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  1. #21
    Senior Dog Sue-Ram's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MomtoMolly View Post
    Thanks for the links! How's he doing now?
    He's doing great. I think there might always be some muscle loss in his surgery leg but it doesn't affect him at all. There's an unofficial dog beach at the bottom of Kipling so he went swimming just about every other day in the summer and that has really helped him. Most importantly he has no problem jumping up on my bed and I have folding steps that he uses for the car. I'm very happy with where he is now.
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    Ram - Adopted @ 6 y/o - 7/18/2011 - 7/4/2019
    CGN - 6/10/2013


  2. #22
    Senior Dog JackK's Avatar
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    My Cassie had surgery yesterday for a ruptured CCL. She underwent the TTA procedure yesterday afternoon. I just got off the phone with the hospital and she is coming home later this morning. They tell me she is doing spectacular. She just came in from a short walk to do her business and has no problems. She will turn 4 at the end of March and is an extremely active dog. The recuperation period is 10 - 12 weeks with the first part being critical that she not jump or tear apart the repair work. Keeping her quiet and relatively inactive is going to be the biggest challenge.

    I hope you have good results with your surgical consult.

  3. #23
    Puppy MomtoMolly's Avatar
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    Hi everyone! So we had the consult and the vet did her exam/xrays and said that it definitely required surgery. The vet was so so so great, she even sat with us for an hour and a half talking about all our options, the risks, the recovery, talked about her experience, and what she saw was happening in Molly's knee.

    The end result that we decided to go with is TPLO and it's on Feb 1. It sounded like the best option for her also given her size, and my partner and I are already making the plans for working from home with her for at least two weeks so we can always have an eye on her. (She is crated during day usually so I think she'll like the company as well) but also so we can keep our eye on her.

    I am super nervous about it but you know what, it feels like the right decision. Just last week after the consult Molly tweaked her knee again when someone spooked her from knocking on the door, and I thought, this will never heal if we don't do this right. So we are starting to plan things for around the house to help make things safer (rugs and floor mats to prevent slipping, putting a sign on the door that says DO NOT KNOCK so she doesn't get spooked, and making sure she has marrow bones in the freezer to eat and help tire her out while keeping her mellow.

    Any tips for keeping her calm during the healing process or anything else I should know/ask the vet before hand? I got the tips around no eating prior to midnight the day before, etc.

    Michelle

  4. #24
    Senior Dog Tanya's Avatar
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    Good luck!
    I was SUPER nervous before surgery (my pup had TPLO June 1). Having a plan and "getting things done" helped me get thru it and sounds like you are well on that path. Keeping them calm is easier at the beginning and then gets harder as they feel better and better. I used lots of stuffed kongs and meals were in part brain games (and in part trying t get her to take her meds :P she was pretty picky and liked to skip breakfast before the injry but she had to eat on schedule to take her meds - and actually take the meds which took some work some days ) As they get better you can increase training, even teach new tricks. Eventually you get pretty busy with short walks and rehab as well. I used an x-pen for the most part, Pen would pull to go in there when we got to the basement (either coming back from outside or down from the bedroom).

    The first night was hard. i slept in the x-pen with her as she wouldn't settle (the anesthesia can do that).

    no feeding after mightnight you mean?

  5. #25
    Puppy MomtoMolly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tanya View Post
    Good luck!
    I was SUPER nervous before surgery (my pup had TPLO June 1). Having a plan and "getting things done" helped me get thru it and sounds like you are well on that path. Keeping them calm is easier at the beginning and then gets harder as they feel better and better. I used lots of stuffed kongs and meals were in part brain games (and in part trying t get her to take her meds :P she was pretty picky and liked to skip breakfast before the injry but she had to eat on schedule to take her meds - and actually take the meds which took some work some days ) As they get better you can increase training, even teach new tricks. Eventually you get pretty busy with short walks and rehab as well. I used an x-pen for the most part, Pen would pull to go in there when we got to the basement (either coming back from outside or down from the bedroom).

    The first night was hard. i slept in the x-pen with her as she wouldn't settle (the anesthesia can do that).

    no feeding after mightnight you mean?
    Thank you I will do your stuffed kong trick too! and yes, after midnight. I can already see her "sad" face coming when she realizes she won't get breakfast. EEP! lol Out of curioristy, what rehab did you do?

  6. #26
    Senior Dog Abulafia's Avatar
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    Hi—

    We're week nearly at 5 weeks post op on a TLPO.

    Some prep time is good. As Tanya wrote, keeping them quiet the first week or so is fairly easy, but do be careful. When she is out of the crate, you will probably want an ex-pen or other way to confine her in a very small area, with no possibility of running, jumping, or playing.

    To cut the boredom, I froze (in ice cube trays) chicken broth and (separately) mashed baked sweet potato. I'd pop out a cube and put it in a kong / kong type toy, and let her work on that. It was a good way to add interest without significant calories.

    Your surgeon should give you pretty detailed information on what PT to do, and when. After two weeks we were able to begin short (5-10 minute) short leash walks a couple times a day. Other good exercises are sits-to-stand (to keep up muscles), figures 8s, and hill work. But add these only after the weeks progress, and only at your surgeon's advice.

    It's a slow road back... but it'll be Ok.
    Hidden Content Hokule'a ("Hoku") / b. 06.08.15

  7. #27
    House Broken
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    How are things going? You are about 6 days ahead of your post opt from us. Remy was done on the 7th. I find that Remy once he gets moving is maybe walking a bit better then he was prior to surgery... Tomorrow is our last antibiotic day, thank goodness that is the worse! It's tricky to get him to take that pill and I think it's what has been turning his stomach the most.

  8. #28
    Puppy MomtoMolly's Avatar
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    Hi everyone! So sorry for delay. It has been hectic since the surgery! I feel like we are constantly on Molly-watch to make sure she's being delicate

    We are 13 days post surgery, and she's able to walk (with us holding a bit of a support thing behind her just in case she slips/falls) and the swelling has gone down as has the bruising. OMG the bruising at first was HORRIBLE. She actually "talked" for about three hours straight once we got her back from the vet - we asked the vet if she was in pain, but the vet said that she probably was just telling us how mad she was at us for leaving her there for the surgery (lol)

    The first week was the hardest for sure. Gravity is not nice, and she kept having a ton of fluid build up in her ankle that we would do massages to help disperse it. The fluid is now gone. We do physio three times a day with her, three sets of 15 of bending and fully extending the knee, and she actually seems to love that because she just lies down on her side until we're finished. She is on two medications now, one is Medicam the other one starts with a G and I can't remember the spelling (Gavapentin?). Both of which she is fine with taking, the medicam we give her with food.

    Wednesday she has the incision re-check and we've been taking pictures every day of the incision to show its progress to the vet. It looks really good right now!! Also want to find out when we should start physio officially. They didn't mention that the last time and I don't know what "too soon" is.

    I'm not sure what "milestones" we're supposed to look for so that's on my list of questions for the vet on Wednesday. I don't know what's "good" for walking/movement and what goals we should target. I.e. how soon should she be expected to walk 100% ok again? How do we know we're getting there? All things I've seen online is a "steady improvement" in walking which seems a bit subjective to me since some days are better than others, identifying a setback is tricky.

    She is well loved and enjoying every minute of it, the extra head scratches have been her thing since the surgery and I think she's milking it! (But that's ok)

    I have to admit, for anyone doing this, carpets around your home are KEY. We actually bought 11 rugs (varying sizes) and left them around the condo in key areas so that she's on traction literally every step. We also taped a sign to our door saying DO NOT KNOCK, so that we're *hopefully* minimizing surprises.

    Any tips for post-two week recovery?

  9. #29
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    Glad to hear that Molly seems to be recovering well...good thoughts for your continued success.

  10. The Following User Says Thank You to SunDance For This Useful Post:

    MomtoMolly (02-13-2017)

  11. #30
    Senior Dog Doreen Davis's Avatar
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    What a good job you are doing, I love the 11 rugs part :-)

 



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