He's fine. It was slightly more complicated than usual, because he had one undescended testicle, but it was very easy to get, so my vet was happy.
Last night, he was whining and groaning all night, but it wasn't clear if he was in pain for it was the cone he was wearing. Today he's quieter than usual, but ok. He's mad at me though--he won't come to me or look at me, and he keeps turning his back on me!
I read your second to last post.... That would irritate me so much!! I think that people confuse the biddability of a dog with intelligence. Just because your dog wants to please you doesn't make them a smart dog. And vise versa, such as with every nihon ken.
Thanks for all your well wishes (and I laughed about the "boy"!) For some reason I can't "like" posts in my own thread, though!
Had to take Leo back in this morning because he was shaking and not eating. His incision is a bit swollen--my husband took the cone off last night, and I told him if it was off, he'd have to watch Leo, but he wasn't, and there was licking. So it's a bit swollen now and he doesn't feel too good, but after some cortisone cream and a check up, he's ok, if unhappily back in the cone. But he threw a fit at the vet, again, flailing limbs, expressed anal glands, and all. Just so they could take his temp and look at the incisions. *sigh*
And of course he hates me again, and is giving me these terrible wounded looks, and is now laying with his back to me, very pointedly, I thought! *lol*
But since he has to be crated so much (the vet worried that he was getting too much exercise, though he's only in the house--but you know how Kai Ken are--there has been some jumping on the furniture), we've been letting Toby in, so Toby can get used to being around him. We're hoping that with a lot of very slow and controlled encounters like this, maybe they can eventually be friends. It would be nice for Toby not to be alone all the time (or so we think--Toby may not feel this way at all!)
He's ok, though he's back in the cone because he was licking at the incisions. It's hard to keep him still enough, but since he can't move around well with the cone on, it does help a bit.
"well, of course, if you work with them a lot and have high expectations for them they'll learn"
Sigh. I have bumped into this attitude a lot, very often new trainers with a very compliant dog, and it makes them think they are Gods among trainers, and therefore entitled to talk down to the rest of us from their high horse. Every dog progresses differently. If you are making progress at a pace you are happy with and the dog is benefiting from it (and enjoying it hopefully) that is OK.
Leo is now so on the mend that he is a major pain. Not in pain--he is being a pain. Earlier in the week he didn't feel good, so he was pretty calm. But as of yesterday, the fact that he's on super low activity really starting show up. When we bring him out of the crate, he's nuts! Running around the house (or trying to) ramming everyone with his cone, trying to grab anything he can to play with, etc. My husband said "what's wrong with him?" and I said what is wrong with him is that he is an active dog, usually, and he's had five days of being cooped up and he's going nuts. Now he's driving us crazy too. Latest thing: Oh, there you are! Let me leap at your face and ram my cone into your face! I have bruises all over the backs of my legs from being rammed, and of course Bel and Oskar are SO OVER him and his cone. (Bel's sick anyway, but even if she wasn't, being rammed in the butt by a cone is no fun!)
My vet wanted one week of lower activity. I'm counting the hours til Monday! And since he licks at the incisions as soon as the cone comes off, I'm not sure if we'll even be able to take it off on Monday. Sigh.
Haha, Juneau does that when she wears a backpack. Carrying an additional 10 pounds of water is not going to stop her from ramming full-speed into your knees from behind!
His Toby intros. are going very slowly. We're still just letting them see each other with Leo in the crate and Toby out. We do a lot of that--like a month or more--before doing anything else. My husband did this, very slowly, with Leo and Oskar, because Oskar HATED Leo as a puppy. (apparently Oskar is a dog that does not like puppies at all, and does not recognize puppy license!) After a month or so of being around each other, but no interactions whatsoever, they had some short intros with Leo restrained (leash) and Oskar able to get away. After that, we let them be together. So we'll do that with Toby too.
The cone is actually one of Toby's old ones, and when Toby came in the other day and saw Leo with it on, he looked than dashed away, and I thought, he probably thought, oh, that! Better you than me! Though Toby had to wear a cone for several months, so he got quite adept with it!
That's what I was thinking too....I thought the cones were e-collars! I don't think the padded donut thing would work with him, because he is super determined to lick, and since he's long, I think he could still get to the incision sites.
My vet said he could have regular activity and his cone off in a week, which is today, but one of his incisions doesn't look as good as the other one (where he licked, of course!) so I think the cone will have to stay on longer. Poor boy. And we're all tired of it, but we've got to get the him healed!
@Lindsay, I actually think the razor burn is part of the problem--it opened up a sore area, but I think it is also that where the incision is (for the undescended testicle) means that even normal movement puts some strain on it, so it is not healing as fast as the regular incision site (which is pretty much healed up).
We are putting an ointment on it that is both an antibiotic and has a topical pain reliever.
Leo is out of his cone, thankfully. He had it on almost two full weeks, but we had to keep it on him to keep him from licking. Now he's healed, and back to normal activity (well, he wanted to be back to normal activity after less than a week, so we had to deal with much "coning" and I'm as glad to have him out of it as he is! I have bruises all over my legs).
But today was his last class, so that was the real test, to see if neutering him had any effect on his marking. I took him out to pee before taking him in, and was glad to see that he pretty much emptied his bladder in one stop, rather than marking everything as we walked toward class. He did, however, still pee in class (luckily I had his belly band with us), but he only did it about 5 times vs. about 20 times. And it's only two weeks out from the neutering, so I'm optimistic that there may be even more improvement.
The big thing though is that he was calm in the class, and didn't try to get out, and did almost everything I asked of him. I don't know that this had much to do with the neutering; I suspect it was two things--one he's used to the place again, and also this time several dogs were missing so it was a small class. He still absolutely refused to participate in play time, though, but this time, while the other dogs were playing, he was super focused on me, and offered a whole bunch of behaviors to see if he could do more work. He was a good boy overall, and even learned something new (very quickly).
I suppose it's possible he could be slightly more focused from the neuter too. So many dogs go through that place (the class is at the humane society) that its always possible there might be the smell of an intact female there that he might have found very distracting. I don't know. But this time he was the perfect dog, and was very well behaved, occasional marking aside.
We may take the class again sometime--more for socialization and a brush up on obedience and focus--but for now we're going to go back to our individual agility classes. For awhile I just thought they were so expensive, and they are, but I think we both learn so much more, and he certainly enjoys it more. I'll probably do a group agility with him at some point too.
Leo and Bel (Bel is in a box...she'll lay on anything on the floor!)
Good to hear he is lightening on the marking and OH MY GOLLY GEEZERS HE'S ADORABLE!!!! For some reason, i can never get over how much i love Leo's coat.
Comments
Last night, he was whining and groaning all night, but it wasn't clear if he was in pain for it was the cone he was wearing. Today he's quieter than usual, but ok. He's mad at me though--he won't come to me or look at me, and he keeps turning his back on me!
Poor Leo! But he's going to be fine.
@cdenney LOL "my boy"
Had to take Leo back in this morning because he was shaking and not eating. His incision is a bit swollen--my husband took the cone off last night, and I told him if it was off, he'd have to watch Leo, but he wasn't, and there was licking. So it's a bit swollen now and he doesn't feel too good, but after some cortisone cream and a check up, he's ok, if unhappily back in the cone. But he threw a fit at the vet, again, flailing limbs, expressed anal glands, and all. Just so they could take his temp and look at the incisions. *sigh*
And of course he hates me again, and is giving me these terrible wounded looks, and is now laying with his back to me, very pointedly, I thought! *lol*
But since he has to be crated so much (the vet worried that he was getting too much exercise, though he's only in the house--but you know how Kai Ken are--there has been some jumping on the furniture), we've been letting Toby in, so Toby can get used to being around him. We're hoping that with a lot of very slow and controlled encounters like this, maybe they can eventually be friends. It would be nice for Toby not to be alone all the time (or so we think--Toby may not feel this way at all!)
Sigh. I have bumped into this attitude a lot, very often new trainers with a very compliant dog, and it makes them think they are Gods among trainers, and therefore entitled to talk down to the rest of us from their high horse. Every dog progresses differently. If you are making progress at a pace you are happy with and the dog is benefiting from it (and enjoying it hopefully) that is OK.
Glad Leo is on the mend
My vet wanted one week of lower activity. I'm counting the hours til Monday! And since he licks at the incisions as soon as the cone comes off, I'm not sure if we'll even be able to take it off on Monday. Sigh.
How did introduceing him to Toby go?
The cone is actually one of Toby's old ones, and when Toby came in the other day and saw Leo with it on, he looked than dashed away, and I thought, he probably thought, oh, that! Better you than me! Though Toby had to wear a cone for several months, so he got quite adept with it!
My vet said he could have regular activity and his cone off in a week, which is today, but one of his incisions doesn't look as good as the other one (where he licked, of course!) so I think the cone will have to stay on longer. Poor boy. And we're all tired of it, but we've got to get the him healed!
We are putting an ointment on it that is both an antibiotic and has a topical pain reliever.
He's mostly just bored, I think!
But today was his last class, so that was the real test, to see if neutering him had any effect on his marking. I took him out to pee before taking him in, and was glad to see that he pretty much emptied his bladder in one stop, rather than marking everything as we walked toward class. He did, however, still pee in class (luckily I had his belly band with us), but he only did it about 5 times vs. about 20 times. And it's only two weeks out from the neutering, so I'm optimistic that there may be even more improvement.
The big thing though is that he was calm in the class, and didn't try to get out, and did almost everything I asked of him. I don't know that this had much to do with the neutering; I suspect it was two things--one he's used to the place again, and also this time several dogs were missing so it was a small class. He still absolutely refused to participate in play time, though, but this time, while the other dogs were playing, he was super focused on me, and offered a whole bunch of behaviors to see if he could do more work. He was a good boy overall, and even learned something new (very quickly).
I suppose it's possible he could be slightly more focused from the neuter too. So many dogs go through that place (the class is at the humane society) that its always possible there might be the smell of an intact female there that he might have found very distracting. I don't know. But this time he was the perfect dog, and was very well behaved, occasional marking aside.
We may take the class again sometime--more for socialization and a brush up on obedience and focus--but for now we're going to go back to our individual agility classes. For awhile I just thought they were so expensive, and they are, but I think we both learn so much more, and he certainly enjoys it more. I'll probably do a group agility with him at some point too.
Leo and Bel (Bel is in a box...she'll lay on anything on the floor!)
The whirlwind of Naughty in repose: