Eating and drinking:
After the operation we were advised to feed her soft food, but now it is healed and she is over the actual operation she is back on dry kibbles. The windpipe and food-pipe are separate, (Yes, the image of kibbles dropping out of her stoma crossed my mind!) so this should be fine. However, as i mentioned before acid reflux was a problem for us for the first week or so, which was caused by the changes in pressure (as before she had to use a lot more 'suck' to breath in, and now its a lot easier).
Walking.
We were advised to keep her very calm, I guess it will vary from dog to dog, but we were taking Heidi for little walkies after a week. We got baby-gates and used these to keep her from using the stairs, and tried our best to keep her from jumping around....but dogs will be dogs and we just had to crate her when she was too excitable. This crate was a life-saver, as we could keep her in it when visitors came, and she slept in it so I knew she wasn't jumping on the couch at night! However, sadly her beach days are over, as sand could easily get into her lungs through the stoma, not to mention the risk of running into the sea. Drowning is a real risk with a stoma, they cant shut it. We are very careful where we walk her, as such a short little dog we even avoid long grass.
Bathing.
I've mentioned the drowning risk, so our new bathing routing is a bit different now! I have a bucket of water with some dog shampoo in it, and use a flannel which I repeatedly dip in this water, wring out to rub her all over her. Then i switch to plain water to sort of remove any shampoo left in her fur. Its actually quite effective! And considering how much she detested getting wet, this new 'damp scrubbing' suits her just fine!
Mute Mutt!
Our dog did lose her bark, she also has silent dreams too and does not snore anymore. The only way we know she is trying to bark is that she still pulls her little barking face, but all we hear is a rush of air through her stoma. However, she was never a very vocal dog, and so its not like she has lost a way of talking to us...but if your dog barks to go to the toilet and come back in, you might want to think about getting a doggy-doorbell and thinking of other ways for your dog to communicate his needs to you.
