TLDR – Devo seems to have been on too many pain meds. After cutting her doses in half she’s seeming more herself. Still clearly a dog in recovery, but definitely improved!
Two days ago Devo had her first “bad” day – didn’t want to get out of bed, hiding in closets, had to be coaxed to eat, didn’t even come to the door to bark at people (one of her main pleasures in life). The next day, same. I was worried.
She was on 3x/day tramadol and 2x/day gabapentin. Before surgery she was on Novox and a few days of gabapentin. Her vets were not stellar at helping me decipher this. I was confused if her behavior was pain, over medication, or disease progression. One vet suggested taking her off all meds cold turkey, one suggested tapering just the tramadol. My blessed dad who is a human oncologist talked me off the ledge, and I decided to cut both tramadol and gabapentin in half and see if pain signals came back. They didn’t!
Today she’s still resting a lot, but she’s curled up in the room with us — not hiding. Tail wags when we pet her, she’s hungry, happy to bark at people coming to the house. It’s such a relief to see her more herself. I was worrying that she wouldn’t get a “honeymoon” phase to this chapter of her life, and would just be all downhill.
We’ll try these doses for a few days and then see if she’s up for reducing tramadol again.
If she seems well enough, chemo starts next Wednesday. I feel sad seeing her laid up like this, but I am grateful that it seems we will have some “encore” days with her <3
Happy Friday!
