Home from surgery: round one

Our surgeon suggested that he keep Raven for 2-3 days after his surgery to monitor him and to keep him on heavy pain medicine.  I'm sure this helped Raven physically, but mentally he had never been away from us for more than 3 hours...so a few days might be hard for him to cope with.  By the time we brought him home, he was a wreck...mentally, he had no idea why he was hurting, and he was so relieved to be home again.  He cried with every exhale.

For the first night, he had some ace, although not enough.  He kept trying to get up throughout the night, restless and uncomfortable.  Our new rules were to always keep Raven on a leash, to keep him supported by a sling under his belly, to give him soft padding to lay on, and to keep him off slippery surfaces.  We lined our hallways with rugs to help him, brought a mattress into our office, bought several foam-filled dog beds, and put pillows as buffers between him and hard objects.

His cut looked painful and red, and he had some rashes due to the stress.  He would not calm down with the cone of shame on his head, and since he showed no interest in biting the staples, we let him be.  He's never needed to wear it.

It took him 5 days from the surgery to finally go #2.  He tried several times, but cried because the position made him uncomfortable.  He mostly sleeps on his "good" side, but tried to flip around...which makes him cry in pain.  We give him plenty of probiotics and omega supplements to help him detox from the anesthesia, to get his bowels moving, and to help his skin stop itching.