(His nose was cold)
This third week into recovery has us stressed. Titan still is not eating his food in any form that we offer it. He will eat my food, the stuff that's not good for him, whenever we offer it. There is so much frustration because I can't figure out why he will eat one day and not the next, and we can't figure out what he likes or doesn't like. For example, one day he will eat some of my bagel with cheese on it. Then, two days later, turns his nose up when offered the same thing. One day he will eat raw beef and then the next day he refuses it until it's cooked, and then the next day he won't eat it cooked or raw. There is no rhyme or reason to his diet right now. We tried not giving him anything and thought along the same lines as most people "He's a dog and will eat when he gets hungry" in the hopes he would figure out he had to eat his food when we offered it to him. Two days later he still hadn't eaten and was very weak, so being worried I tried to offer him his original food, the Acana kibble, just to see if he might go for it. We did have some luck with this after I added Cheese Wiz into it. That worked for a few days and then he turned his nose up to that too. You can see that he is losing weight and I'm also worried how this is affecting his recovery as bones need proper nutrients to heal. So we are back to force feeding him. He gets offered him food first and if he refuses to eat then it gets made into the pate. We took Titan off the raw food diet for now because we didn't want to try force feeding him that and then later on have him relate it to bad memories and not eat raw food ever. Ares on the other hand has successfully transferred to the raw diet and is doing well on it.
Progress with Titan's leg is going slow too. He still will not put weight on the leg when first standing up and still only toe touches most of the time while outside. It is hard for him to get around with the snow and freezing rain we have been having but I have noticed that after a little time walking around the yard he will start to stand on the sore leg and it looks like it's being used correctly.
(Using both hind legs to stand)
There is still lots of cuddling with him and Ares and with mom of course, which I think helps keep him happy. I was worried about him being depressed after the surgery because he wasn't allowed to walk so I'm very grateful to Ares for making sure his brother is ok. This week we were able to start very small walks with Titan to try and get that leg strong again. He's allowed to go for three 5-10 minute walks a day. Mike was able to walk him down about 10 houses to the mailbox and back. We had hoped this would also get his appetite up, but no such luck yet. Titan seems determined to get back to his walks so hopefully once we have more routine in his day that will help with the food issue.
(What I come home from work too, everyone gets a purple blanket)
(Double-decker danes - they love to know the other's close by)
(Mom cuddles make everything ok)
In the mean time everything else is the same, we play our mind games daily and he's getting really fast at finding all his treats in the snuffle mat. Titan loves to be in the snow and eat it so he's even getting outside in the yard a bit more to keep the boredom away. And all of Titan's wounds have pretty much healed and the fur is coming in nice. Won't be long before he's back to his old handsome self I hope.
(Elbows are looking so much better!)
(Enjoying refreshing snow instead of his dinner)
(Nose got covered in snow from playing "Find The Treat" in the snow)
(A job well done snuffle matting means a well deserved nap, apparently in said mat)
Titan's leg week 3:
(Here you can see how he won't stretch it out like his good leg yet and you can also see the spot where the fentanyl patch was, ouch!)
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