Winston's back home after TPLO plate removal

We picked Winston up at noon today and I was a little surprised to see that the recovery for this surgery is very similar to the previous surgeries.  Two weeks of almost no activity and then we can start walking again starting with 5 minute walks.  The difference here is that every few days we can increase by 5 minutes instead of every week or two weeks.  Actually, I guess this makes sense because he hasn't had regular exercise in over a month and his muscles have noticeably atrophied in that time.  If we do too much too soon, he'll be too sore to move.

We're to start PT asap, and that will be critical as he heals.  I'm to start doing the passive exercises with his leg 20 repetitions three times a day every day is what our paperwork says.

I was a bit horrified to see him walk as they brought him out to the car.  He looks awful and it looks like his right leg doesn't work right anymore either.  It might have been kinder to just put him down instead of putting him through this again.

We got him home and I sat with him for a bit.  He finally struggled to stand up and couldn't manage it so I helped lift him up with the sling and helped him outside to go potty.  This is not a good sign.  He came back in and went to sleep for the rest of the afternoon.

At dinner time I helped him up again and we went out for a potty break.  He is definitely not walking normally.  It looks he went horseback riding for several hours and his legs are bent into that "cowboy" shape.  I'm pretty worried.

I fed him dinner in bed, and he was interested in food, but not water.  I tried to do his passive exercises and he leaned over and took my arm gently in his mouth to tell me to stop.  I remember how I felt the day after my shoulder surgery and if someone had tried to move my arm for me that day I would have gladly shot them, so I decided we would try again tomorrow.

Later in the evening, Don took him out to go potty and said that he'd stood up on his own.  Winston's incision had drained all over his leg and made a puddle on his bed.  It looked ok, so I blotted up the puddle and left the residue on his leg alone.