We appreciate all of the kind well wishes and prayers for Thunder.  They must have helped because we picked him up from the veterinary hospital last night.  He is doing very well, all things considered.  He is back on his normal diet (grain free) and is getting his regular amount of food (2 cups), broken up into 4 meals a day.  His appetite does not seem at all diminished.  We are limiting his water to 2 cups every 4 hours.  Initially he was very thirsty last night and would empty the bowl when we put it down.  But today he seems more interested in sleeping and is drinking more moderately.  I guess he is happy to be home because he even flipped on his back for a belly rub.  🙂

He was sent home with three medications: an antibiotic, a pain medication, and something for his stomach.  Between the food schedule, the water schedule, and the medication schedule, we had to make him a hospital chart.  He also has a pain patch stapled to back which they will remove on Saturday.  The staples closing his incision will come out in 10-14 days.  Until then he has to wear a cone.  He is not at all fond of the cone, but since he has already tried to check out those staples, we will have to have it on him when we can’t watch him.

Unfortunately, we have to keep Thunder and Storm separated for 2 weeks.  That is not popular around here. 😉  Thunder isn’t allowed to run or climb stairs for 2 weeks so we are taking him outside on a leash and then bringing him right back in.  Once the staples are out, he can spend time in his outside kennel again.  If all goes well, he can resume light training in 4 weeks and go back to regular training, including swimming, in 6 weeks.

Thunder Training Earlier In The Evening Before He Bloated

As far as testing for him this summer, we will have to wait and see.  Since we blew the budget on his surgery we probably won’t be able to travel to tests as we had planned.  We will also have to see how quickly his training comes back after his lay-off.  Right now he is happy to snooze away on the floor, but I doubt that will last long.  In the meantime, we will keep training Storm and hope to run her in some more tests this summer.

 

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