Bess had another set of chest x-rays taken today and things are looking GREAT!! A lot of gunk has been cleared from her lungs already and we're sticking with the original plan of two more weeks of antibiotics. She's been given the okay to start back into exercise at about 50% of what she was before, but if she starts coughing we're to stop. Not a moment too soon because that little girl was starting to act like she was completely losing her mind! She's been zooming everywhere in the house. Heffner has been her personal launch pad. She hasn't been coughing at all so I haven't really been stopping her when she goes on one of her tears. I knew she was getting really pent up when I watched her do 10 laps around the downstairs living room this morning. I did stop her after she hit ten because Heffner got totally wound up at that point and was joining her.
The only down side is that Bess had to be sedated to get good clear scans of her chest. She doesn't do so well with the whole recovering from sedation. She's been sedated one other time since we've had her to check out a front leg that we were concerned had something going on with it. "Thankfully" I had that experience to draw on and I was ready for how she was going to be. Last time, I'm pretty sure that she was showing signs of getting ready to bloat. Her tuck up dropped and her abdomen was a slightly more swollen. It wasn't hard and balloon like, but not normal. She was also definitely feeling sick. As I do with anything, I called her breeder to get her advice. Her advice was that danes are more prone to bloat right after they've been sedated. To help combat this, you can automatically give the dog a good strong dose of the Maalox liquid that treats the symptoms of gas and bloated feeling in people. Adam rand out and got some, we gave Bess a large dose and she ended up being fine. So after Bess had her x-rays today, I dropped her off at home and got her set up in our spare bedroom with a baby gate across the door so that Heffner wouldn't bother her. Then I went out and got a new bottle of Maalox because our current one had expired. She's had a couple of doses of that already and we aren't going through the same symptoms that she had last time.
This time around though, she's just having a hard time settling down. She's a bit more whiny, but settles down when she's in physical contact with me. If I lay down on the floor or the couch, she'll come and curl up on me and actually settle down and rest. If it weren't for the fact that she's not feeling great, it would be really cute. If I get up to do something, she's back to standing and whining. So I've been cuddled up with her for most of the evening. I did take Heffner out for a run and she held vigil from the downstairs window. Originally she was content to lay on the couch with Adam while he was playing video games, but once she figured out that I was leaving with Heffner, she wouldn't have it.
All-in-all, things are good and she is definitely on the way up. She should be back to her normal self tomorrow and then I'll have to figure out what to do with her.
4 comments:
Aww poor Bess! Im glad she's getting better but the sedation thing sucks! Thanks for sharing the info about Maalox after sedation to prevent bloat! I never knew that! When Darwin had to be sedated for the xrays (twice) and the MRI, she was super whiny and clingy when we got home. Poor girls.
That's good news. It's always a relief when dogs are acting 'normal.'
I'm glad to hear that she's on the mend. I hate having to have my dogs put under, too, and my experience has been that they really haven't been themselves for about a week after sedation. They don't eat right, act goofy at times and just generally are off. I hope Bess is able to do all the things she loves soon!
So happy to hear that Bess is feeling better! I hope she continues her speedy recovery, although she'll probably be driving you nuts bouncing off the walls. ;)
Post a Comment