TPLO Day 4

I'm not going to sugar coat anything, today has been a struggle.

Jedi was sent home with three days of Gabapentin. I've seen others say that they had at least two weeks of that drug, which serves to deaden nerve pain and also kicks them down a notch - especially when combined with the Trazodone. Our last dose of Gabapentin was given when we went to bed last night. Things have gotten progressively more difficult as the day has gone on.

Apology/no apology for the above photo. I purposefully included a shot of Jedi's neuter site. Ha! It is not giving me any concern and I don't think is bothering him. Hooray for that.

Here's the inside of the leg today with the incision line. I realize these things don't heal overnight and I need to be careful to set realistic expectations on progress. I'm sure this is fine. I did spend a good portion of our last laser session aiming it at the incision line for the first time. Until now I've focused on the top of the knee since I've always continued icing during the laser treatment. Time to see if the laser can work its magic on the incision.

The hock is looking great. I think I only used the laser on that in our first treatment this morning.

Just showing the chicken leg from the side. The swelling has definitely come down.

Okay, on with the tale of our day with no Gabapentin on board. This morning went fine. We got up a bit after 6:00 and took care of business outside. Back inside, everyone got breakfast, Jedi got his morning meds, and we did his first therapy session of the day. I put Jedi into the crate with his blow up collar on and gave him the other frozen lickimat from the freezer, but this time I drizzled some honey on it. It served its purpose much better today and seemed to keep Jedi occupied for a good portion of our walk, so I went ahead and made up more mats for the freezer again. I will have to get some Kongs ready one of these days... At any rate, he was great during the walk and stayed quiet in the crate.

I had an appointment for my second Covid shot at 10:00 a.m., so I was going to have to leave the house for the first time since Jedi came home from surgery. I left him in the xpen with his plastic cone on, since he seems to be getting better about getting around the collar. I checked in on my phone a few times and he seemed fine, but didn't rest. In the future I will crate Kaiser next to him when I leave, because I think Kaiser's pacing around the house while I'm gone makes things much worse.

My main concern about leaving is not the part about being gone. It's the coming home part. My dogs always go nuts when I come home, no matter how hard I work to keep it boring and uneventful. I had my camera pulled up on my phone as I pulled in the garage and the dogs started going nuts. I left everything in the van and ran around to come in the patio door, figuring I could make eye contact sooner and make everyone settle. I came in and just went straight to the couch to sit down until everyone settled. Thank goodness Jedi did not jump up during all of this, but I cannot risk leaving him in the xpen when I leave in the future. Here's video of that adventure (link for mobile users: https://youtu.be/q3EKj81KooA ).

Another struggle we've had today is with Jedi's PROM exercises. He has been guarding his leg by tucking it hard into his flank. I can do flexions with the ankle and knee, but he will not release his leg to let me extend the hip. Randomly he will sometimes stretch the leg back on his own, but I finally gave up trying to do that exercise today.

In general, Jedi just has not settled today. I have not been able to let him wear the blow up collar at all because he is insisting on trying to get to his leg. He whips his head around like something is zinging him and tries to get at it. He still does it in the cone, but he can't get to anything. I finally called the vet's office at 4:30 to ask for more Gabapentin, at least a two week supply. It took until after 7:00 p.m. for them to call it in because they were so backed up and Dr. Wearing wasn't in today. I had to send my dad to get it a bit ago because, well, I clearly can't leave. I'm hoping things improve again with that on board.

Finally, here's our video from today. Poor Jedi really struggled with the bees outside today, he really hates them and didn't want to walk at first. He always comes out holding his leg up at first, but he is starting to use it once we're out there. I really need my last carpet runner to arrive, though, because he is trying to scramble on the bare bits of floor between rugs.  (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/mrDg-UgwvcI )