One-year-old Sheltie 3 weeks post orthopedic surgery on acepromazine not eating much; is this normal

Fainlysmom said:
I've wondered about his status; we've spent so much to date I haven't done anything about finding out yet. (By "so much" I mean we passed $20,000 a little while ago.) Retirement money, but now we're retired with Fainly and it's a much better deal.
Click to expand...

If you are still on good terms with his breeder, you might see if his mother and father were tested. If they were and are normal, you don't have to worry about that. Just a thought.

Fainly is lucky to have a family willing to help him, that's a lot of money by anyone's standards.
 
Susan, it is good to hear from you and know that Fainly seems to be doing fairly well overall. The cone is so important, as you know, to keep him from his surgery area ...my Sketchie had to have a cone for weeks after his leg amputation and although he hated it for the first couple of days he got used to it and it really wasn't an issue. With no exercise, which is critical to stick to for Fainly, I am not surprised his food intake is substantially down and as long as he is not losing weight I honestly wouldn't worry about it. In fact, if he was still eating what he ate when he was more active he would gain weight and that is the last thing you want as it would only add pressure on his legs once he can be up and about.
Does Fainly like to ride in the car? If he does and is either seat belted or crated, so he can't move about, you might find it would cheer him up a bit...just make sure he is securely limited from any real movement.
I also wonder if there is still some level of pain associated with the surgery...it was by necessity a very invasive surgery. Maybe talk to your vet about extending limited pain meds for a little while longer?
Gentle hugs to your big boy...he and you will get through this and in the end it will have been worth all the worry.
Trini
 
Is Fainly neutered? My Cody was 42 pounds and not overweight - just big, and he only ate 1 cup of Fromms a day. Especially if Fainly is inactive now due to his surgery, he will not be as hungry (or need as many calories). Glad to hear that he is healing!
 
Caro said:
Have you had him tested for the MDR1 gene mutation (aka ABCB1 gene mutation)? MDR1 dogs are heavily affected by ACP and he may be on far too high a dose for an MDR1 dog. If you don't know his MDR1 status then I would ask the vet to swap him onto something else (or drop his dose if there is nothing else). This is the case for dogs with both mutations and mutant/normal (+/-) dogs. When Deska was given ACP he had hallucinations and he was +/-

This link is about dosage for MDR1 dogs and Problem drugs
Click to expand...
I was going to bring this up about Ace. I've printed that list and given it to my vet.
I did get all 4 tested and the brown dogs are +/- but the younger boys are both normal/normal. Washington State is where our tests were done.
 
Piper's mom said:
This is who our breeder uses for MDR 1 testing (and all other genetic tests). I believe you pay for it, they send you the swab and then you send it back.
https://www.animalgenetics.us/

my last boy Riley was big also, he was 39 pounds and lean. I fed him a little over 1 cup of dry food a day.
Click to expand...
Thanks. This is interesting. We see the vet again tomorrow, the ortho guy, and I'll see what he says. Fainly also has to have his rabies shot -- the docs there say that he can't have more than one kind of shot at a time so he's behind -- and they may have a better idea what he should be eating than the ortho guy.
 
Sharon7 said:
If you are still on good terms with his breeder, you might see if his mother and father were tested. If they were and are normal, you don't have to worry about that. Just a thought.

Fainly is lucky to have a family willing to help him, that's a lot of money by anyone's standards.
Click to expand...
Well, she gave us $1600 of our money back, I think we're on good enough terms. Can't hurt to ask. I'll do that. I bet not, though.
 
trini said:
Susan, it is good to hear from you and know that Fainly seems to be doing fairly well overall. The cone is so important, as you know, to keep him from his surgery area ...my Sketchie had to have a cone for weeks after his leg amputation and although he hated it for the first couple of days he got used to it and it really wasn't an issue. With no exercise, which is critical to stick to for Fainly, I am not surprised his food intake is substantially down and as long as he is not losing weight I honestly wouldn't worry about it. In fact, if he was still eating what he ate when he was more active he would gain weight and that is the last thing you want as it would only add pressure on his legs once he can be up and about.
Does Fainly like to ride in the car? If he does and is either seat belted or crated, so he can't move about, you might find it would cheer him up a bit...just make sure he is securely limited from any real movement.
I also wonder if there is still some level of pain associated with the surgery...it was by necessity a very invasive surgery. Maybe talk to your vet about extending limited pain meds for a little while longer?
Gentle hugs to your big boy...he and you will get through this and in the end it will have been worth all the worry.
Trini
Click to expand...
Hi, and thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately, he doesn't like the car. When we first got him we drove from Colorado to Missouri to get him in our RV. We took two days to get home but didn't realize how noisy the RV would be for him, plus the traffic, and I think he was quite traumatized by the whole experience even though I held him the entire time; sat with him instead of up front with my husband. He does only okay in the car, and that if I'm sitting in the back seat with him, which I don't want to do for the rest of my life. We are looking for a car seat for a 40-pound dog that has a zipper in the front so he can put his head and chest on the divider between the front seats, which he likes to do. We have not been able to find one, so he doesn't have a car seat. If anyone knows of this kind of a car seat (I've seen them for tiny dogs but not for one his size) I'd love to hear about it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top