Thanks Michele, Carter was okay today. He slept a lot and did a lot of twitchy dreaming. I haven't really been able to express his bladder at all though (got a little bit around 2:30pm but that's all) so hopefully when DH gets home he can get some more pee out of that dog. At one point I took him outside and he must have seen or smelled a bunny or something, because he tried to take off running. He got away from me and did this goofy stumbling run around the yard before I caught up with him!
Sigh. This is such an emotional rollercoaster. It is so frustrating that Carter seems to be making big improvements in his leg function, and he seems to be in pretty good spirits, but his bladder is either stalled out or getting worse. He has been soaking his diapers all day but we haven't been able to get him to pee more than 15 seconds since 6 this morning. He's acting up even more when we try to express him -- yelping, thrashing, and snapping at our hands. Wednesday's appointment with the surgeon can't come soon enough. To top it off I caught him starting to try to pull off his diaper this afternoon even though he had been leaving them alone up until now (I sprayed it with bitter tasting spray so hopefully that will keep him away from it).
Jessica,
I know you are seeing the surgeon soon, but have they explained WHY he is having such bladder difficulties? I just don't remember that happening when I was a vet tech. It's been awhile but I saw tons of dogs post surgery and I don't remember them having the issues you describe Carter having. It seems quite unusual.
Jessica is your yard fenced? Why not leave Carter out there alone for a few minutes (maybe watch through the window) so that he can pee in private. It sounds like he's picking up on your and DH's frustration with the peeing and this might be making him nervous about doing it.
And taking the diaper off would be likely as dogs don't like to be in their own urine or excrement.
The twitchy dreaming and bunny stumble chasing sound excellent in terms of his nervous functions coming back.
Speaking of stumbling I kinda fell on my head this morning! I got out of my car for the first dog walk, walked around the back end of the car, slipped and hit my head on the bumper on the way to landing on my butt on the concrete sidewalk. Those plastic bumpers that give way are a great idea! I had a bit of a headache for about 5 minutes and then everything was fine. Whew!
Now if I could only do something about my dark purple fingertip (a fall in my dad's driveway while carrying groceries).
Carter, pee. Pee in the yard. Just pee it all out, dude. Good boy. Pee real hard, so we all know you're healthy & on the mend.
(Do dogs have prostate glands & prostate issues? Cause I feel like I've head of older gentlemen with something like Carter's complaint.)
Thanks, all, for the tidbits on Charleston. I'm dreaming of a few days away in a beautiful old Southern city. I need it. I do. It's not the weather. I've had happier Februarys in the past. It's that I'm feeling as if I'm so deeply in a well-worn rut, it's nice to look up outside of it. I have something to look forward to, something new & stimulating to Google while procrastinating on work assignments.
saef - I haven't been to Charleston but I did see Gone With the Wind. Do remember to bring your hoop skirt and crinolines so you won't look out of place. A parasol and bonnet would also be appropriate, LOL.
Michele, part of the problem is that the vets don't know what's wrong. Based on his neurological function in his hind legs he should be able to pee like a champ right now and they don't know why he can't. If he doesn't make an improvement by the time of his appointment tomorrow they're going to do an ultrasound of his bladder to see if he has some kind of blockage like a big blood clot or something. Of course that's kind of a double-edged sword because if they find a blockage, the treatment is likely to do surgery on his bladder. :-/
Dagmar, yes, the yard is fenced, but our instructions from the surgeon to help Carter's recovery were to not leave him unattended unless he is confined to a 6x6 area, and to always take him outside on a leash. I think they want to avoid the stumbling running around because he could hurt himself really easy falling (or catching the staples in his incision on a shrub or what have you) and he is dragging his knuckles on one side and could scrape up his foot. I guess we could put his playpen outside and leave him in it for a little while though, that might be a possibility. Another thing to try might be taking him for a "walk" on the sidewalk in front of the house.
The good news is that last night a few times he got up and turned around on his bed to get more comfortable, which he wasn't doing before. Also his diaper only had a couple drips on it this morning (after we expressed him around 2am). So maybe cutting off the phenoxybenzamine is helping with the dripping, although potentially making it harder for us to express him. Since last night we've only been able to express him lying on his side on a pee pad, not standing up outside. On the other hand since we cut back the prednisone he's drinking much less water so maybe he just doesn't have to go as much? He didn't poop yesterday either but the vets did say that the chicken and rice diet doesn't produce as much poop as kibble does.
In any case I am at work today and DH is home with Carter so hopefully everything will go okay with them. It was tough for me yesterday because he was so calm and relaxed most of the day, but he seems to get antsy and irritable from about 3pm until bedtime, and midnight to 2am.
You all know that point where being overweight becomes unbearable right? You decide "that's it, I'm done" and you mean it and start dieting/working out for real.
I think DH is finally there. He has to do a presentation for his CMA course and he can't find any sports coats that fit. If they do up over his belly they are huge all over everywhere else.
He wears casual clothes all the time and has been able to find all sorts of stretchy shirts but now he's stuck.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed. For the past 2 weeks DH has been saying things like "I really AM obese" and "I really DO feel fat now".
I will commit to helping him with any diet plan he chooses and will not bring home any foods he doesn't want in the house.
I'm really, really hoping he can get this started without a major health event (most likely involving surgery on his stomach hernia, which is getting visibly worse as his abdomen gets larger and larger).
We don't need any further problems right now, particularly ones that would derail both his CMA studies and his job search. I am about to lose 3 more dogs and our income is going to be about 1/2 of what it was.
Dagmar, I hope you are right and that your DH will get on board!
I have some great news. Carter peed!!!! I was at work, but DH tells me Carter got up all of a sudden and wanted out, and as soon as he got his diaper off he started peeing. He then proceeded to wander around the yard, peeing the entire time, and has peed two more times since then. Hooray! Hopefully he will continue to get better!
If it was the pain medication interfering hopefully it is at a lower level overall in his system now because we just gave him his evening dose and I really would love it if he could pee again before bed. But in any case if we don't have to express him that's a major victory!
And Dagmar's husband has had a come-to-Jesus moment & feels really fat, and may be inspired to do something about it. (Hey, I know about those moments.)
And no, Bill, as a matter of fact, I don't own a crinoline, unfortunately. I'm not a re-enactor or anything. The oldest item of wearable clothing that I own only dates back to the early 1900s. I've got two shawls from the 1860s, but I don't wear them. (I use one as a table covering & the other is folded up across a chair.)
Once, at an antique show,I almost bought a bustle that was patented in the 1880s, but I managed to walk away & talk myself out of it. It was a great deal. But it was slightly rusty. Some of the tapes holding it together would have had to be re-sewn. Now & then I have moments of pure insanity at antique shows, where I think that my life will only be complete if I own ____ (a rusty bustle, a taxidermy hummingbird, a silverplated ear trumpet, a Victrola horn hand-painted with blue morning glories). And it's only with an act of will that I walk away. (I don't always: I am the only person I know who owns a stuffed hummingbird inside a glass dome.)
But if I did want to buy a crinoline, I know which dealer I'd probably call up & ask if she had one.
I don't want to live in the 1860s. Sure, they had great heirloom vegetables & animal breeds. But dentistry hadn't been perfected & there wasn't any electricity or Internet or airplanes & the child mortality rate was really sad & let's just not get into the whole slavery thing.
But I do like (& still covet) some of the stuff people kept in their houses in the 19th century.
Yay for puppy pee. You go Carter - go mark your territory everywhere.
I'd never heard of "a stuffed hummingbird inside a glass dome", now I'm jealous. Is it a Ruby Throated?
Dagmar - sending supportive thoughts to your DH. I've gone through that awful feeling as I put on my blue blazer and had to admit that it made me look even fatter by being undersized. When I emptied my closet of big clothes, I sent 4 blue blazers to Good Will.
No pee yet this morning but he sure peed a bunch before bed last night. He's just had his breakfast so maybe there will be more pee soon. Surgeon appointment is at 11:30 this morning.
about doing it. 
this morning! I got out of my car for the first dog walk, walked around the back end of the car, slipped and hit my head on the bumper on the way to landing on my butt on the concrete sidewalk. Those plastic bumpers that give way are a great idea! I had a bit of a headache for about 5 minutes and then everything was fine. Whew! 
