Maine Millers

How do you know when an Aussie is fully recovered from surgery?  He acts worse than he did before surgery.  Scout is in need of some serious exercise, mental and physical.  He is getting into everything everywhere in the house.  He stole a 10″ bread knife yesterday and started to chew the wooden handle, he is getting on the counters, begging for food, stealing socks, general mis-behaving.  Yesterday was his first day playing at Bowdoin College fields after 3 weeks and he had a great time running and wrestling with all the other dogs.  He had a good wrestling match with a golden, Katie, that was almost his age and also just recovered from spaying, the match lasted a good 10 minutes.

Starting our next obedience classess tomorrow night (after a 4 week break) and these are different, billed as a way to beat the winter doldrums, we will be  learning tricks, rally-o, freestyle, and some other things.

Yea, back to normal.  Scout got the clean bill of health today.  Staples were removed and incision has healed nicely, thanks to the e-collar.  We are cleared to go back to regular activities and we are both glad.  Walks, frisbee, playing with other dogs…it’s all good!

I think all the pain meds are out of his system…  Wow what a difference today.  He is back to his old self and obnoxious due to lack of exercise this week.  I took him for a walk today and other than the neighbor saying that the lampshade on his head was a little early for new years eve the walk was uneventful.  He is still trying to grab his leash and the e-collar makes that more difficult but he is managing to get it anyway.  Our next classes start on Jan. 9th and they are non-traditional classes.  They tell me it’s tricks, freestyle, and rally-o type of training.  We’ll see, it’s only 5 weeks.  Wish us luck!!!

This is the most pitiful dog you’ve ever seen. Scout had a little rougher surgery than most due to Cryptorchidism so he has a second incision in the abdomen. He took a trip to the emergency vet Sunday night, Christmas Eve, due to the fact that this second incision was very red and swollen. The vet did a good cleaning and dried it with Gold Bond Medicated Powder and sent us home with antibiotics. He is just starting to show some energy today, I think he is getting bored and wants to play but that is hard with an e-collar on your head. He just moves from the bed to the dog bed to the couch to the other end of the couch and repeats the process with some whining. I imagine that standing is hurting or pulling on the incision since every time he is up it’s a frantic attempt to lick the area. Hopefully this week will go quickly and he can get back to normal soon. Staples come out Tuesday Jan. 2.

He came home this afternoon and is pretty heavily drugged.  I was making dinner and he was just laying on the floor behind me and not moving, not normal.  He is getting spooked by simple things like a piece of cheese I tried to give him.  I guess he really is out of it and the smell “woke” him up, but he did startle.  It should be fun trying to keep him calm for the next 10 days.