Today, I had to go into the office and work for a couple of hours. Newton was still seeping quite a bit so I made him stay in the ex-pens in his room. I know that he really wanted to sleep on the sofa, but that just wasn't going to happen with the amount of fluid that he had draining from his incision.

He is eating less today and doesn't seem to be feeling well. I still have the challenge of getting him to take his pills. He pretty much gives me the "I'm pissed at you!" look.

When I got back from work, I was taking pictures of his incisions. When I press down hear the "Y" portion of his incision, it makes a squishy-air sound. The bruising and the swelling of the incision area have gone down, but his remaining leg (right front leg) was huge. It was swollen from the wrist to his elbow. I decided to put an ice compress on it and massage it while he was getting his heat pack for the day. He doesn't seem to be in any pain and doesn't seem to mind walking on it, but it is noticeable bigger and a bit warm to the touch.

Woo hoo...time to do the dance of joy. Newton is finally peeing on a regular basis. I never realized how exicted I would be. He is still a pain when it comes to taking his pain meds. He now will not eat: cheese, dinner rolls, pretzels, or Sausage McMuffin with Egg from McDonald's (his all time favorite). Newton has become a picky eater (I think that he suspects I have pills in all of his food) and doesn't seem to want to play with any of his toys.

Seepage has become his middle name. I have never done so much laundry a day in my life.

He did venture onto the couch today. I know how much he loves sleeping on the couch so I didn't make him get down. He has been through so much in such a short amount of time.

Argh, Newton is still only peeing twice a day. What is up with that?!?! All I can figure is that it must hurt him to go. I did discover that when he sits down and looks up it must pull on his staples because it is the only time that he will cry out in pain.

When I was taking his incision pictures, I noticed that there is a considerable more bruising. I sent Dr. Perry an email with a photo comparison of the incision site. Dr. Perry indicated that based on the amount of muscle that they had to take off with the leg, that amount of bruising would be expected.

Today we started using the heat pack several times a day verses the ice pack that we had been using over the weekend. After the first heat pack session, I noticed a tremendous amount of seepage coming from the "Y" portion of his incision. This had me concerned since we had not had any seepage all weekend. According to Dr. Perry, as long as it remains clear/red tinged and not malodorous, Newton should be fine. Newton has so much space where tissues were removed, that every time he lies down or moves, he is likely to stimulate more fluid production in the surgical site. When he lays on his side, the seepage just seems to stream from the "Y" portion of his incision. Since I work from home, I have been wiping the area dry and changing his t-shirt frequently.

Newton is still doing pretty well. He is eating better, but we are still having challenges getting those pills down. There has to be a better way. He is eating and pooping well. He still only pees twice a day. In researching the subject, it seems that this is not unusual. At least he is peeing once a day.

He is getting stronger each time he gets up to take a walk. He still needs help getting down the stairs in the backyard, but he doesn't want any help getting up the stairs.

I took another video so that you can see the progress that he is making. He is getting much steadier on his feet and more confident.

Wow, I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to have a 3-legged dog. Don't get me wrong, Newton is doing very well, I just have to watch him like a hawk. Not only do I have floor coverings on the hardwood floors, I also had to put baby gates up so that he doesn't fall down the stairs into the basement.

He is pooping on a regular basis, but the peeing has gotten me worried. Today he only pee'd twice. The poor guy is no longer able to lift his leg :-( He likes to spend time sitting out in the backyard. He saw some kids and let them know that he was out there by barking. Yep, back to his normal Newton self.

My friend, Laura, and her dog, Chloe, stayed with Newton and myself. We had to separate the dogs because we were worried that Newton would try to play to hard and hurt himself and Chloe wasn't quite sure what to make of him. I kind of wondered if she knew that it was Newton. I don't think that she noticed that he was missing a leg. My guess is that he may have smelled a bit different.

Laura and I have finally gotten down a routine for changing his t-shirt. He doesn't seem to want to be a whole lot of help, but that is kind of to be expected.

Each day, I am going to post pictures of the incision site in Newton's photo gallery in "Newton's Bone Cancer Treatment" album. Newton hasn't tried to get at his incision, but he has been licking his remaining front paw. I'm guessing that they must have had an IV there.

He has started eating his food, but giving him his pain meds has been a challenge. He is on 1 chewable tablet of Deracoxib (100 MG) a day and 4 tablets of Tramadol (50 MG) three times a day. If I just try to put the pills at the back of his throat, he bites down on my hand and that hurts so I have been finding different foods to "hide" the pills in. Of course, once he gets keen to there being pills in those foods then he won't eat the foods anymore!