Been away for a bit...

due to the knee replacement. Had a lot of time to think while laying around in pain.

So many of our Akitas have hip and knee injuries. It hit me when going thru this, how much pain our dogs must be suffering with and how little we can do to help them to understand when having these types of operations -- we did it for their own good but how do we tell them that? We can explain to a human that we are trying to help, that this pain will go away, that the reason for their suffering is to ultimately help them in the long run. But how do we tell our dogs that -- how do we make them understand their pain is temporary, will go away, is for their own good? And how do they let us know how much pain they are really in -- our breed is so stoic!!!

I realized after going thru this, just how difficult this must be for our dogs who have no voice, no words to tell us what they need or must have. I was able to ask for more pain meds when needed, to say this wasn't working or that wasn't working -- but our dogs can't do that!! SO if your pets have to go thru something like this, please be vigilent and caring, please keep logs of their meds, how they appear to be handling the pain, and be on top of things such as knowing about different pain meds to offer, different methods of helping our pets to handle the pain involved. Learn all you can before putting your pets thru an operation of this magnitude. Take it from me -- its more painful than you can imagine and our pets need us to be sure to help them thru it all!!!