Stormy's Steps

Headed to the Vet for our first check up!

Today we had our very first check up! The Vet took off his bandages and said he’s healing great – also, our Vet thinks Stormy might be the oldest dog to go through amputation surgery and live! He said they were fully prepared for him to die during the operation 🙁 Not nice to hear, but better to hear now that Stormy is a-okay. We’re going to do some more research into this.
I think the best part of the check up was when the Vet picked Stormy up too quickly and Stormy pooped on him. Lol! Stormy has never done that before, the Vet said he must have just startled him. Either way, very funny!
We were told we could up his pain meds a bit though, since he’s yelped randomly a few times.
Oh, and we were advised to take down the barriers around our house and let him walk where he pleases – he will learn better that way. Stormy is super excited to be allowed in the kitchen again and has been taking the wooden floors like a trooper 🙂

Headed home, clean and sleepy!

The first night, Stormy did amazing. I was told that the first night they are home after surgery can be scary, but he fell asleep at 1pm and slept straight through.
I heard him barking about 10am and jumped out of bed, worried something might be wrong or maybe that had ripped his gauze off – he has a habit of getting out of anything!
But alas, Stormy was just waking everyone up.
My mom had gotten up with him at 8am; fed him, let him out on our Patio for a bit and gave him his meds. As soon as he went back to bed, he burst through the barriers we had made to keep him in the living room and was beside her bed barking!
For most of the day, he did incredible.
Later last night he started getting tired, his legs getting a bit shaky, and took a tumble or two. One of his tumbles took down a side table and a lamp! They didn’t fall on him and he got right back up.
I noticed when he was laying down that he was licking his bed, a lot. When I checked to see why I noticed a large wet spot under him and realized that the little drainage hole I had attempted to cover up had become uncovered and was draining a lot while he was laying on top of it.
I quickly called the emergency vet (at 11pm, yikes) and was told that it was fine. His little tube had fallen out the first day he was home because he refused to relax so the liquid was escaping when he put pressure on it. The vet advised me to just put one of my shirts on him so that the wetness didn’t wet anything he decided to lay on.
When he was a puppy I loved dress him up! He hated it and it didn’t take long for him to get the shirts or shorts off (I was 8, I just wanted him to dress like me!) but now that he’s a tripawd he had no chance at getting it off – which is good! He definitely wasn’t a happy bunny about that, I guess the band tee just isn’t his style!

Saturday morning one of the girls from the clinic called and said the doctor had given Stormy the okay to come home!
I was really worried about lifting him in and out of the truck. I was really hoping my fiance, Sam could come and help but since he had to work it was all on me. I laid tons of soft blankets into the back and went to pick Stormy up.
He’d had a great night and the amputation site hadn’t been weeping too much.
I was definitely having a bit of a panic attack as I waited for my mom to pull the truck as close as possible. The vet tech had showed me how to properly pick him up but I was still terrified.
On the ride home all he wanted to do was look out of the windows! He fell a few times, finally gave up on catching the scenic view (not, this is Kansas lol)
He was so crazy excited to be home! He ran around, maybe a little too much for someone who had just had surgery, went straight to barking and bossing us around, ate A LOT, and once he got the hang of it; rolling on the carpet in circles (which my mom hates with a holy passion).
Here’s a link to a little video of Stormy that I made for my dad who is currently working in GA. Ignore my stupid, high pitched voice. I was just so excited lol.
Sorry about the not-so-great quality, also lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lerVGc0V7ec

On Friday (2/15/2013) the vet called us and asked us to come and visit our new tripawd Stormy.
On the way I was really apprehensive about seeing him. Of course I wanted to see him! But I was expecting a very sad Stormy, yelping and having to be carried around. I actually started crying happy tears when he walked (or hopped) in all by himself just a day after surgery!!
He wouldn’t stop walking around the examination table in the middle, even though he was whimpering a bit, but he was wagging his tail.
The girls who work there were laughing, saying he’s been pretty energetic ever since he woke up.

 They decided to keep him to watch for infection and said it would be one night or three.
I was really apprehensive about touching him and the vet MADE me take him for a walk, which was terrifying. He always wanted me to carry Stormy out, but I ended up asking a vet tech to do it, too afraid I’d hurt him.
After the visit I felt 1000 times better about what the outcome of Stormy having the Surgery would be, especially because he was doing so well the vet tech kept questioning his age.
I assured him Stormy was born April 1998, 15 years ago this coming April 🙂