• I must have the only dog that gets excited twice a day when it's time for his meds! 🙂 I've come to believe he has no idea he's getting 3 pills wrapped in a piece of turkey….he hears the rattle of the pill bottle and comes running and sits there just waiting for his turkey! Everyone laughs because you can be anywhere and just shake a bottle of pills and he comes running for turkey!

    Chealsie you drive all the way into RI for the animal hospital and I drive all the way out of RI to MA/Tufts for Sonny's doctors! 🙂


  • Went to work, I realize the now how important it was to be at the meeting and how much I was needed but still…it was incredibly difficult to leave Oakley- he ended up ripping of his inflatable collar and was very upset with me leaving...his incision looks ok so even if he irritated it, he didn't do any harm...I took the rest of the week off other than the overnight which I can't help and 5 hours on Saturday but that's the "safe zone" period...glad im home, glad that's over with...I got the call too late and with such short notice I couldn't arrange for the sitter or the vet to boar him.

    Very lucky everything turned out ok. Thank my lucky stars 😉


  • Glad everything is going relatively smoothly and that Oakley pooped! He is lucky to have such a devoted mom!


  • I'm glad the punkster made out okay and is continuing to improve. He's a survivor, and he does have a devoted mom! Sounds like he might have nine lives like my Spencer did! 🙂

  • First Basenji's

    So happy that life is getting back to a 'normal' with Oakley. Oh the stress! 'They' say that a particular dog comes into our life for a reason…..He definitely found the mom that is dedicated to him!!!! Glad he is back to his punky self! After this weekend and a few glasses, you'll be back too!


  • How is baby boy doing? Hope that things are going well and that he is healing well… positive thoughts that all is well!


  • Thanks everyone. Buddy's Pal: I say all the time that he chose me and that while I didn't necessarily get the dog I wanted ( in the beginning) I got the dog I needed. He taught me to live life again after my relationship ended..I waited three years/seasons and all the while expected a red and white girl and I got a black and white boy 🙂
    Wouldn't trade him for a million bucks, not that I believe anyone who take him much less pay 😉

    We are one week out from surgery, today was the first day unsupervised and he is doing much better. He's passed the safety zone for anything surgically to go wrong, and at the point where the "outside" stitches can't be reopened. Another few days of medications (were down to 3 pills + 1 syringe a day which is great–>no more 6ams)..he has been home since Saturday night and has pooped 8 times successfully..which is great considering the vet thought he'd go three or four days without going at all!
    Just switched to regular Fromms kibble from boiled hamburger and rice..can't wait to be able to plump him up..poor baby is down to a measily 19 lbs from his 23.5 average; I'm afraid people will think I'm starving or mistreating him!

    Appetites great, he is resting his belly and seems to know he needs to spend more time healing, I'm very proud of him

    P.S. thanks for the mini marshmallow suggestion: works great for the larger pills I can't hide in his food!


  • Hooray! So pleased for you both!


  • Great news to hear!


  • Glad things are progressing!


  • Any ideas on what to feed him to get him to gain back the almost 5lba he lost?? We're finally back on his kibble from his boiled bland diet..he currently gets Fromms kibble but I'm trying to think of ways to add or substitute to help him out…thinking of adding a little broth to the meal, giving tuna occasionally..I've tried veggies but he's picky 😕
    I'll try cooked sweet potatoes, steamed green beans but those were a past fail...I'm thinking of cooking a variety of meat/poultry to add to the kibble, bison, chicken..I could try fish but I gather it's not his favorite..but the actual "bulking up" part is harder to grasp...I feel like I'm just diversifying his meals and not adding good weight potential.. Is it more beneficial to gaining weight if I give him the meat/poultry raw? Or is it better and safer (to his recovery) if I cook it?


  • Vegetables are good for him but won't add weight. You want calorie dense meals. I wouldn't worry about putting the weight back on quickly, but one way would be to just add another feeding (rather than feeding more at each meal), if you are/were happy with the food you currently use.


  • ….I know donuts always make me gain weight!!......lol. 🙂


  • Haha..if I start giving him donuts then I'm sure one or two will slip onto my plate! Lol

    Perhaps munchkins!


  • @Chealsie508:

    Haha..if I start giving him donuts then I'm sure one or two will slip onto my plate! Lol

    Perhaps munchkins!

    I had to google munchkins….they are the American equivalent of TimBits! Too funny. Maybe you could feed him three times a day? Not munchkins, but another meal of kibble.


  • Lol- when I wrote munchkins I realized you were from Canada and was pretty sure I should have clarified!!! Lol, too funny!

    For those who don't know, munchkins are mini donuts, in a ball form…it's like a mini indulgment of the larger more unhealthy version 🙂


  • And yes, I think I'll add an egg to breakfast and some chicken or fish to dinner but also give a "lunch"..I'm sure he is looking forward to all the extras and is likely hoping it will take a long time before he gains the weight!! For him the longer the better, for me..I can't stab seeing his ribs and spine and how tiny his tucked middle looks..poor muffin..


  • Talk about having shot nerves! Yesterday I had to stay home because Oakley started vomiting at 2 am and continued til about 2:30 in the afternoon. Went to the vet at 3:30 because I was worried about this having something to do with his surgery..turns out it kinda did. Oakley hasn't had regular stools since I switched him from his bland diet to his regular food so finally on Monday I realized his system just wasn't going to reset; I called the vet to see if I could start back at square one with the bland diet of boiled chicken and rice..plan was to do that and give a little yogurt to give him back some good probiotics/bacteria and if his stool returned to normal then continue for a week then very very slowly (5days slow) transition back to his food and see if he could handle it..unfortunately we only got two meals of chicken and rice before the throwing up commenced; turns out his tummy is still uber sensitive and the switch again made him sick. They gave him two shots, one for nausea and the other for coating his stomach. He hasn't thrown up since and today I'm at work hoping for the best when I return; he was starving yesterday and I was only able to give him ONE TBSP last night around 10, he looked real pissed off at me, can't blame him as I'm still trying to get him to gain back all the weight he lost (he got down to 19.5 lbs and is currently at 20.4- he's normally 24)

    I think I'm getting gray hairs from all of this..lol

    Moral of the story: always have wine and whiskey on hand!


  • Have you asked about add this to his food - FortiFlora, I get it on Amazon.com

    http://www.purinaveterinarydiets.com/Product/FortiFloraCanineNutritionalSupplements.aspx


  • I've been wondering about Oakley and was hoping you would update us. Poor little guy. I'm sorry he's still having issues. It's sad when they get thin like that. And, yes, they will turn you gray in no time. And drive you to drink, too!

    The vet gave me FortiFlora for Spencer. He wouldn't touch food with it sprinkled on it, but the vet said most dogs don't mind the taste. I've heard good things about it.

    Pls keep us posted on Oakley's progress.

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