I’ve been slack in keeping up with things here – mostly because Wolfy has actually been sleeping well relatively speaking – that is until last night. Up until last night I’d been getting some good shut eye. He would get up in the middle night regularly, but then he’d go back to sleep after I convinced him to move to the front bedroom. I’m thankful for the rest. Last night, however, was an all time low. He literally cried all night long and didn’t sleep at all and basically neither did I.
The evening before I started him on proin for his incontinence. Yes, oh, by the way, he’s incontinent now. I think he was a little incontinent before, but now he’s incontinent for real so I finally had to do something about it. I took in a urine sample yesterday and Dr. Ford said it was fine (no UTI going on & no kidney failure) – so we then started him on proin last night. Shortly after going to bed he vomitted up what looked like most of his supper. Then he proceed to cry and be very stressed and agitated all night long. Everytime I gave a treat he’d puke it up later, too. I gave him more proin around 3 in the morning and 2 Tramadol – thinking he might have puked up the pain meds and also knowing that it’s okay to give 3 doses of proin if needed. That didn’t improve the situation at all. Finally around 5 in the morning he started to settle down when I let him outside and we both slept on the front stoop – I brought my blanket, pillow, and bedroll out there to be w/ him. I hate the idea of him suffering alone!!
His agitated demeanor very likely could be as a result of the proin. Since he also threw up, however, he might have been having stomach issues. I also gave him an antacid at some point! He also, of course, is extremely uncomfortable from the constant dripping. It’s pretty much driving him crazy! Help!
I gave him more proin this morning, reluctantly, not being sure whether it caused the sleeplessness or not. No puking so far this morning, but he is somewhat agitated – surprising considering how exhausted he must be! Before I gave him the proin he was quiet and very tired, now he’s awake and licking his crotch. It took about 38 minutes for him to start being all agitated. I’m going to keep giving it a try, but it doesn’t seem to working well for him moodwise. I should have known Wolfy would be prone to this side effect since he’s already so stressed and panicky to begin with! I’m trying to reserve judgement, however.
PT wise, Wolfy continues to do well – though he hates it! He’s working on endurance now and walks for 6 minutes at a time before resting. Not sure if we’ll increase his length of the workout or not. I think he’s up to almost 15 minutes.
Poor Wolfman. I hope we’re able to fix the incontinence issue. I was hoping this would be a happy winter for him – but maybe that’s not gonna happen. It is better than summer though! Not sure what other options are available for dogs that don’t tolerate the Proin – I know they give hormones to girl dogs – not sure what they do for boys. If I have a repeat panicky night I’m calling Dr. Ford tomorrow. Maybe we’ll have to go the diaper route. Poor guy just seems very uncomfortable – plus he’s dripping pretty much everywhere!
Walk wise, he walked all the way down to Ed & Mary’s house the other day, but that was a statistical outlier. Most days he only walks a couple houses – maybe three – or maybe just across the street and then back again. That’s okay. Whatever he can do is okay with me.
Unrelated to Wolfy, I’m trying to figure out if there is anything I can do to help my neighbor’s dog who has been left behind. His chances are dismal if he goes to the shelter. The economic disaster is not being kind to dogs who are being unloaded by people who are struggling to pay their bills. Ugh.
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