We all survived July 4th with surprising ease. Before we got her, Josie ran loose. She was the only mastiff who regularly left her owners property with their lab. She lived in the country with a lot of farmers, some of whom raised sheep, and apparently kept guns nearby. Anyway, I figured out pretty quickly one day while we were out in the field walking when some distant neighbors (we've got a lot of farmland north and west of our neighborhood) were either goose hunting or target practicing that Josie knew what gunshots were. As soon as she heard the guns go off, she practically dragged me home. She couldn't hotfoot it out of there fast enough. Up until July 4th, she'd been bothered by the sporadic fireworks that were going off in our neighborhood, she often hid in the main bathroom which is the only room in our house that she can get to that doesn't have a window.
On the 4th, we had two or three big parties on our street, and there were a lot of fireworks going off. I worried that Josie was going to go ballistic once the "real fun" started. During one of the lulls, I headed out with the dogs for a quick down the block and back walk. Just as we went past one of the neighbors, they let off a whole string of black cats or something similar. At first both dogs jumped, but then they both seemed to shrug it off, and the fireworks just kept going for the whole walk, and by the time we got back home, neither dog seemed to really care. We kept them inside except for a brief potty break before bed, but they just stayed in the Living Room just like normal.
Winston has been struggling to stand up for the past 2 days. Of course my first fear is always that he's getting an infection since he still has what appears to be a seroma at the bottom of the TPLO incision. I am watching him like a hawk for any other changes, but so far nothing else has changed. His leg looks the same, he doesn't seem to care when I poke and prod and squeeze his knee, and there's no other swelling, and he's eating, and once he gets walking he does pretty well. Is it overuse? grrrrr!
I stopped walking him around the block yesterday and again today. We've just been doing about 8 minute walks, and I've been massaging his leg muscles more than usual in case it's muscle soreness. Today he seemed to get up a bit more easily. It's been 5 weeks since his TPLO, I don't know if this is "normal."
Let's hope it is just general stiffness. Gracie is 10 weeks post TPLO and 7 weeks post the femoral osteotomy and she will still hold her leg up now and then. It gives me a start each time. I think the not knowing what's normal is the hardest part of the recovery.
ReplyDeleteGracie has been doing very well with hydrotherapy treatment - walking on a treadmill while standing in water. Do you have anything like that for Winston to try?
Good luck!
Hi Beth,
ReplyDeleteWe tried that with Winston for his first surgery and he's too big (too long) for the treadmill -- he bangs his hind legs on the back wall as he walks even when he's all the way forward. I'm a little nervous about trying a lake since most around here are so murky that I can't see the bottom and I'd hate to have him step on broken glass.