The Life and Times of a Post-Surgical Dachshund

Your 'Long and Short of it All' host 'Joey' continues to recover well at home after his surgery!  It's a busy time, hence the lack of updates, but all your prayers and well-wishes have sure helped get him to this point.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  For those just joining us, here is Joey's diagnosis post surgery:

Post operative bilateral adrenalectomy and spleenectomy

Iatrogenic hypoadrenocorticism (Addison's Disease after removal of adrenal glands)

Resolving PTE (pulmonary embolism - blood clot in the lungs)

Resolving pancreatitis

Blunt tail trauma from tail wagging

This is a list of his medications:

Plavix 75 mg - 1/2 tablet orally once daily for 10 days.  This medication helps prevent blood clots from forming.

Amoxicillin 100 mg - 2 tablets orally three times daily for 14 days.  This antibiotic has been stopped for good due to nausea.

Metronidazole 250 mg - 1/2 tablet orally twice daily for 4 days.  This medication for diarrhea has been stopped because his stools were well formed, and it was possibly causing nausea.

Ursodiol 100 mg capsules - 1 capsule orally once daily with food.  This medication for "gallbladder sludge" has not yet been started because it causes nausea.  Will be started soon.

Prednisone 5 mg - 1/4 tablet orally once daily for life. 

DOCP 24 mg - injection for Addison's Disease every 25 days for life.  Next dose due September 13, 2010

Famotidine (Pepcid) 10 mg - 1/2 tablet every 12 hours to help with prevent stomach upset.  This was added a day or so after he came home because of continuing nausea.

Metoclopramide (Reglan) oral liquid (seen in amber oral syringes above) - 2.5 mg/2.5 mL every 8 hours.  This was added to his regimen on Friday because of nausea.

Cerenia 24 mg - 1 tablet orally daily for 4 days.  We asked the vet to give us this stronger anti-nauseant on Friday in case things got worse over the long holiday weekend.  Luckily, things have continued to improve, and vomiting didn't get "out of control" for us, so he didn't get any doses.  This medication can't be given for long periods of time, and he was getting this in the hospital, so we were just saving it in case of emergency.

Probiotics - We asked the vet if we could give him this to kick-start his intestinal flora.  He agreed that we could.

Rescue Remedy - one of our herbal friends suggested that we spray a little of this inside his ears to promote well-being.  He runs to hide when the bottle comes out!  It doesn't get sprayed IN his ears, but just on the inside flaps.

Thanks for all the tips on getting the pills down him.  We can't use peanut butter or anything fatty because of his pancreatitis.  We tried the pill pockets, but they didn't work either because he chews everything and found the pills and spit them out.  He's starting to swallow larger pieces of food now though, so if we coat the pills with canned dog food, we're getting him to swallow them.  Finally.

Diet:

Joey is getting different types of canned dog food that came home with him from the hospital.  He eats every 4 -6 hours.  Evanger's, ID, and the newest is WD.  Never in a million years did we think we would offer him food that contained corn and peanut hulls, but it is low fat and fills him up.  He is getting to the point that we may switch him to a low-fat kibble - and we're sure he'll hate it.  The internal med vet doesn't want him back on raw - he doesn't like the raw diet (no surprise there) - but he says we can start him back on it in a month or two "if we so desire."

We also make chicken and rice, or ground chuck (96% lean, cooked and then blotted with a paper towel) and rice for him.  We add fat-free yogurt to his food as well for intestinal flora support.

Exercise:

Joey and Maggie went on 20 - 30 minute walks every day over the holiday weekend.  We went to the park where he could walk off-leash at his own pace.  Maggie is the one who isn't really up for the walks!  Joey enjoyed the fresh air, and also spends a lot of time on the deck sunning himself.

Overall, Joey is doing very well.  His vomiting episodes are becoming less and less frequent - not sure if it's the metoclopramide which is finally helping, but it seems to be mostly bile that he is vomiting.  He gets pieces of low fat wheat bread several times a day between meals to help soak up the bile.  He hasn't vomited now since 5 AM on Sunday morning, so things are looking up in that regard.  He's happy and fairly active, although he understandably likes long naps, but then don't we all? 

Maggie is jealous of all the food and snacks that Joey is getting all the time, but we give her little bites of his food so she doesn't feel completely left out.  She's happy to have her brother home.