Lucky’s Amputation Journey

I’m so sorry that it has taken so long to get back to this!!  My intention when I started his Blog was to keep everyone updated each day of his recovery.  Alas, life took over.  Sooo . . .

Lucky did exceptionally well at recovery!  His bruise healed quickly and so did the rest of him!  He didn’t use a cone of shame but didn’t bother his incision site hardly at all.  As I started thinking about his being alone the second week of recovery due to my returning to work,  I began thinking about using the Vetmedwear recovery suit for amputees that I had gotten him.  Needless to say, having been “free” of all restraints for almost a week, he freaked out!!!  He rolled around on the floor, and began to shake at which time my husband made me take it off of him.  I think he would have done much better if we had put him in it as soon as he came home the night of surgery.  The only reason I didn’t was that I wanted to monitor his incision and the suit covers it up.  Ah – live and learn.  He did make it through his second week of recovery with no incidences of bothering the incision!!

At 10 days post surgery he got a green light from the surgeon with instructions to keep him on the Gabapentin for another couple of weeks.  He has resumed his normal activity, running and playing with his siblings and the older cats.  He jumps up on furniture, jumps down, and has even learned to jump up on some new items!!!  My “Little Man” has no fear but I hold my breath everytime he jumps down off of something.

He currently is being weaned off of the Gabapentin.  I’m watching carefully for any signs of pain or even phantom pain.  My recovery cuddle bug doesn’t cuddle anymore but he climbs onto the bed and curls up against me each and every night!!

Tripawds is absolutely the best source of information and support for anyone facing the experience of having a tripawd animal. I can’t say enough about the site or its’ members.  This was definitely a God send for me!!  Thank you to all of you!!  I will keep you informed as to how Lucky continues to grow and develop!!!

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Not much new today except that I got some decent sleep last night!!  Thank you Lucky for sleeping through the night!!  He is still playful and bored!!!  I gave him a couple of his favorite toys and he played for a long time.  I spent a little less time in the room with him today, trying to wean him off of me as I have to return to work on Monday.  Doug watched for a bit so I actually got a shower today!!!

I am weaning him off of buprenorphine instead of just stopping it.  He seems to do a bit better when on it. I spoke to the vet today (they finally did a call back to see how he was doing) and requested a couple more days of buprenorphine.  We get that tomorrow as well as more gabapentin.

Lucky’s bruise is almost gone!!  He seems to be healing a lot quicker than what I expected.  Maybe it’s because he is so young.  He does have a quiver in his flank that comes and goes.  It’s like he is trying to shake water off his paw.  I’ve seen him when he needs his ear scratched (we are also treating both ears for a yeast infection) and this quiver is different from that.

We had a better night last night. Got up at 2am for gabapentin we were awake for an hour then back to sleep until 6am!!! Today he has spent a lot of time sleeping and when not doing that then prowling around trying to get in trouble.  He had a visit from my bff and he played with her then fell asleep.

He has decided he is done being cooperative with medications, even with a treat afterwards.  I’m holding off on another dose of buprenorphine to see how he does on just gabapentin and onisor (2 more days worth).  His next dose should be around 7 tonight so I’ll have some time before bed to evaluate his pain level.

He still wants to cuddle with mom and I’m not complaining!!

Day 1 was not at all what I expected.  He wanted to play! He started to climb the netting on the corral and was very persistent.  Each time I took him off the netting and tried to distract him with something else he would go right back to it.  He finally gave in.  Still is being a cuddle bug!!

He did do a significant amount of sleeping in the afternoon.  He is eating and drinking.  He gets liquid high protein treat after meds.  No problems with pottying.  Incision looks really good!

I think he is doing so well with moving around because he was basically a tripawd before the stump was removed.  I would say he is not the typical recovery story.

 

Surgery went well.  No complications. I spent the afternoon learning how to upload pictures (thank you Renae!)  Lucky was still very wobbly when he first got home. He was very restless and agitated, wanted out of the corral.  He sat at the door and head butted it!  Settled down after about an hour just in time to give him his first dose of meds.  Not interested in water, so I gave him a liquid treat I picked up from Jackson Galaxy’s site.  He loved it!!! He’s now resting!  Waiting for the first pee!!