The past few days Gizmo has taken a downturn. While he is willing to get up and walk a bit when he needs to, he is trying not to put any weight on the back right at all. I had him examined at physical therapy, but they don’t believe there’s an injury to do anything about and we just need to get him back on the anti-inflammatory soon to see if it’ll make a difference for his pain. They really took it easy on him this week and just made him stand in the tank without actually walking on the treadmill. He’ll have a check-in with the orthopedic vet next week, too. Colin and I agreed that if we can’t get the leg working in the next couple of weeks we need to have a serious quality of life discussion. I’ve been thinking this for some time, and he’s starting to catch up. Of course, while we’re saying this Gizmo is shamelessly demanding we pay attention to him and give him cuddles and our full attention. He is such a happy boy that lives for his cuddles. It feels wrong to be giving up on him when he’s always choosing to push through and live his best life, but I just don’t know if he’s happy enough of the time.
Work has been demanding for both of us and when we don’t sleep much, neither does Gizmo. He was very groggy ahead of his next chemo session on Aug 1, 2024. I gave him his Trazodone anyway so they wouldn’t need as much IV sedation during the chemo session. It’s a good thing Colin took him to this session! Gizmo refused to walk in and Colin had to carry him. I wouldn’t have been able to do it. He was extra groggy after being sedated, and he didn’t even lift his head to acknowledge me when I came home from work. It was very un-Gizmo. But later that evening after a long nap he was willing to eat and back to himself.
On August 2, 2024 we were leaving for a weekend camping trip. I was very nervous about the sitter being able to handle him given how the past two days had gone, but I put a plan in place to set him up for success the best I could, and we would only be an hour away with intermittent cell service so we could always come back early if needed. We were able to restart his Galliprant (anti-inflammatory) this morning. I gave him an extra pain pill and the appetite stimulant so he’d eat for her. I made sure we took him out so he wouldn’t need her to move him for a little while. Then we headed off and hoped for the best.