Savage and I picked possibly the coldest day of the winter to drive 2 1/2 hours to the vet so his tooth extraction could be done. On the way I periodically let him out of the truck, hoping he would go to the bathroom before his appointment, but at -35 degrees Savvy hit the ground, turned around, and immediately leaped back in. Savvy went into surgery shortly after we arrived at the clinic so I didn't get a chance to stress him out further by crying and worrying. I did that as I left the clinic. But he was already very anxious; he had started shaking and trying to get back out of the room as soon as we got there. I've never seen him more nervous.
The extraction (and tooth-cleaning) didn't take long, and when I got back to the vet's office a little over 2 hours later, he was ready to go. That's not to say he was normal; Baby Dog was still coming out of the anesthesia and staggering when he walked. I thought I might need help to get him into the cab of the truck, but he was very relieved to be out of the clinic and I only had to help him get his back legs into the seat. The pictures in this post were taken on the drive home. I stopped often to check on him and see if he was agitated or in a lot of pain, but all he wanted to do was go back to sleep. Most of the time he spent resting his head on a pillow I placed on the truck's center console, with his butt on the seat and his front legs on the floor.
By the time we got home he was more awake, and anxious to get his dinner (I had not fed him since 8:00pm the night before, on doctor's orders). I was cautioned to only feed him a small amount of food that night, so he got a little fish and mashed sweet potato. Since his surgery on January 13th I have been giving him only soft foods; oatmeal, liver, lean ground beef, etc. His appetite returned to normal, though he was very thirsty. I had to allow him only a cup or so of water at a time, to minimize the possible risk of bloat if he were to gulp a lot of air into his stomach along with the water.
I was very optimistic about his recovery, since he was acting lethargic only that night and the next morning, and I had him on anti-biotics and small doses of aspirin. Everything was progressing smoothly until this morning. Overnight, his muzzle and lip had swelled up considerably, which had me quite worried. Having been on the phone with my breeder and my vet most of the morning, I have to save the rest of the story till later this afternoon, or even tomorrow, but I'm still optimistic and not as worried. Please check back later to for updates on my boy.