Preparations
We’re trying to stay busy waiting for the amputation date—today’s Saturday, surgery is Wednesday. Oddly, I just want the day to get here so it’s over. I want the nasty bone gone, and Fallon to start her new life on 3.
Trying to prep as much as we can…we got an assistance harness, which came a few days ago, and we’ve had her wear it around, mostly so we can control her speed going downstairs. We’re still terrified her weakened bone will break. Ours is awesome, look into one on Etsy if you need one, Greyhound Assistance Harness. All proceeds go back into the artist’s greyhound group. She also makes awesome tag collars, we have a few of them.
Another project has been chicken jerky—pounds of jerky, and more to come. It’s one of Fallon’s favorite foods, so I wanted to have it on hand in case after the surgery she does not feel like her normal kibble. Making it means I need to provide samples…and it’s delicious…so I’ll be making more. It’s all good, it keeps me busy.
We also got a good e collar for after the surgery. E collars for greyhounds are tough, their necks and heads are about the same circumference, so they don’t stay on greyt. Add in the needle nose, and the traditional e collar issued by the vet is not good for this breed. We’re trying the BiteNot Collar, we’ll see how it goes.
I got The Dog Cancer Survival guide–$9.99 for Kindle on Amazon! I’m working my way through it, spending a lot of time on the beginning, where the focus it taking care of yourself. There’s lots of self-soothing stress management techniques to try to implement—man, do I need these now. I’ve skipped ahead to the sections that affect us directly—like chemo—but will eventually make it through the book start to finish.
I’m still working on the oncologist. We’ve been all over the place on this. The closest to us are almost 2 hours away. We looked into having someone local do the chemo, but now are falling on the side of the specialist, feeling they could handle potential curveballs better.
Maggie is Fallon’s sister. They love each other and are best friends. We’re trying to make sure Maggie continues to get attention along with Fallon. Her dad took her to the park for a long walk by herself the other day. We need to do that more. Maggie seems to know something’s up. She’s very intuitive about feelings. It’s a good time to keep showing her she’s an important part of the family and we love her too.
2 comments so far
2:54 pm - 10-7-2017
Your Magfie is so beautiful! She’s srunninv! Love her eyes!! 🙂
You are doing an excellent job krf preparation! Yeah, keeping really yummy food aeound that she loves is a vood plan. Many dogs just don’t have an appetite for a few days after surgery. Although my Happy Hannah NEVER missed a meal, she turned her nose up to water for two weeks!!! I had ro swirl a scoop of ice cream in her water bowl to get her to drink!
Just keep thi gs chunked down for now. You can make a plan on the chemo.later. “Generally”, not always O cos don’t do the chemo unti two weeks after surger. I waited three weeks for my Happy Hannah because I felt like she needed more time to recover from the surgery.
STAY CONNECTED!! Once you see Fallo ‘s sparkle come back bigger and brighter than ever you will be so glad to see her without that bum leg!
Hugs!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
PS. Thanks for all the tips. Interesting about needing the right collar for Greys. Hadn’t thought about the challenges specific ro them.
2:26 pm - 10-8-2017
Thank you so much for all your support, Sally–so very appreciated. Hugs!