TPLO Day 1

 

Time to use the blog for yet another purpose! It's been blessedly free of updates since Jedi's seizures started in January. Thankfully we have not experienced another seizure since starting on phenobarbital. Sadly 2021 has hit us with another blow as Jedi went in for TPLO surgery on 4/8/21. Today was his first day home and I'm going to use the blog to track his recovery so that I can better appreciate the day-to-day progress. My goal is to post incision pictures and video of his gait daily, to a point yet to be determined.

The story of how this came about.... On February 24 I ran Jedi through a UKI course in training (https://youtu.be/o8NxFaa0nL8). Later that evening, when he'd been napping after dinner, he got up from his bed and was holding up his right hind. On that occasion he persisted in favoring the leg into the next day. I put him on leash for several days and stopped training for a couple of weeks.

On Monday, March 8 he ran around like a loon on our morning walk, far more than usual. He'd been off leash restriction for some time and was not having any problems. Later that morning he rose from his nap favoring the leg again. This time he seemed to walk out of it. We were entered in an AKC trial that weekend so I put him back on leash again for a couple of days. He was free to run by the end of the week and was doing fine again, so I elected to go to the trial. I limited his runs to one trial per day, though (it was the double trial format), so as to not overdo it. On Saturday all was well, but on Sunday he was favoring the leg slightly when we got out of the van after returning home.

I really thought, by the way he was moving, that it was his hip or pelvis. I texted his chiropractor on Sunday and we were able to get an appointment for Tuesday, March 16. It was Dr. Vear who suggested that what I was describing sounded like a CCL injury, but he was not able to get motion when he attempted the drawer test on the knee. I came home and made an appointment with our vet, although we unfortunately had to wait two weeks until April 1 when the ortho specialist would be available. I rested Jedi until the Tuesday before the appointment, when I ran him through the NAC finals course to purposely try to "break him" before his appointment, since he'd been fine the whole time (https://youtu.be/ILVw2VWlWUY).

We went in last Thursday and knocked Jedi out for xrays. While he was still out, Dr. Wearing showed me the movement in the knee (much more obvious on an unconscious patient) and said that the xrays showed signs of inflammation, so we were definitely dealing with a CCL tear of some degree.

Surgery was scheduled for the first available time, which was one week out. I dropped Jedi off yesterday morning at 7:30 a.m.

Dr. Wearing called at 4:45 p.m. to update me that surgery had gone very well. Jedi's tear was right along the edge of the tibial plateau and blessedly his meniscus was still entirely intact. This should bode very well for his future performance after healing and rehabilitation. Often times people wait too long for surgery, or there is some traumatic incident, and the meniscus gets shredded. I was very happy that we moved forward quickly with surgery.

I picked Jedi up around 2:00 p.m. today after receiving our discharge instructions. I've been doing a lot of research online and have joined some helpful groups on Facebook, so thankfully I was already prepared with a plan. This is good, because they really didn't cover anything about therapy or rehab at all (I did get a handout prior to surgery).

I had to drop a prescription off for Trazodone on the way home, and they also sent me home with Deramaxx, Gabapentin, and Cephalexin to be given over the next two weeks. Unfortunately Dr. Wearing is out of the office during the standard two-week follow up appointment, so we will not be going back until week three. Jedi does not have any visible sutures or staples, though, so at least that is not a concern. I didn't expect that at all, as I have not seen pictures shared online of hidden suture lines. That's pretty neat, although we do still need to be very careful about not letting Jedi get at it. He's been doing really well in the plastic cone that he was sent home in, so I have left that on him for now. I do have an inflatable collar that I may try on him tomorrow to see if it allows him to reach the incision. It would be nice to transition him to that because he cannot reach his water bucket wearing the cone.

Things have been going well since we got home. Jedi drank a whole bucket of water when I first put him in the pen, so I knew we'd have to go out sooner rather than later (I cannot imagine this dog only going out the 4-5 times a day they recommend, he goes out practically hourly most days....). I gave him his afternoon pain meds and he took a nap while those kicked in. About 45 minutes later we went outside for another potty break, he got his Trazodone that my parents were able to pick up for me, and then we started our first session of icing and PROM exercises around 4:00 p.m. I went very slow and didn't want to push anything for the first time, but Jedi didn't have any objections.

I fed dinner a bit later than usual because Jedi was sleeping again. We ate a little after 6:00 p.m. Then we went outside for another potty trip, then back in for more icing and PROM. I pushed a little bit more this time and Jedi did have some slight resistance to straightening out the knee, so I again kept it slow and gentle. There is no resistance to bending it. The hock is also fine, as well as the hip. I included a 15 minute cold laser session (which we are blessedly borrowing from a friend) and followed up with one more session of icing. I am going to need to pick up some more frozen peas to make sure I always have a frozen set on hand. I have read that you cannot do too much icing right now, so we're going to go nuts with it.

I have pulled out the air mattress and plan to sleep in the living room until Jedi is out of the cone/donut. I can fit his crate in my bedroom, but I think it's easier on him to have the extra space of the xpen while wearing something on his head. We can move back into the bedroom in a couple of weeks, hopefully.

Here is our day 1 video. I do have a sling that I'm using to get him in and out of the house (yay for having a ramp off the front steps, too!), but I obviously have to remove it for him to go potty. (Link for mobile users, since embedded video doesn't seem to work:  https://youtu.be/wtQIMqfImCk )

With any luck we'll get poop eventually, although I imagine that will be a struggle for him right now. I'll remember to open a can of pumpkin to go with breakfast tomorrow. He had quite the appetite for dinner, so that was good! He got to eat dinner out of a regular bowl tonight. Once he's more stable I'll return him to his slow feeder to draw it out a bit more, and I have a few puzzle feeders on hand as well. My goal is to not let him gain weight during this process, as that can mess with how effective his seizure meds are. He had gotten up to 41 lbs, but I cut his food back over the last month and now he's at 38 lbs, so we have some wiggle room.

I plan to do one more icing and PROM session before bed tonight. And who knows, maybe again in the middle of the night since I probably won't sleep.

Onward we go, wish me luck.