Confining puppy post-surgery

ectoraige

Hi all, we have a lovely five-month-old cocker spaniel who unfortunately suffered a fracture. He required surgery and now has to be kept confined in a crate for four weeks. He can only be carried outside for toileting.
We had house-trained him without using a crate before his accident and he was pretty calm for a cocker spaniel, he had a basket in the kitchen where he slept.

His first week is over and at first he was pretty drugged and lethargic following the operation. However the last few days he has become more anxious. As we weren't able to acclimitise him properly to the crate, I'm looking for any tips on reducing his anxiety. He's only really out of the crate to eat and then I'll sit with him on my lap outside for about twenty minutes and then let him poo, before returning him to his crate. Any advice?

tk123

Feed his meals in a Kong, nylabones/chews etc to keep him busy. You have to be tough as hard as it is to make sure he recovers well. My boy was on crate rest twice and like your guy first time around he wasn't happy at all and it took a couple of weeks to get him used to it.. The vet snapped me out of feeling sorry for him 'if you can't manage the crate rest he'll come and stay at the clinic for 4 weeks' - like it wasn't a choice lol so we toughened up!
Second time around we had planned the surgery and had the crate up in advance, transitioned him to Kong dinners in the crate etc etc.
I did a lot of clicker games with him when he was in the crate to use up his energy- nose touches with our hands or a wooden spoon, giving the paw, leave it/take it etc There's lots of other tricks you can teach him in the crate too guilty/go to sleep so putting their head down between their paws, putting a paw over their nose like their hiding etc As stupid as it sounds because they've nowhere to go locked in the crate..you can work on stays so leave him for a second, come back and treat and then build up the time you can step away from the crate. You'll find loads of videos on YouTube and you don't need an actual clicker if you don't have one - you can just say yes! Good! Etc etc
4 weeks is a tiny tiny amount of time - seems like a lifetime when you're doing it but Bailey will be 5 and 6 years post op (he had the operations a year apart) at the end of the month and recovered perfectly because of our hard work when he was restricted - it'll be worth it in the end! You'll almost collapse from stress that first time you let your guy off lead again though!

ectoraige

The Kong feeder looks good, he devours his food from the bowl, we try to hand feed him through training as much as we can but with three children it's a busy house at times. Have been thinking about starting with a clicker too, good idea with the nose games, we've a preschooler, he had learned to control any nipping pretty well before the accident, don't want him to relapse there.

tk123

We had 4 kongs on the go at one stage - 2 with food in them and 2 in the dishwasher lol! You've already gotten the first week over - that's the hardest part!

aonb

As TK says, you are over the first week, so hopefully the puppy is getting used to being confined?
I had a similar problem last year, dog had knee replacement, had to be confined for many weeks.
We built a small enclosure in the family room, with a stove fireguard - like this one:
https://www.google.ie/search?q=stove+fire+guard&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=694&tbm=isch&imgil=CNR6yMRG6OdfvM%253A%253BuM4G0JUBMMAa3M%253Bhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.pinterest.com%25252Fgardenrequisite%25252Ftraditional-metal-fire-guards%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=CNR6yMRG6OdfvM%253A%252CuM4G0JUBMMAa3M%252C_&usg=__8I6HR_ruGTaPX_yA8dsEK0INVjY%3D&ved=0ahUKEwj8wca488DPAhUrLcAKHVBlDPIQyjcINQ&ei=KX_zV7yJCavagAbQyrGQDw#imgdii=CtqLYOAXoF7A8M%3A%3BCtqLYOAXoF7A8M%3A%3BHYo3dvTazxIQNM%3A&imgrc=CtqLYOAXoF7A8M%3A

his bed was in there, his food/water, we had bones, we had chew toys, kongs stuffed with peanut butter. We could climb into the enclosure with him, he could see the household activity all day, (as IM sure he can with the crate - just that there was a little more room with our cobbled together job, he didnt feel so restricted as he would have done in his crate).

tk123

aonb wrote: »

We built a small enclosure in the family room, with a stove fireguard - like this one:

LOL! Somebody on the course I was doing had a fire-guard in their car to keep the dog in the boot lol :pac:

We worked with 2 crates - one in each room and would take him from one room to another timed with his toilet breaks so he'd be with us and part of the activilty like aonb says. His leg was cut in two and held together with pins and a plate so we had to be be extra careful with him so he couldn't move around too much and we were only supposed to take him out 3 times a day (i think it was closer to 5). Mostly he was happy once he had company and settled into his jail sentence.