
Luckily, I had some anti-inflammatories that I had bought last week after his little fugue, so I gave him one of those and that helped him through the first night.
Our big issue was that after he appeared to be feeling better, he clearly wasn't. First I realized he couldn't really get comfortable walking outside with the cone; I decided that it needed to be removed for outings. Another problem was that it was obvious that peeing was uncomfortable. We had one rather horrible night where after walking him for 40 minutes, he still hadn't done a thing. JM was a wreck and I wasn't much better. Finally, we decided that perhaps another anti-inflammatory was called for. After that kicked in, no problem; we used those for a couple of nights and that has helped.
We're also working out which dog lies where when we watch television, how to deal with Shmoo's desire to play after an evening walk when everyone else wants to relax, and the fact that he has a very loud bark which he doesn't use to protect the house but to tell us that he's bored, hungry, playful, etc.
As I said, a learning curve.
On the other hand, he is very sweet, very loving an amazingly quick dog to train. His recall is getting to be excellent, so that leaves me hope that soon I'll be able to take him for walks and let him run and play off-leash once we're out of the village.
In the end, I'm glad we've opened our home and hearts to this big goofy boy. I think Maggie is as well.
Ciao for now and a wonderful, happy and healthy New Year to all!
Randy
Don't get me wrong, he is indeed a lovely boy. But he needs energy and attention and the three of us are learning how best to accommodate that need so that everyone is happy.
The "big snip" complicated matters more than we had thought they would. First, unlike Maggie, Shmoo is a stitch puller. Within hours of waking up from the anesthesia he had already pulled out a stitch. So we had to go back to the vet for the dreaded E-collar. You know those plastic cone things. Of course, a 70-pound dog with a giant plastic cone on its head who is suffering from the aftereffects of anesthesia is a bit of a challenge. He had trouble walking, eating, playing, etc. He was clearly uncomfortable and they don't tend to give a lot of pain medication here for animals.
Luckily, I had some anti-inflammatories that I had bought last week after his little fugue, so I gave him one of those and that helped him through the first night.
Our big issue was that after he appeared to be feeling better, he clearly wasn't. First I realized he couldn't really get comfortable walking outside with the cone; I decided that it needed to be removed for outings. Another problem was that it was obvious that peeing was uncomfortable. We had one rather horrible night where after walking him for 40 minutes, he still hadn't done a thing. JM was a wreck and I wasn't much better. Finally, we decided that perhaps another anti-inflammatory was called for. After that kicked in, no problem; we used those for a couple of nights and that has helped.
We're also working out which dog lies where when we watch television, how to deal with Shmoo's desire to play after an evening walk when everyone else wants to relax, and the fact that he has a very loud bark which he doesn't use to protect the house but to tell us that he's bored, hungry, playful, etc.
As I said, a learning curve.
On the other hand, he is very sweet, very loving an amazingly quick dog to train. His recall is getting to be excellent, so that leaves me hope that soon I'll be able to take him for walks and let him run and play off-leash once we're out of the village.
In the end, I'm glad we've opened our home and hearts to this big goofy boy. I think Maggie is as well.
Ciao for now and a wonderful, happy and healthy New Year to all!
Randy
2 Comments:
Congratulations on the new member of the family! I must say that Shadow recovered faster than poor Schmoo after his snip surgery (last January)--he never even needed the pain medication they sent him home with. He did hate the collar, so we found a pair of doggie panties (primarily for unfixed female use) and put him in those for a day. He hated those too so we experimented without either--and he seems to have figured out why we had been torturing him and left the stitches alone from then on. (A good thing since he assassinated both the collar and the panties when we weren't looking!) Anyway, enjoy!
By Paula of Woodland Hills, At 2:31 AM
Thanks, Paula. He's now de-coned, and all seems to be going well, which is quite a relief for all concerned.
R
By Randy, At 8:56 AM
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