Not much exciting happened today. I am still having a hard time getting Newton to eat. He still loves his double cheeseburgers from McDonalds (which is good...at least he is eating something) and he likes some of the canned food (Salmon seems to be his favorite). Although the canned food has to be plain. Once you add kibble to it, he no longer wants to eat it.

Our pill taking routine is working out well. I wish I would have thought of the water bottle sooner. He is such a sport. He is almost done with all of his meds which is a good thing.

Newton is definently getting tired of all of the pills. The pill gun has become one of my favorite tools. I also found that using a water bottle works wonders. Not only does Newton love drinking water from the water bottle, but also it helps wash the pills down.

We have been taking little walks around the neighborhood and Newton has been loving it. He has become such a calmer dog. He doesn't bark at approaching dogs and people like he use to. He seems to enjoy people coming up and saying hi.

Today we headed back up to CSU to have Newton's incision looked at. I will say that I was a bit disappointed with CSU. Our appointment was at 10 am. Our vet student promptly took us back to one of the examination rooms and took down some notes. One of the things that I asked her about was Newton not eating. She said that she would discuss it with the Oncologist. She then took Newton to the back. About a half an hour later, Newton and the vet student came back. They removed the drain, but kept the stitches and the staples in. She said that either Dr. Culp or Dr. Perry would be in to talk with me about what the Pathologists have found. She didn't have an ETA, but gave me the impression that it wouldn't be too long. That was the last that I saw of her.

About an hour and a half later, Dr. Culp finally shows up. He told me that Newton's incision looks great and that they removed the drain. He didn't have much to say about the preliminary Pathology report. He said that the type of cells that were present aren't characteristic of an infection (which I question) and that he needed to go an talk with another owner. He said that Dr. Perry would provide me with more information once he talks finds out more. Needless to say, I waited an extra hour and a half for 3 minutes of Dr. Culp's time. I wasn't too happy about that. I indicated to him that I would need to help getting Newton back in the car. He said that he would send a nurse in.

After waiting another 20 minutes for a nurse to show up, I finally decided to leave. Dr. Culp even walked by and looked in but did nothing :-( I wasn't in a happy place at that point in time. Not only did I feel like I was waiting forever and the vet student never came back to check on us or get my question answered about the food. I finally found a nurse in the waiting room who helped me get Newton in the car.

Today wasn't an overly exciting day. Newton had his bandage changed once again. Although today, he got out of the mini-van on his own without me needing to get help. I think that is pretty cool. Since the gang at VCA Douglas County Animal Hospital knew that Newton would be going up to CSU tomorrow, they put the pretty paw bandage on. I had to get a good chuckle out of that.

Last night, Dr. Perry sent me an email. The culture results from his incision infection came back and it looks like another antibiotic is needed (Newton is so not going to be a happy boy). One of the bugs that was in his incision is relatively resistant to the Cephalexin. Therefore, in addition to the Cephalexin, Newton will have to take 3 tablets of Enrofloxacin (136 MG) twice a day.

As for the histopath results of Newton's limb, the preliminary results came back as inflammatory with numerous infiltrates of immune cells (lymphocytes and plasma cells) with no signs of infectious agents. No overt tumor cells were noted in these preliminary sections. In essence, the wait continues.

I think that Newton would rather take car rides to the dog park than to the vets...although he is quite the trooper. Today, Newton saw Dr. Rewick.

Newton is still feeling a bit run down. I'm hoping that this new set of antibiotics will help (they are certainly expensive enough). For the first round, I hid them in McDonald's Double Cheeseburgers (only a buck). He must have been hungry because he scarfed them down. Getting his Cephalexin and round two of the Enrofloxacin down was a different story.

I wish that I could get Newton to eat something. He didn't even want to eat any chicken skin...which is one of his favorites. I just want my boy to feel better. It hurts me to see him this way. I want my Newton back.