Kender's Tripawd Journey

Kender was definitely a cat with attitude.  Extremely stubborn at times (hmmmm, sounds like somebody I know…oh yeah, ME!) and didn’t seem to care what anyone thought.  She was going to do what she wanted.  Lucky for her, that was usually laying around and being lazy.

But she was the best cat around our two kids!  I always try to watch the kids around the animals…even the sweetest animal in the world has their breaking point and little kids are blissfully unaware of the pain they can cause at times!  Kids are also fast…so even when supervising them, someone can accidentally get hurt 🙁  But Kender was great with them!  She’d let my oldest (now 6) carry her around the house.  They’d cuddle together and Kender would sleep on her bed.  She wasn’t always as gentle as she should be with a cat…and an 11 pound cat was tricky for her to pick up when she was younger!  They had some really good times together, though.  And my 1.5 year old loved her just as much 🙂

 

Who lets someone carry them around in a box and just lays there??  I think a big part of it was how lazy she was haha….took too much effort to run away.  But then there were lots of times she never voiced her displeasure…I always rescued her when she did.   I guess a comfy box with stuffed animals to cuddle was worth getting carried around the house for.  Reminds me of Heathcliff always getting pushed around like a baby doll in a stroller…

Kender for President!  This was taken just before the last Presidential election.  You can tell by the look on her face, that if it means wearing a hat then she’d rather not be President!

Bath time for kitty!  My daughter put her in here and was pretending to wash her.  I told her to leave Kender alone and let her go…but she just laid in the thing for a good 5 mins before the younger one convinced her she’d rather leave.  She always surprised me with how much she let the kids get away with that truly didn’t seem to bother her.  It would’ve bothered me!!  I think she was just glad for the attention 🙂

I think my days of kitty and kid pictures are done for quite a while.  Dalamar has steered clear of the kids ever since they were born unless they are being held by me.  He loves to come rub up against the kids while sitting on my lap or something…but takes off running from them (and most anybody else) the rest of the time.  Except for bedtime when he jumps up on my daughter’s bed and sleeps with her.

For two days now, I’ve been trying to think of what I wanted to write in this post.  But it hasn’t been coming to me…so I figured I’d just start typing and see what comes out.

On Monday, September 29, 2014 I called the vet’s office first thing in the morning about bringing Kender in for fluid therapy and syringe feeding.  I’d read up on kidney disease and learned cats can crash and be at the brink but get pulled back.  I think way deep down I knew it was hopeless, but also knew I’d forever beat myself up wondering if I was right if I didn’t try.  Either choice I made, I knew I’d have regrets if she died.  If she died at the vet, I’d regret not spending as much time with her on her last day.  If she died at home, I knew I’d regret not giving treatment a chance.  So I took her in…

She looked so awful.  She was cold and listless, mostly unresponsive.  But she meowed when I first put her in the carrier.  She was quiet the whole car ride.  I pointed the heater vents toward her carrier to try to keep her warm…autumn weather has arrived and it got quite chilly overnight.  She gave me another little meow when I parked the car…she survived the car ride at least.

I got the kids out of their seats and brought Kender inside.  Gave her a quick pet before they took her to the back…I wish I’d done more then.  I was filling out the drop off form when someone came up front and brought us to a room, saying our vet wanted to speak with us before we left.  I knew what she was going to say…she’s dying.  She came in and talked to me…Kender was really bad off….her kidney numbers from a few days before had likely worsened, and they were practically hopeless before…she was totally lifeless and the vet wondered if she was even alive when taking her out of her carrier…her temperature was very low (only 91F).  I still couldn’t give up on her.  So she said they would use heated blankets and a heating pad for her to try to bring her temp up…warm the fluids before administering them…give her an anti-nausea med through her IV and attempt to feed her.  I had another appointment for my other cat, Dalamar, that afternoon at 4:00pm.  I would check on her and visit with her then.

I texted my husband at work, a mess of emotions (warning: graphic language)…questioning everything I’d done for her and feeling like crap that at times I let money be such a factor when making decisions for her.

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur…anxiously watching my phone, hoping they didn’t call because I knew it would be bad news.  Luckily, I had two small children to keep me occupied until our appointment that afternoon.  I kept reading up on kidney disease.  I read a section on signs that the end was near and Kender had most of the symptoms…but it also kept saying over and over that if your cat was just diagnosed and showing those signs that treatment might help and should be given a chance.  My husband was going to head to the vet’s when he got off work at 3:30, so that he could take the kids to play while I was at the vet with Dalamar.  He passed me just as I was getting off the freeway…oh good, I wasn’t going to have to wait for him to get there.

At 3:53pm, I was at the stop light just up the street from the vet’s office, when I heard my phone ringing in my purse.  Took a peek at it while waiting for the light to change…it was the office.  Hurried there and parked the car.  As I was unbuckling my youngest, my phone rang again…3:55pm…

“I’m in your parking lot right now.”  “You need to hurry inside.”  “Ok, be right there.”

Told my husband they needed me…he’d have to get the kids out.  Raced inside where one of the techs was waiting for me.  She told me it wasn’t looking good…Kender wouldn’t be here much longer.  I asked how bad it was…if I should let the kids be there.  She said Kender was having trouble breathing…it might be scary for the kids.  So back I went to see her while she was still with this world.  Our vet was there…she said the agonal breathing had just stopped and her heart rate was only at 40 bpm.  I went straight to her.  Somehow she seemed to have gotten even smaller in the time she had been there.  Her pupils took up almost the entire eye.  “Goodbye, kid.  I love you so much and I’m so very sorry.  I’ll miss you so much.”  The vet said something…I can’t remember now…about euthanasia.  I consented and she gave her the meds through her IV.  I stroked her head as she took her last breaths and her heart beat its last beats.  My husband and kids came back just afterwards.  I felt slightly bad…because my oldest had asked to be there if she was put to sleep…and said she wanted to have her favorite toy kitty, Calico, with Kender as she died to give Kender comfort (she’s 6 and insists that all of her kitties are real…don’t dare call them stuffed).  But she didn’t know Kender had already gotten the meds…she brought Calico to Kender’s head and told her good bye and gave her loves.  I let her know Kender was dead now.  My 1.5 year old said “hi Kitty!” and gave her a pet.  We told her kitty was going bye bye.  She said “bye bye” to her.  I had my husband take them out.  The techs were going to remove Kender’s IV and get her ready to be taken home while Dalamar got his exam.

I really think she knew I was getting close…that she was holding on until she could say goodbye.  That isn’t at all how I wanted her to go, but I’m so thankful that I got to be there when her time came…that I got to say goodbye.  I miss her so much…but I know that time will help….just as it has with all the other furbabies I’ve lost in the past.  In the next few days, I hope to follow up with how things went with Dalamar and share more memories and pictures of Kender…

Sorry I’ve been so absent lately. Life has been a little crazy lately and there hadn’t been much to share. But I think Kender’s days with us are numbered. I realized it all of the sudden on Monday evening (9/22), but then I realized there had been other signs I hadn’t given much thought to.

She started shedding a LOT a couple weeks ago. I chalked it up to the coming change in seasons. Then I noticed her head and upper chest area seemed a little more bony. But her ribs still had lots of meatiness to them and her abdomen was still chubby feeling.  So I thought I was imagining things, or she was just slimming down a little (she’s always been a little overweight).   Middle of last week she hardly ate any of the tuna I had been giving her at night with her grape seed extract. I thought maybe she was getting burnt out on it. She vomited a couple times a few weeks ago, but it was after eating grass outside so I thought it was just from the grass. This past weekend I noticed her food bowl was staying pretty full. She hasn’t pooped since Saturday night.

I had finally been able to work out a time to consult with Dr. Loops (due to the time difference) last Friday (9/19) and got his package of instructions, homeopathics and cell salts on Monday.  I gave her cell salts in a little milk Tuesday morning…she only drank maybe a teaspoon of it. Refused them in tuna juice that night. When I gave Kender her homeopathic remedy last night, she threw up twice a min later…all yellow bile. Her food looked undisturbed this morning and there was only one pee in her litter….there’d always been at least 2 by morning. I called the vet and got an appt for Thursday morning. I debated on taking her at all. But wanted the confirmation that it is actually the cancer causing this (highly likely) and not potentially something else that we could treat (highly unlikely).

I keep going over everything I could have done differently that would have potentially prevented us from being where we are now.  What if I’d paid closer attention….what if I’d started her homeopathics sooner.  I don’t know why I let myself get caught up in thoughts like that.  Nothing positive comes from it.  It just saps energy from me that I could be putting to much better use.

The vet appointment didn’t give us anything definitive  No obvious masses on the x-rays, but she said lymphoma sometimes causes lots of tiny tumors that you can’t see on x-rays.  An ultrasound might be able to see them, but if not then a biopsy would be the only way to know for sure.  Kender was pretty dehydrated and jaundiced though.  So liver issues are suspected.  She was also pretty unhappy about having her abdomen palpated. Her urine was brownish tinged which points to possible kidney issues, but could be from excess bilirubin     They gave her some subQ fluids to help with the dehydration.

Kender’s blood work and u/a didn’t look good. Her platelets are pretty low. Her liver enzymes are elevated…not as high as she suspected they would be given her jaundice and bili count, but definitely raised. Her kidney values were awful and phosphorous was high. Urine had blood, protein and epithelial cells in it…likely from the kidney issues.

She hasn’t looked good all day…extremely lethargic. I’ve been feeding her by syringe throughout the day and giving her water that way as well. Every now and then she’ll take some water on her own if I put the dish up to her mouth, but she won’t take food on her own. I considered getting fluids to do subQ at home to try to help. But early yesterday afternoon I noticed her front leg was swollen and kinda puffy in the armpit area. Kender was NOT happy when I tried to feel it. I gave her about 3/4 a dose of Buprenex to try to help (I had discussed this previously with the vet for general comfort measures for Kender). It didn’t make any difference…whenever I put even the lightest pressure on that area, she was very unhappy about it.  I spoke with the vet on the phone about it. She said sometimes subQ fluids will gravitate downwards into limbs and cause swelling, but the pain puzzled her and by now all that fluid should have been absorbed with how dehydrated she was. Her now-amputated leg was far more swollen before surgery and she never expressed this level of discomfort. So I decided against fluids for now in case that was the cause. But I’m doubtful.  It seems slightly better today.

It’s horrible seeing her like this. A couple times she tried walking and between the painful front leg, only having 1 back leg and probably general weakness from not eating, she would fall over and just lay there…not lift her head or anything She peed in the litter box a couple times. Then last night she went again, but just laid in the box afterwards until I took her out and cleaned her off.  I found her in her soiled litter box again this morning when I got up.  Later on, she was back in the litter box, but hadn’t gone.  Seeing her try to walk is almost frightening.  I don’t know if it’s from weakness, pain or some sort of muscle coordination issue.  But she did a better job of walking the first night after her surgery, doped up on meds, than she can do right now.  She stumbles face first and just lays there.  I just want to make her better, but that’s looking so unlikely right now.  I feel so helpless and uncertain.

She’s so out of it today.  I was honestly surprised to find her still alive this morning with how bad she looked last night.  And today she looks even worse.  It all happened so fast…I feel like a deer in the headlights.  Do I keep syringe force feeding and watering her in a desperate attempt that she’ll improve?  Do I leave her be so that her last moments with me aren’t of me forcing her to eat and drink when she doesn’t want to?  I wish I could just ask her and get a real answer from her.  Sometimes I look at her face and it seems like she’s not even really in there anymore.  But then I see the parts of her that are there…that are her…not just a cat’s body.  I think I mentioned in one of her post-amp posts that I knew she was starting to feel better because she was thwapping her tail again.  Well she still sits there, all day practically, with her tail tapping.  It’s nothing like the thwaps she used to do.  But she still has that tiny bit of energy to tap tap tap her tail.  That thwapping tail could be so annoying at times while trying to cuddle her before.  Now I never want it to stop.  I just want my kitty back.

I’m not 100% sure yet, but I really think if she’s still alive and doing this poorly after this weekend, that it’s probably time for us to let her go.  I don’t know why this is so much harder on me than in the past.  I’ve made the tough decision to euthanize 3 of my ferrets and had 1 die at home.  Either way it sucks horribly.  I know that if I saw anyone else with an animal like this, I’d think the humane thing to do was end it’s suffering.  So I don’t know why it’s so much harder this time.  I love her so much and don’t want her gone.

 

 

 

It just dawned on me yesterday that I only put Kender’s biopsy results on the forums and not on her blog!  Things have been a little crazy around here lately.  My husband’s switched shifts at his job, which has turned us all upside down trying to adjust to the new schedule.  And my daughter celebrated her sixth birthday.  Plus we’ve been trying to cram in some fun before summer is over 😉

We finally got the immunohistochemical staining came back on August 22. She has tarsal lymphoma. There’s lots of info on typical lymphoma in cats out there, but tarsal lymphoma is pretty rare and there isn’t a ton of info on it.  My vet consulted an oncologist about it, who couldn’t give a very good idea of lifespan with or without treatment because it’s so uncommon. There’s a very high likelihood it’s already microscopically metastasized, since lymphoma is notorious for that. She said the chemo treatment she typically does is pretty aggressive – combo of vincristine, doxirubicin and cytoxan and spans about 6 months with a cost of roughly $3,500-4,500. Sometimes the cancer is so aggressive, the cat’s don’t even make it through all of the treatments.

This is pretty much the only thing I could find on feline tarsal lymphoma.  I wish there were more specifics about which treatment options resulted in which life spans.  I know even with that info, Kender could be totally different from all of them.  But it would give a rough idea at least.

At first, I had no idea what to do…and still don’t have a real clear idea.  I’m thinking a holistic approach to hold it off as long as possible is probably the best choice at this point.  After discussing it, hubby (Matt) and I both agree that chemo is not a great option for a variety of reasons.  When I spoke to my vet on 8/22/14 she had said she would discuss holistic ideas with one of her colleagues (who has recently been branching into that).  I was waiting to hear back before contacting anyone else.  But realize as I’m typing this how long ago that really was!  I am going to contact Dr. Loops tomorrow (since I’m almost positive they are closed today for Labor Day) for a consult and possibly contact a local holistic vet depending on how things go with Dr. Loops.   I looked through Dr. Loops supplements page.  There’s a ton of stuff to choose from on there.  So far, I’ve been giving her grape seed extract every night in some tuna.  We used that on one of our ferrets in the past who had recurring adrenal gland issues after surgery.

And also….yesterday was Kender’s ONE MONTH AMPUVERSARY!  Hooray!!  I’m really hoping she has many more ampuversaries, but seeing the statistics on lymphoma, I feel blessed to have had even one more month with her!  And as my husband said on my facebook post about the biopsy results (pardon the language):  “That cat is a stubborn bitch. She’ll probably live another 8 years just to spite the cancer.”  I hope he’s right 😉

Her hair is growing back in wonderfully.  She hops around pretty well and is getting better about clawing her way up onto things.  I still haven’t seen her get up to where I keep her food while she’s out of the spare room.  So I have to close her up in there periodically so that she can eat without the dog getting her food first.  I don’t think she minds it too horribly, though.  She goes in and out of there to sleep and lay around throughout the day.  She must be feeling friendlier these days…she actually lets our other cat, Dalamar, get near her much more often without the usually hissing and growling that used to happen!

Things have been pretty great lately!  Kender got her stitches out last Thursday (5 days ago).  I went against “doctor’s orders” and took her cone off then, too.  My vet was on vacation and the other was in surgery when we went in, so the one vet I don’t like/trust looked at her incision before the techs removed her stitches.  She wanted me to keep her cone on because it was a little scabby still.  But you could tell by looking at it that the scabs were ready to come off.  They were mostly just held on by being stuck in the surrounding fur.  Plus she was starting to act really depressed the few days before getting the stitches out and hardly eating.  I think being cooped up AND not being able to groom herself was taking a toll on her.  So off went the cone and boy was she happy about it!  I put some coconut oil on the scabby parts a couple times a day to help.  Kender took care of them just fine.  There was only one spot that looked a little red underneath when the scab came off, but it wasn’t raw or bleeding or anything…just red.

The next day I let her into the backyard for a while.  Talk about a happy kitty!!  All she did was lay on the “sidewalk” in our side yard, soaking up the sun.  But she was chirping away and rolling around so happily before settling into a spot for a bit.  And I only checked on her every 5-10 mins to make sure she was safe.  I don’t know what I’m worried about, but feel the need to check on her to make sure she’s okay.  The dog will go peek around the corner at her every now and then too 😉  Good boy!  Now she cries pitifully at the back door a few times a day, begging to go out!

She claws her way up on the couch no problem now.  She hasn’t gotten back on the beds since that first time I posted about it.  But she didn’t get on the beds that often before either.  I made some makeshift steps up to where I had her food pre-amputation.  I have no idea if she’s getting up there to eat or not, though.  It’s lower than the couch, so she should be able to get there.  But just to be safe, I set her up there a couple times a day.  And when I find her napping in her recovery room, I’ll put the food in there and shut the door for an hour or so.  I can’t leave her food down with it open or the dog helps himself to a tasty treat!  Hopefully I’ll catch her eating in the other spot someday soon so I won’t have to worry about that anymore!

One thing I’m not crazy about, is she’s starting peeing on things again :/  She had that problem a few years ago.  After every possible solution I looked up failed and the vet made sure it wasn’t caused by health issues, we ended up putting her on Prozac for a while.  And it worked!  Then we weaned her off the Prozac and the only time it would become an issue would be the few times I neglected to clean the litter box for too long.  I’ve been even more diligent about the litter box since her surgery, scooping at least twice a day, so I don’t think that’s the problem now.  She’s also used the main, covered litter box a few times that I’ve seen for myself.  She’s peeing on anything left on the floor of the bathroom, which is right across the hall from the litter box.  So it can’t be that she doesn’t want to walk all the distance to the litter box…it would be the same distance to the bathroom as to the litter box.  I think it’s likely more psychological at this point.  In the meantime, I’m being extra diligent about nothing being on the floor in there.  I hope she doesn’t start doing it elsewhere if she can’t find anything to pee on in there.  Aside from how frustrating it is under normal circumstances, it frightens me if she ends up needing chemo, since the drugs pass through urine in the first 24-48 hours after treatment.  I have 2 small children and can’t have her peeing chemo drugs all over the house!  I should have the results from the immunohistochemical staining this week to confirm a diagnosis…trying to remain hopeful that amputation alone was sufficient treatment for whatever she has!!

I let Kender out of the room for most of today, still keeping the bedroom doors shut so she didn’t go hide under a bed.  But then I went in with my oldest for bedtime tonight.  A couple minutes later, as we’re settling in to read, Kender comes in and starts looking up at the bed.  I thought about just picking her up and putting her up there, then remembered that I’m trying to not be so overprotective!  Considered looking for something to make steps up, but figured she wasn’t going to wait for that.  She did a sort of practice jump…I could tell she wasn’t really trying…and we gave her a little encouragement.  She eyed it for a few more seconds, then up she came!  She mostly used her front claws to pull herself up, but she was doing that a little bit even before her surgery!

I had my phone there with me…why didn’t I think to catch it all on video?!  Darn it!!  But instead, here’s a cute pic of her all snuggled up in bed with my daughter (and all of her kitties…and Minnie hehe).

And as a side note, her fur has really started coming back in the last few days!  Hooray!

I was thinking it would be best for Kender to stay in the spare room until her stitches come out and her cone comes off.  But what do I know?  Throughout her recovery, she’s shown me how overprotective I am and have no idea what I’m doing haha

Over the last couple of days she’s tried (and sometimes succeeded) to escape the room.  Depending on conditions, I started letting her stay out for a while.  But need to make sure she can’t get injured by the other animals or the kids.  Also that she doesn’t let herself get stuck somewhere with her cone.

This morning she started meowing at the door shortly after she realized we were up.  She didn’t want my company…she just wanted out!  So I shut the bedroom doors (don’t want her under the beds or trying to jump onto them) and let her come out.  She seems to be very pleased about that!  She hasn’t even growled at Dalamar (our other cat) the whole time!  Even when he came over to sniff right in her face.  They have a love/hate sort of relationship 😉  He loves to antagonize her, and she hates it haha…they’ve agreed to coexist for their own sakes and occasionally (rarely) show affection for one another.

She spent most of her time in the dining room because she likes sunbathing there.  This afternoon I realized she wasn’t in there anymore and went looking for her.  Imagine my surprise when I found her on the couch!  She likely had help from the throw pillow on the floor and blanket hanging off the edge (thanks to the kids).  I guess a messy house can be useful at times 😛  Eventually, I had to move her back to the room so I could make dinner without worrying about the 1.5 year old hurting her…she’s still working on gentle hands.  Kender escaped afterwards though when the oldest checked on her and didn’t close the door well.  I discovered she was out by finding her back on the couch 😉  I’m a little bummed I missed her getting up there both times.

 

She’s doing so great!  I’m sure she’s capable of way more than I realize at this point.  It’ll be so great to get her stitches out in 3 days and ditch the cone for good.  Then she can really start getting back to “normal” life…with a little help getting to a few places she wants to go.

Wow…a week already?!  How can it feel like yesterday and forever ago that she had her surgery?  She’s doing so great, especially for an older kitty!  Kender’s age (14 years) was my biggest concern for her when learning she needed her leg amputated.  But she handled the surgery just fine and is doing well in recovery, too!  Yesterday, she started laying on her amputated side.  She still isn’t super active, but she wasn’t before either.  Kender has been a super lazy cat for years.  Plus, she’s in a boring room so there isn’t a whole lot for her to do anyway.  She tries to follow me out of the room about half the time and will sometimes try to get out if the door is left open while I’m in there.  Today, for the first time, she started meowing at the door after we left this morning.  🙁

Her walking has really improved over the last couple of days.  We had to vacuum her room today because she’s gotten litter all over the place.  I brought Kender out to the living room with me while hubby, Matt, vacuumed so as to not stress her out with the noise.  She seemed so happy about that, wandering around.  Of course, I was paranoid she was going to trip over one of the gazillion toys strewn about, but she did fine!  If we didn’t have two young kids, a dog and another cat to worry about bothering her, I’d let her come out now.  I really think it’s in her best interest to stay segregated until the stitches come out and the cone comes off though.

Since she seems pretty bored, we decided to get her a couple of toys at the store today.  Kender has never really been into toys, except as a kitten.  But the few she occasionally paid attention to in the past were those with feathers.  So we got her a stuffed bird with a feather tail and one of those obnoxious chirp sound things in it.  My daughter picked out one with a bunch of obnoxiously colored feathers on a string and a stick to play with her with.  She was more interested in that than the bird, but even still she only swatted at it a few times and tried to bite it.  I think she’s frustrated that the cone gets in the way 🙁  Maybe she’ll warm up to them over the next couple of days.

So, you’d think I would have learned from Fang’s experience, but it really didn’t seem like it would be THAT bad.  However, removing a fentanyl patch from your cat is not going to win you any points in their book, even if the area was shaved before applying it!  The vet said it needed to come off 5 days after surgery, but since we live so far away she would leave it up to me if I wanted to bring her in for removal or do it myself.  I figured Kender would rather stay home than be put in her crate and drove clear across town and back just to get it taken off.  I wasn’t too crazy about the idea either.  She let me know how to dispose of it safely (in a sealed bag, placed in the garbage outside where the kids or other pets had no way of accidentally getting hold of it) and that I needed to clean the sticky residue off as best I could after removing it.  Well even with the area shaved, some of the sticky bandage around the patch still got on her fur.  Even before I got to that point, she was unhappy with the odd sensation of unwrapping that super sticky stuff.  When I reached the last layer, I rubbed a bunch of coconut oil at the edges as I pulled it away from her skin/fur to help loosen the adhesive.  She was growling and kicking her leg the whole time…NOT a happy cat.  She actually ripped the last of it off herself but yanking her leg away from me.  Then I had to “torture” her more by rubbing a bunch of coconut oil on the area with a washcloth to help remove the rest of the adhesive.  By the end of it, she had coconut oil all over herself and I’m not sure if I got all the stickies off or not.  So I’ll check in the morning and if not, I’ll head to Walgreens for some medical adhesive remover (I had no idea this was a thing before reading about patch removal).

This morning, she had her cone pushed most of the way back.  While all of her stitches are still intact, I can tell she got at the one furthest back/closest to her tail.  I bought one of the inflatable donut types today, but can’t find her collar anywhere to use with it!  Had the idea to use some gauze tied around in place of the collar, but would risk waking the baby to go get it.  But then I remembered the soft cones I saw today at the pet store had 4 rigid supports spaced evenly around them and got the (hopefully) genius idea to just make my own sturdy supports to attach to Kender’s soft cone so that she can no longer fold it down.  Waiting for hubby to get home from work for his assistance with it and will let you know how it turns out!

UPDATE:  Cone modifications seem to be a success so far!  Used some hard plastic straws from old sippy cups on either side of the cone.  Still comfy, but can’t be pushed back.  Hooray!

Normally, I’d feel like a weirdo getting so excited about this, but I know you fellow tripawd pawrents will understand.  This morning there was poop in the litter box!  Her first one since surgery!  (Sorry, Sally…no pics haha)

We took the crate down this morning so now she has the whole room to roam around in.  I put a box with a blanket in there in case she wants to hide.  Then put a couple other things for her to lay on around the room.  She never once tried to get out of the crate, but she’s already tried to make a break for it out of the room twice today!

This morning, she was actually sitting up normally!  Before she would have her front paws up to support her, but keep her hip kind of rolled to the good side.  She seems to be doing a lot better at walking around, although she still sometimes struggles to get up and get her back leg underneath herself.

This afternoon, I checked on her and she’d gotten part of her cone folded over!  Thankfully it was on the side opposite her stitches.  But of course, I’m super paranoid now that she’s going to get the whole thing folded down when I’m not around.  Hopefully, she behaves herself.  But I won’t hold my breath.