Some dogs'll never lose a toe, but then again, some dogs'll

I thought I'd give an update on my dog, Argos. I wrote about his situation here a few days ago.

When I brought him in to get some blood work done before the surgery, the vet insisted that we bump up his appointment from Monday 7/27 to Friday 7/24. The reason why is that his toe was looking a lot worse, as it was swelling and continued to bleed. The poor guy also had to give a urine sample, and apparently he wasn't too cooperative with that, which resulted in him banging up his toe even more.

The funny thing is, most dogs are better behaved when the owners aren't in the room, and that's definitely true for my other dog, Willy. Argos though, he's one of those exceptions, and when they had to re-take his temperature and give him his shot, they tried having me in there with him. With a treat in my hand right in front of his face, he was a lot more cooperative.

So, he went in for surgery on Friday, and before that they did an X-ray to see if his cancer had spread. The good news is that it hasn't, and they were able to proceed with the operation. The procedure was a success, and he did very well under anesthesia. According to the vet, he freaked out a little once he regained consciousness, but once they removed his IV, he became a lot more relaxed. She also pointed out that his whole demeanor toward her and the techs changed, and he became more cooperative in general. It's as though he was glad to be rid of that toe, which makes sense considering how much pain it was causing him.

When Kirsti and I were waiting for the tech to bring him to us, he didn't even notice us at first and tried to go straight for the exit. When he was redirected and saw us there, he was obviously happy to see us. He ran towards us and rubbed up against us as Kirsti and I showered him with affection. He also made this odd whimpering noise which I've never really heard him do before. I'm assuming that it was a happy sound, as his tail was wagging as he did it.

So, we have him home and we have to keep him indoors (which isn't easy considering he needs to be separated from Willy as the two of them got in a bad fight about five years ago). He's actually doing really well, and he's walking around on his bandaged foot as though there was nothing wrong. I suppose that the pain killers are contributing to that, but it's still surprising. He's also doing really well in the house, and he's basically just lounging around. He gets along really well with the cat; in fact, he's almost indifferent to him. Of course, he's also on a lot of medication - 3 kinds - one antibiotic, one anti-inflammatory, and the aforementioned pain killers.

I'm only slightly concerned as he isn't eating as much as he normally does, but he has eaten a little. I guess he's probably suffering from a little nausea still. Considering that he's drinking and going to the bathroom just fine when I take him out, I'm pretty optimistic. Another nice thing is that he's not chewing on his bandage, so we only put the "cone of shame" on him when he's in his crate at night.

Both Kirsti and I are feeling a lot better to see our pup doing so well. I'm looking forward to when he's all better and can come with me on my walks again (at least two weeks on that).

Oh, and while I don't want to go into specifics as to the cost, it was nice that the vet had estimated really high, and the total was almost 1/3 lower than expected. But even if it was the full price, he's worth every penny.