Two steps forward, 1 step back; that’s the way it goes (if you’re lucky). Friday morning I saw that Daphne’s incision was suddenly red; she had obviously been licking it. (I am kind of impressed that she could reach it, I must admit.) I put her sweater, which is long enough to cover her incision, on her, and doubled her dose of trazodone.¹ Ironically, she has seemed cheerier and more energetic since. I was working all day Saturday (attending a Continuing Education course) but my husband sent me a text that she seemed bouncy and happy. When I took her out this morning for her bathroom break, she wanted to wander all over the yard sniffing things. Her gait is fairly stable: mostly normal with some ataxia still. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since her surgery and I will be able to add a few more rehab exercises. Unfortunately I will not be able to take her stitches out; her incision has been slow to heal, whether because of the licking, the prednisone, or both. Tomorrow her dose of prednisone will step down again.

1. Trazodone is a sedative that UGA sent home to help keep her quiet and reconcile her to her crate rest. I have been giving her 1/2 tablet but when I saw what she was doing I went up to a whole tablet. ↩︎