Winston got his staples out at 14 days and that visit went well. He is able to go up and down the ramp by himself now. We started walking at 2 weeks for 5 minutes 3-5 times a day. 5 minutes isn't very far when you think about 2.5 minutes away from your house and 2.5 minutes back. In my neighborhood, that's about 3 houses in either direction. I thought that would bore Winston, but he's just thrilled to get off of our property for the first time in 2 weeks. Josie also seems pretty happy with the frequency of these walks, even though she's still going for a longer walk in the evenings. We've had to sneak out with her so that Winston doesn't know what we've done until we get back (I'm sure that Josie tells him!).
We took the exercise pen down and Winston spends most of his time on one of the dog beds or a couch. He's allowed on the couch because he's so tall that he can just step on and off of it as a lateral move rather than a jump. We have a baby gate across the bedroom door because even though he can walk onto the bed, he jumps off of it. We also have a baby gate across the stairway so that he can only go up or down the stairs on a leash.
At week 3 post-op, we increased our walks by 5 minutes each time. We are only doing 3-4 walks each day now. Winston was excited about it the first day -- we actually got to cross a street!. On the third day after we moved to 10 minutes, he seemed sore and more limpy, so we cut back to 5 minutes for his last walk that day and all the walks the day after. Then we moved back up 10 minutes again and he seemed to do fine.
We went for our second physical therapy visit and since his incisions were fully healed we attempted the underwater treadmill. He barely fit into the harness. I'm actually not sure what the harness was for, but it had a handle on top, so I'm assuming it was so we could grab him if we needed to. Have you ever tried to grab a 200 pound dog? It doesn't work so well if he's not cooperative. For example, Winston hates to get on a scale to be weighed. I think mostly because he really doesn't fit, but I'm not sure of that either, all I know is that he sees the scale and he flops onto the floor and goes totally limp so that no matter how you try to drag him it's nearly impossible. It usually takes 3 people to get him onto the scale when he does this. Passive aggressive little (big) bugger!
Anyway, we got him into the treadmill and filled it up and found that even though he was all the way forward, he still bumped his back legs on the back door of the tank as he walked, so it didn't work so well. We didn't keep him in it for long. She showed me how to do bending exercises (hold a treat at his hip and make him bend around to take it). We're supposed to do 3 reps at each hip 2-3 times a day. She also wants him to do a series of sit-down/stand up exercises (5 times in a row twice a day). She showed me how to massage his legs and back to help with muscle tightness.
At week 4 post-op we increased the walking time again by 5 minutes so we were up to 15 minutes 3-4 times a day (thankfully I work at home, so I can take breaks during the day). He got sore after the first few walks, so we backed off again for a few walks and then we were able to bump it back up.
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