Originally Posted by The Critic
Any update?
So he went for his first post-op last week and he is doing great! Continues to be stronger and walk better each day with more endurance. Surgeon was extremely impressed with his recovery thus far and he is "weeks ahead" of the norm for this surgery. Supposedly many dogs don't even walk for two weeks post surgery, requiring the sling at all times. He started to walk on day 2… Manipulation of his legs and inspection of his knee's confirmed they are in the proper position, so the surgeon is very happy with what he sees. Even when he sat, how his legs were indexed was proper and some pivot thing he did I guess was great to see as well during his exam.
He still wears his cone of shame (he kind of got used to it, except when in his crate he doesn't like), only because he did form a seroma on one of his knees. Which is a pocket of fluid from the healing process. Only downfall is it is causing that specific incision to take longer to heal as when the fluid builds up enough, it will drain. No infection or anything. But as a precaution, since it does drain, they gave more anti-biotics just to be cautious in the meantime. They used to use drainage tubes after surgery for this, but they caused more issues than benefited so they don't any longer. His other incision is completely healed up, it's almost not visible anymore. Hoping he can lose the cone after this weekend.
But otherwise, it's all going really great. We have another post-op next week to see how he continues to heal up. It should be the last until his final x-rays in a few weeks. Doctor still wants restricted activities for another week or so, as 4-weeks is about the post-op time for the pins and bones to heal up enough to endure more rigorous walking or steps and such. But even after that, we will keep it easy for him until 6-8 weeks, depending how he is doing. Don't want to risk any setbacks, for sure.
In other news, unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to his brother Kobi yesterday (shown above in the pic, red/white) morning after an abrupt turn in his health, which we found out through x-rays was a tumor in his chest. Without getting into detail (too tough right now…) we had to do what was best for him. Basically found out on Tuesday about the tumor and by Wednesday that was it. It was an amazing 12 years with him, can't believe he is gone. Don't think I ever cried so much as I did all day yesterday. But he is hopefully in a better place, hanging with his "momma" Nellie, our lab/rot mix who we lost almost a year ago today who raised him like her own the day we brought him own. It's just unfair how little time we get to spend with our fur babies… Give all yours a big hug and show them extra love, always!
