December 19, 2009: Day 17, Bandage slipped

I set the alarm for every 3 hours last night but Winston was so restless that it never actually went off.  I'd hear Winston get up and thump around and I'd get up and check his toes and then reset the alarm for another 3 hours, and Winston would get me up again before it went off.  Needless to say that neither of us got much rest.  There was no change in his toes all night -- they stayed all snuggled together just like they were supposed to.  The lower part of the bandage also looks good and hasn't shifted at all.  The upper part of the bandage has fallen down his leg and the soft padded part has also curled over so that now I can see half of the seroma over the top of the bandage.  Obviously it's not doing what it was meant to do, so I called AMVS and asked them if I should bring him back.  They said that I should so we went back in for a bandage change.

They wrapped thick sticky tape around the upper part of the bandage.  It didn't seem to be sticking really well to his fur, but it definitely made the top edge of the bandage a lot stiffer and taller than the first bandage.  As soon as we got home, I encouraged Winston to lie down and I brought a book and my Crazy Creek chair into his pen.  Every time he started to get up, I'd tell him to lie down.  Less movement = less bandage slippage.  Eventually he got the hint and went to sleep.  I read for awhile (Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol") but found myself nodding.  Eventually I grabbed a huge throw pillow and lay down next to him and napped a bit as well. 

He's much quieter today and seems to finally get that he's not going to be walking while he's got this thing on his leg.  The only time he got up was to go out for potty breaks.  He's even been eating while lying down.  I took a break from his pen in the evening and when I came back downstairs I found that he'd been licking and chewing on the bottom (around his toes) of the bandage.  I cut away the padding and wet edges and put his donut on, hoping that would be enough to keep him from trying that again.  No such luck.  I heard licking pretty soon afterward.  That's probably the only time I appreciate Mastiff jowls; there's definitely some noise when they open their mouth and the sounds of licking carries up into the living room.  Busted!  We broke the big cone e-collar back out again and now he's got that on.  He hates it.