We’re nine days out from Izzie’s first surgery and she’s doing great!  We’ve had some issues with her diet (how do you think your body would react to an all liquid diet!) but after tweaking what she eats, when and how much and adding probiotics, she seems to be doing fine.  She’s had a few accidents (pee) because even though she shows no interest in drinking any water, she’s getting so much water in her all liquid diet.  She doesn’t seem to be in any pain, but we can tell when it’s time for her next pain pill.  She still sleeps a lot but she’s starting to play with us again, so we think that’s a good sign.  Unfortunately, she’s not allowed to have anything in her mouth, so she can’t play with any toys.  Also, because of the pain medication, we’re not allowed to have her expend a lot of energy, so no hiking, running, etc.  She’s starting to go a little nuts without exercise.  Yesterday her much awaited soft collar arrived.  We thought this would the answer to all of our prayers – now she would be able to sleep in her crate, and she would be more comfortable.  As you can see from the photo above, her hard plastic collar is starting to fall apart (notice the duck tape).  Also in the photo above, please notice the tarp on the office floor.  We put that under her bed after the first pee accident.

Here’s a photo of the new soft collar:

Unfortunately, it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  After about an hour of wearing it, she was caught biting her back knee area.  And then, she slipped out of it.  We’ve tied it to her regular collar, and that seems to help.  Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning, her hard collar was broken.  Ryan taped it up, and was off to PetsMart to buy another one today.  Our new plan of attack is to have her wear the soft collar when we’re home to keep an eye on her, and the new hard plastic collar at night when we can’t keep an eye on her.  Isn’t she adorable?  Only 7 more weeks of this, I hope.