I actually slept last night. In my own bed. I think that's the first time since December? It was a relief and I have a more hopeful attitude today. Part of it is from getting sleep and part of it is because they found a reason for Winston to be so miserable and we're working toward fixing it. I always feel better doing something about a problem than waiting for some outside force to intervene. I'll admit to being a bit of a control freak.
Josie is wondering what's going on, but now when Winston is gone, she's not as worried. She's never known anything but this. She is very kind to him and also protective. That's a little funny when you think about it. He is almost twice her size, but she's the one who watches out for him.
Dr. Trousdale with AMVS called after Winston's surgery. He said that Winston's attitude had picked up a bit this morning, so the surgery yesterday had made a difference. Today they flushed another 3 liters of fluid through his knee joint and they're still getting chunks of gunkyness (can't think of a better way to describe it) out so even though they'll let him go home with us tonight, they want him back again tomorrow morning so that they can flush it out again.
Dr. Trousdale is pretty detailed about what we should expect when we come to get him, and what to expect overnight, and he will be the one taking care of Winston over the weekend. He hopes that tomorrow goes well enough that we can skip Sunday and then if all goes well, we can close the wound on Monday.
He said to expect the lap sponges to be white (or close to white) when we pick him up and by morning they'll be dark brown colored from the fluid that they're absorbing. Winston is still on antibiotics and pain pills, so we'll have to keep giving them and if he'll eat, he can eat tonight but nothing in the morning since he's going to have more surgery.
After work I ran to PetsMart and got a couple of packages of Greenies Pill Pockets -- something I discovered during a Josie vet visit. I also searched around for some kind of small canned dog food so hopefully I wouldn't have to refrigerate it between attempts to feed Winston. The temperature of the canned dog food before seemed to turn him off. I finally settled on some tuna-sized cans of Mighty Dog "chunks in gravy". It was a mixed box of beef, chicken and turkey. Hopefully Winston will think it's tasty.
We picked Winston up about 6pm and he was still pretty groggy from his surgery earlier in the day. Don put the bill up to today on his credit card. The bandage was a little damp looking but not dark brown. I knew what to expect as far as the description of the bandage, but when I pictured the bandage in my head, it wasn't the same as what I saw. It's HUGE and it was held in place by rubber bands that were stitched into the skin of his leg. My poor boy.
I checked on him later only to find that he had peed on his bed and he was still laying in it. How depressing. I hope that it's because he's still not fully in control because of surgery rather than because he just doesn't care enough about what happens to him. I got him moved over to the other bed and I sopped it up with an old "dog towel". Luckily the fabric covering that bed is still pretty water resistant and it had been covered with an old blanket that had taken most of the hit. I got all of that into the washer with about a cup of white vinegar in the bleach dispenser along with detergent in the detergent dispenser. I re-covered the bed in more dog towels and hoped for the best since he's now on his orthopedic bed that has a fake fleece cover. That'll soak up some urine!
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