It was touch and go with poor Coco today.
She was fine when she had her meds in her. But, oh boy, when they started to wear off, she was really in pain. Exacerbated, I think, by me picking her up to take her outside to go to the bathroom, and then eat dinner.
That sequence—she was about 5 hours into her meds at that point—sent her into an acute pain episode where I think she was having back spasms. Her whole body was rigid and shaking, it would arch her head back, and she’d pace around frantically. Oh, it was so hard to watch. She was in so much pain.
But…not now. I talked to the doc. They said she could take more pain and muscle meds at 6 hours instead of 8 as long as she wasn’t too sedated, which she hasn’t been. She relaxed after that, and I realized I can’t pick her up any more.
She’s now 5 hours into her meds again, and she’s sleeping. Thank lord. I took her out to go potty in her box. We’re just going to carry her around in that for the time-being. It has enough rigidity on its own so that none of the carrying pressure is on Coco at all when I pick it up, it’s all on the box. She just goes for a ride with me. That, and the meds, seem to have helped.
Can confirm she can still walk. It was a relief to see that when she went pee before bed. It’s a tense, hunched walk, but she can do it, so there’s no paralysis going on. And her pain episodes today weren’t worse than they were last night, just about the same.
Anyway…Liz is looking for veterinary acupuncturists to take her to this weekend, maybe. It’s definitely something I still a little wary of, kind of like chiropractors, but there are several people we know who’ve done it with their dogs and swear by it. I don’t think it could do any harm, and there does seem to be a least some evidence that it can help. I’m not sure how rigorous that evidence is, but 🤷♂️
One step at a time.
She’s falling asleep now. We’ll see how she does going past 8 hours without fresh meds. I’m hoping she can make it to morning. That would get her on a nice schedule. We’ll see.
Night night.