Doctors, pills and the pug

This week has been a change for us. It started Monday with my discovery that I was overdosing Audrey on her medications. Yikes! It seems that when I was told to give her 1/2 tab with food that my brain stopped functioning as the words continues ‘every 24 hours.’ Because the pup gets two solid meals a day (and probably beacause the other medications she recieved for the giardia were multiple daily doses) I gathered she got the pills 1/2 in the am and 1/2 in the pm. I wondered when one of the drugs ran out.

A call (and glance at the discharge instruction sheet) confirmed that I’d blown in. But there weren’t any signs of distress on her part. Her poop was fine, behavior fine, sleeping fine. She had started leaving her food (odd for a pug), but that was the only sign. Lisa assured me that my mistake seemed not to make a difference, but to stop it now (Monday) since she was returning to them on Wednesday anyway.

Wednesday was the recheck. In in the am and pick her up in the evening. Dr. Canapp was there at drop off and was very impressed by how well she used her braced leg. He said most dogs hold it up for the first week and rarely stand on it. Her exam checked out and she was doing great. I just needed to turn the bolts one more day. But watch her activity.

Today’s Thursday and something has happened. Audrey was less excited this morning when I opened her crate. And as she was awake, was more lethargic, and wouldn’t eat. I gave her a pain pill and she really dragged out. A call to Lisa. She figured that yesterday Audrey was pretty alert, wathcing the action, seeing the other dogs, and combined with the narcotic, was sleeping off the day. Later in the day, Audrey was alert – but her behavior with her leg now simulates what Dr. Canapp expected as seen in other dogs the first week. She doesn’t want to walk on it, and holds it up. She’s still off her food and pretty much just wants to sleep. This evening I cooked a chicken breast and she did like that. I don’t know what’s going on. Perhaps they ‘did something’ to her brace and pins when she visited that is causing her pain. Hopefully there’s not an infection brewing. Even more, I hope this isn’t related to my overdosing her! Maybe this is just her body telling her to s-l-o-w down.