Day: January 18, 2016

The vet said that Tramadol can be kind of hit and miss with dogs and I think Cole is one of those unlucky ones who it doesn’t help much. It was fine when he had the Bupivacaine catheter but as soon as that was taken away, he became increasingly more uncomfortable. We told her we never see much of a difference with the Tramadol other than that one desperate moment the first night when they told us we can give him an extra tablet. We are stopping the Tramadol and they put a Fentanyl patch on him and gave him an injection to hold him over until the patch kicks in. He is doing much better now and is resting after he ate dinner. He seems much more comfortable.

He has some fluid along the bottom of his ribs but not under the incision but doctor said it is ok, keep an eye on it but this amount is not out of the ordinary and she doesn’t think she needs to intervene unless it gets much worse. We will keep up with the icing and other medicines and I will keep updating as we go.

Cole started showing signs of distress mid yesterday. We waited and comforted him to see if he was adjusting to the bupivacaine not being administered anymore but he is not responding to the oral meds much and it has gradually gotten worse. We brought him to the ER vet and they are giving him a fentanyl patch and an injection to hold him over until it kicks in. I hope he feels better soon. I hate seeing him like this. He does have some fluid collecting under his incision but doctor said it looks OK and doesn’t need intervention at this point. We are to keep an eye on it for now. Wish us luck.