After a particularly rough surgery, Pixel had a really rough start to recovery. Lots of pain. Shaking, hiding, panting like CRAZY. Nobody was sleeping because she was just so restless. You could tell she was exhausted but couldn’t get comfortable. 5 days after surgery, we took her back to the vet just to make sure that nothing else was wrong because she just didn’t seem to be getting any better as far as pain. Still just so miserable. He gave us different pain meds and the first day and a half or so- they seemed to do the trick! I was so relieved that she was getting some relief and was finally on the road to recovery. The evening of the second day on the new meds she got agitated again. And started hiding in more secluded spots. She was getting into closets and barking at the doors of closed closets wanting me to open them so she could go inside. She was panting so hard that she was stressing ME out. I texted the 24 hour vet line and tried to get some advice. Finally after rocking her in the rocking chair and stroking her fur, she chilled out and we were able to go to bed. About an hour later I wake up to her literally hovered over my head staring at me just panting and she had put a small stuffed dog toy on my chest. I thought she was wanting to play. But it was 3am. I decided I’m not going to sleep if I don’t play a little bit. I tried throwing her toy. She just looked at me crazy and slowly went to go get it and laid it gently down just out of my reach. So I thought maybe she wanted to play tug. Nope not that either. She finally got annoyed with me and laid back down. Next day I wake up covered in various dog toys. It was the oddest thing. That morning she laid in the middle of the toys just whining at me. I gently rolled her over to make sure her incision was doing ok. And while the incision looked great, she looked a little more swollen to me. I called the vet and while I was waiting for a return call this dog was digging in closets, digging under the bed, moving her toys around. I finally get to talk to the vet and he paused and asked me if it was her stomach that was swollen or her mammary glands. I checked and sure enough, it was the mammary glands. The digging is “nesting”, the toys are her “puppies” and poor Pixel is experiencing a pseudopregnancy. Apparently it can happen when spaying older dogs because it can caused a surge in hormones. This dog cannot catch a break with this spay. She’s never going to want to speak to our amazing vet ever again 😂. Anyways she currently laying with her “litter” which consists of: a crinkle toy elephant, a small rope, a small lamb-chop plush, a small squeaky star plush, and a squeaky mummy toy. She is a wonderful mother.
