Yesterday was Penny’s 2nd Heartworm treatment injection… she has already decided that the vet is no longer a fun place to be. 😦 Until the first injection she actually enjoyed seeing the vet staff, but after that first injection she has decided that they all suck. The vet says she does really well for the deep back muscle injection, so even though she puts on the breaks now to go to the back, she is still a good girl.
I inquired about better pain meds for the second injection and they did a much better job. The first injection we tried Tramadol, which seemed to not help at all, and she panted, grunted, cried and paced for 6 hours. She also didn’t accept food or water for 12 hours. The second injection we tried Gabapentin, I gave her one pill in the car ride home and then another once we got home (prescription was 1-2 pills every 8-12 hours as needed), about an hour later she was markedly better than the previous injection. She was able to relax and sleep 2 hours after the injection and was willing to eat and drink 4 hours after the injection. I gave her one more pill about 11 hours later and then 2 more 12 hours after that (1 hour before the 3rd injection).
Today was the 3rd and hopefully final injection. I gave her pain meds an hour before her injection hoping it would help. She seemed to do a bit better at first, but then the panting and pacing started up again, although perhaps a bit less than yesterday. She wouldn’t take a treat just now, but it’s still a bit early (an hour before I offered food yesterday), and she is finally resting (about an hour after yesterday). I’m keeping an eye on her, but she seems to be doing way better than the first injection.
Today she seems to want a bit more alone (but near) time, we have Duke in another room with my husband, so that she can rest. She has access to my office (which has both tents) and the balcony…
In a month we will test her again and hopefully we got it all. She’ll then be tested again in 6 months. She’s on restricted activity for another 6-8 weeks (aka mid-November). Then she can finally run and play! 😀
Until next time…
~nic
P.S. Now that we’ve had the pups 3 months, Penny is starting to show more snuggy qualities. She was always friendly and curious, but wasn’t really a snuggle hound (not like Duke — he would love for you to rub his belly for hours!). First I noticed her being a bit more cuddly with Duke… then a few days later she actually asked to snuggle with me on the futon, so of course I let her. We invited up Duke as well…
P.P.S. Duke tags along on all these vet visits and gets lots of attention from the vet reception staff. He still thinks it’s a fun place to visit. 😛
P.P.P.S. In several of these photos Penny looks wiped out and in pain, here’s a photo of Penny & Duke a few days before her 2nd injection hanging out in my office…
Photography by Nic 
I like your post 😊.
Thank you so much, Loshame 🙂
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