Aug 11, 2021
The twins had surgery yesterday
Our usual evening pastime. Carlie loves to sit on me and do what I call ‘suckies’. She bunches a wad of blanket in her mouth and uses it as a soother. At the same time she pushes her feet ever so slowly and gently towards towards my body like a kneading motion.
‘Someone’ is waiting for Colin to come back into the yard. It is frustrating for them to only be able to see our cars in the driveway but not seeing other pets and people walk by helps to curtail their barking.
The thing is, is that we have two pups and that means two spays and all the extras involved. We have had four girls previously so this isn’t our first time. But two at the same times is crazy.
We decided to have Carlie go first as she is more sensitive to things and slept two days after her last set of puppy shots. Plus she was born first. Ciela went second. So she actually was 90 minutes behind her sister in terms of having meds in her body from the surgery. There were a few things that happened before surgery that upset us and we had a complication when we got home that we discovered as the the girls began to wake up. I have decided that there is no need to go thru the details as it will only upset me all over again plus I don’t want a written record of what happened.
The vet found that Carlie had two baby teeth still in her mouth and so he did an x-ray and extracted two very long teeth. Cha-ching, another $150.00. He also put stitches in where the teeth had been. They also were both microchipped. We came home with Metacam for both for five days post surgery. Ciela had a bit of an issue and was crying out in pain or was she just frightened?
Ouch!
I could not give her extra meds until this morning. I did come home with Trazodone and Gabapentin to take ( mixed together ) to calm them down if they needed to be. She settled with us just holding her.
Even with all the drugs in them and not being awake they gravitated to each other. I asked at the clinic and they said that they did put the girls in the same crate.
We picked them up early at 2PM and were home by 3PM. They woke up about 9PM within moments of each other. The first thing they did was to make sure that “the sister” was beside them. Thank goodness we trained them on the ramps, that way we did not have to pick them up to carry them outside. The less handling under their tummies the better. So they both went out, one at a time and peed. I could tell they were hungry and I was allowed to give them 50% of their normal dinner meal. Carlie was supposed to get softened kibble because of her teeth. She refused that but did eat her regular crunchy kibble. Then they wanted to play 🙄
Our greatest problem is keeping them calm and settled. They want to jump, to run, to wrestle which they are not allowed to and most important of all we have to keep them from licking themselves or their sister, etc. We have been asked to keep them calm for ten days and no leash walks. Difficult with one puppy but two 🙁 Impossible. So he sent us home with the meds mentioned above to sedate them during the day 😯 Well we aren’t going to do that. We prefer to just take the ten days and be with them 24/7. Perhaps in a week we will take them around the block on a leash, one at a time. One day at a time. I have a feeling that they are fast healers.
I just hate having to put the girls though this, what I call torture. I hope that this will soon be a distant memory for them. How can this not affect them for the rest of their lives?
Last night we thought it best to have them sleep with us in case they were in pain or needed to go out and to prevent them from licking. As they normally don’t sleep with us it was a gong show. They would lay for a few minutes then jump over to one of us to smother us in kisses. They were so happy to have finally recognized us. They were so dopey at first when we got home and did not know where they were. Anyway the bed thing did not work. Also perhaps because they had been sleeping most of the day. Ninety minutes later at 1:30AM I woke Colin up to crate them. Ciela had been trying to jump off the bed. In the end she did have to pee. Colin crated them and then slept in bed until 3:30AM but he was worried about them hurting themselves by licking. He got up and peed both of them again and then ended up with the three of them sleeping on the sofa. I think that I finally fell asleep after 3AM.
By 9AM today we were worn out. Because they are twins they of course want to do things together and roughhouse. Suddenly we are working at keeping them apart. I ordered some different dog chew bones today which will arrive Friday, that might keep them occupied over the weekend.
So our job now is intense supervision and it really does take both of us. I thought that we could take turns but unless they are sound asleep we are both on duty. For instance if I am letting one out to pee the other rolls over and starts licking. They are learning very quickly because of us shouting ‘NO’. They so want to wrestle, they have been doing that since birth. So today we were being creative in occupying them but that only lasts so long. They did sit outside on the front step as they usually do in the morning and just vegged in the smoke and heat. We of course supervise them being outside. But later in the day they wanted to chase each other as they do all the time. We finally just a few hours ago came up with the concept of letting one out for 5 – 7 minutes and then she comes in and the other goes out. They don’t run then but just walk and sniff about. At one point I caught Carlie standing up on the tomato pots, which is a huge no no re stretching her belly. It is a full-time job which the vet told us it would be but that we have to do it. He does not want them opening up their stitches. To be honest we are both already exhausted but this is our job as parents. Because of the two complications we will be seeing the vet first this Monday morning.
I did purchase onesies for the girls to wear rather than those huge awful cones. However I really don’t want their incision to be rubbing against cloth even though it is soft. In a few days we will use the onesies but right now they are too fragile and I want them to heal for a bit. They are being very good about not licking and I am so impressed with them listening to us. Right now they just want us to hold them and to be able to wash our faces 😀
Last nights smoky sunset.
I hope you get the double meaning.
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Going through that with two dogs has to be super challenging. We are going to have Zoey done in October. I don’t think she is flexible enough to lick herself too much but she is quite the jumper so we will have to get her to settle down somehow.
What is stronger than super challenging. As they are feeling better they only want to wrestle and it takes all my strength to hold one back while Colin picks up the other. Also their hair is staring to grow and it makes them super itchy and then they want to lick. Six or even more days we should be done but will I survive?
I hope your girlies recover sooner than later. We had a rescued kitten once (only 6 weeks old) that would suck on our hands, noses, etc. whatever he could reach when he was tired and wanted soothing!
Aww how sweet about your kitten. In general they seem to be better but as they feel better they want to resume their active lifestyle.
I hope the girls heal quickly and you are both able to get some much needed rest soon.
With all the smoke we can’t so anything outside anyway so keeping the girls separated and all is our priority. At least I can sip wine at the same time. Rest maybe in a few weeks.
You guys are going all out for the girls! Soon all will be better and you get back to normality. Those teeth sure look huge. I didn’t know that the milk teeth had roots that long and that they had to be pulled if the new molars hadn’t come in yet.
Love your photos!
The pulled teeth were just behind the upper fang tooth on both sides, so baby fang teeth! He had to do an X-ray first before he pulled and stitched. Sadly as they feel better they are extremely active. I am going to have to sedate them Monday when I go for my special vein repair. No way can one person handle these two.
This makes me veryy glad I’ve only dealt with cats and spaying. Well, I do recall some of my childhood dogs being spayed. Anyway, as I have dealt with not only inside cats, but feral ones (long story) the outside cats had absorbable stitches, and got no special post-surgery care…they wouldn’t have showed up for it. But they all lived over it and were in fine fettle the next day. Dogs sound very very complicated. Glad you don’t have a lot on your schedule in the coming days!
I have never been involved with cats so I have no idea if dogs are more of a problem. Our girls stitches are just over two inches long and as they are very long we have to keep them quiet so they don’t pop their stitches by moving about too much or fast. I think because we have two siblings it makes it more difficult. We have down this four times in the past with no adverse effects or being worn out. One pup is easier to control.