Back at home….again

Since our last post, we have left the hometel to return to our real home…our the third floor apartment. We stayed in a first floor hotel room for the first week+ after Billy got rid of the excess baggage he was carrying around on his back end. Boy, is it good to be home! The hometel was nice and all; in a way, it felt like we were on vacation, and it was definitely the best plan for Billy’s recovery. In fact, we would highly recommend this for any new tripawd families who have a significant number of stairs that must be climbed when it’s time to go to the bathroom.

Billy’s incision is healing pretty well. We’ll be taking him to the vet tomorrow morning to get his stitches removed. He already did half the job, so we’re hoping to get a big discount. Last night, we left him home alone for the FIRST time since his diagnosis on the 16th of January. Since he goes bonkers when he has to wear the plastic cone, we decided to do him a favor and get an inflatable collar that is supposed to serve the same purpose – but not be so unpleasant. Big mistake. It seemed like it would prevent him from reaching his incision. We weren’t all that worried anyway, because he has surprisingly had very little interest in his incision up to this point. So we left for a couple of hours to go see the John Butler Trio perform (one of Bryan’s birthday presents from me). Meanwhile, Billy decided that his wound was healed enough, and it was time for the stitches to go. He managed to reach his incision, despite the inflatable collar. Clearly Billy has not been through vet school, because I’m pretty sure that you are not supposed to lick stitches out. It seems to be alright though – it’s a bit irritated, but it seems to be mostly healed already. We’ll get the verdict in the morning, and hopefully Billy can free himself from the remaining stitches tomorrow. We suggest that if you’re going to use the inflatable collar, use it with caution. It may be good for keeping your pet away from some parts of their body, but it didn’t work at keeping Billy from getting to the spot where his leg used to be.

Meanwhile, Billy is getting around incredibly well. He really enjoys taking short walks around his own neighborhood. (That hotel just didn’t have enough good sniffings!) Since we’ve been home, he’s also been sleeping much better, which has allowed us to start catching up on some of the sleep we lost over the last week. When Billy went down to get the mail for us yesterday, he was thrilled to find that he’d received a get well card from his good friends Savannah, Jeremy and Pip. They really know how to help with the healing process – the envelope was filled with treats! Thanks guys – you made his day!