June 17, 2009, 2.5 weeks post-TPLO

Ever since we came home from the vet on Monday, I've been worrying about the fluid around the incision. Is it getting bigger? I have a hard time telling since I see it every day. They wanted me to call if anything changed. Well, yesterday he was up and restless all day and when he walks around "his room", he's limping pretty good. Is this a change? Is this just because he hurts because we're walking and that's new? I would expect some pain when walking on a newly broken leg.... When we go for a walk, he uses it really well, and he seems less sore while we're out there, and he also isn't as slow on the way back as he was on Monday.

Yesterday afternoon I called AMVS back and asked if they could give me some more specific instructions about what I'm supposed to look for. They clarified that if I should see more of the knee become swollen, or swelling traveling down the leg, or if he starts limping during our walks, or stops putting weight on it while he's in his room. Whew! I'm not seeing any of that yet.

I also asked about stairs. Since we live in a split-level, he's stuck down here in the "lobby" of our house. I don't want him to do anything that he shouldn't do yet, so I figured we might have to wait for awhile, but they said if we're very careful and keep him on a leash we can try the stairs. Take it slow... only try it once one day and see how that goes. If that goes well and doesn't seem to bother him, maybe we can do it again the next day and so on. They just don't want him doing it a lot -- no up and down the stairs several times a day to go potty.

I told them that he seemed to be doing really well with the walks, and they said I could increase either the time or the frequency by little bits as long as it doesn't bother him. Since I've already been through 2 surgeries and an infection, I think I can judge pretty well how he's doing, so I bumped him just past 5 minutes and I might try adding one more walk (5 minute) walk into our day and see how he does with that.

Today he hasn't been restless at all. I kinda think the restlessness yesterday was because of the sudden change to his schedule. He was up and hoping for a walk all day long. Silly boy!