Crate rest urgh

[Cuntingcancer]

So ddog has had her surgery and thankfully they think they have removed it all!
Only problem we have now is two weeks of crate rest
Ddog hates the crate, she used to have one for separation anxiety when we first got her and is fine when we are out (dog cam shows her just settling down and going to sleep) however when we are home she literally howls to get out!
She's not allowed to exercise atall, has to be lifted outside to wee/empty her bowels, then lifted straight back to crate due to severity of the surgery.

Have tried her favourite treats, literally almost sitting in the crate with her but nothing is helping.

Anybody have any secret tips or tricks they can share? Breaking my heart hearing her upset!

When my pup was on 2 weeks crate rest (14 weeks old with a broken toe) I moved her crate to whichever room I was in which seemed to help. Kongs stuffed with treats, peanut butter, marmite or meat paste (or a mixture) and froze them, kept her occupied and quiet. Antlers to chew on as well. I did occasionally have to chuck a blanket over it to quiet her down. Crate rest is tough, for dogs and owners, you have my sympathy and hope she's better soon x

Lavender oil in a diffuser or a couple of drops on the edge of her blanket? One of your worn sweaters in the crate with her? Youtube also has some calm music for dogs.

She's got one of DHs work tops in with her, flatly refusing to eat in the crate, have to take her out to give her dinner or she just turns her nose up at it, even tried roast chicken still slightly warm and she didn't even look at it.

Will try the lavender oil though!

As hard as this sounds have you sat and ignored it (with a glass of wine in your hand to calm the anxiety). Mine used to howl when little and had a few episodes this week out of the blue. Timing it showed it took 30 mins for him to realise it wasn't going to get him the attention and then he got rewarded for being calm and quiet. I mention timing it because when they start every minute seems like an eternity and you can reassure yourself it isn't and when mine was little the whining times started to get shorter which again is reassuring.

Oh I should have also said glad your DDog is recovering ok from then op and they got all of it

Thank you. Yes have tried paying zero attention in a kind of cry it out technique but she just won't settle. Been doing it pretty much all day she's dosed up on pain killers which vet thought might make her drowsy however no such luck

Maybe she is just still in a bit of pain despite the painkillers and is miserable from the OP and at the moment nothing is going to soothe her like we would probably be if it was ourselves

I'm so sorry I lost ddog a couple of months back when I was told her only chance was major surgery followed by 6-8 weeks of this kind of crate rest, and it wasn't unlikely we would have had to euthanise her anyway at the end of it. She would never have handled being physically separated from us for two months, or been able to settle to this kind of rest, and it was one of the many factors that made me decide no, it wasn't the right way for her.

Thank goodness it's only two weeks you need to get ddog through! Any Ttouch practitioners in your area who might do an emergency drop in?

Can you get her out of the crate and sit with her on the floor to keep her settled?

We had to do that with DWhippet1 after some major surgery and it actually worked really well. We bought a couple of king size duvets which we folded up as bed for him on the floor and for a few weeks one of us was always sitting down there with him.

If she's generally quite chilled and not apt to leap up every time you move it's worth a try.

At night we took it in turns to sleep on a little camp bed right next to his crate.

I slept down stairs next to the crate last night couldn't bring myself to leave her downstairs alone. I might try keeping her sat still on a duvet just worry DC will hurt her by accident or something. I'm just glad she got through the surgery now it's just trying to keep my and her sanity over the next two weeks x

So sitting quietly on a duvet did NOT work, soon as she realised I was on the floor and she was out of the crate she went straight to the sofa to try and jump up so we are back to crate time

Oh dear OP unfortunately it looks like 2 weeks of frustration for you and the dog. Let's hope those 2 weeks go quickly

Everyday is a struggle at the moment. She won't eat much due to the pain so getting her tablets in her is impossible, which means the pain is worse. Feel like I'm fighting a losing battle. Having had this little sleep since dc were born!