TPLO Day 52

Jedi's PT routine was pretty disrupted this weekend, but I don't think he minded too much because he got to tag along to an agility trial. Granted, the majority of his time was spent in the van, but the weather was mostly nice and I'm sure he appreciates the change of scenery. We got 2" of rain on Friday, though, which meant the creek was too high to swim that day. Then yesterday it was only in the 50s, so no swimming again because of that. It was only about 67 when I got home today, but we went swimming because poor Jedi deserved it.

On Friday and Saturday we were able to get in our morning walk due to late enough start times at the trial. Jedi has moved up to 4 laps around the property, mostly because we're now moving at a much faster pace. Now that Jedi is allowed to trot, he wants to trot EVERYWHERE. He's going to make me take up running.

We did lots of walking at the trial all weekend as well, over a variety of terrain. We even went inside and did a couple of laps in the dirt warmup ring, although I don't think it was deep enough to provide much of an additional workout. There were some curbs, but I think they were too high to do "curb work." We are doing stairs now, very slowly, one controlled step at a time. Speaking of control..... When Jedi and I got back from our first walk on Friday I had my back turned to him while I was getting his water bowl ready. Suddenly Jedi was next to me. In the van. He jumped up! I watched him much closer the rest of the weekend. He really hates being picked up.

Jedi was a good boy while we watched some agility runs, although he did try to get my attention often by offering tricks. His favorite one right now is his "wee-wee" trick, which I am rewarding generously for the reason that it's doing great things to help shift all of his weight onto his right hind. I included some of it in today's video, although the angle is really pretty bad and you can't get a full appreciation for it.

In other news, Jedi is totally off of his post-surgery meds now!

Here's a video update for today. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/I8UKOsOHh1U )

TPLO Day 49

Today marks the 7 week mark following Jedi's TPLO surgery. Routine-wise, nothing changed this past week. Our morning walk has been 3 laps (15-20 minutes), with a mid-morning hill walk and an afternoon creek walk. Probably the most notable thing has been our reduction in meds. Earlier this week I started to only give Jedi his Gabapentin and Trazodone at noon (half of a T, 100mg G). Today I pushed it back to about 3:00 p.m. (that was more of an accident, really). Tomorrow maybe I'll give it at bedtime, and then I think that will be it.

Our followup appointment at the vet was this morning. Jedi weighed in at 40.8 lbs, so he has put on just over two pounds in the last four weeks. Some of it is getting his muscle back, but I do think the lickimats are probably catching up to us now. I have already started to cut his food back a bit more.

They decided to go ahead and try to do Jedi's xrays without sedation. I had no reservations about their ability to get him to behave on the table, but man did I cringe as the tech walked him out of the room (and then again back in) and he was scrambling and sliding all over the tile floor. Dr. Wearing said that everything looks good and that the hardware is still firmly in place and doing its job, but that Jedi's bone healing is not advanced as we would hope to see at this stage. He said it's not concerning, just that it's a bit slow. I have to admit that this kind of kicked me in the gut a bit. Jedi has excelled at everything in life, so I guess I just assumed that we were going to get an A+ report at the vet today.

I told Dr. Wearing my concerns about Jedi's twisty leg, which seems to have been getting more twisty in the last couple of days. I've still been able to control it with pressure against his harness, but this morning it seemed to persist no matter how slow we went. Dr. Wearing wasn't concerned and said it was just lack of muscle to hold the leg straight throughout the stride. He really wants us to focus on building strength and muscle over the coming weeks. We have the go-ahead to start doing actual swimming (lots of it!) as well as adding trotting on leash. Our next followup appointment will be in four weeks and we'll do xrays again.

We wasted no time following the doctor's orders. I brought a bumper along on our afternoon creek walk and we went to the spot where we normally turn around because it starts getting deep. I kept the throws short to keep Jedi from jumping after it or trying to swim too fast (there is a current, after all) and kept him swimming by tossing it out again as soon as he brought it back. I didn't do this for too terribly long, probably less than 5 minutes, because I don't want to overdo things right away. Jedi loved it so much! It's the first time he's gotten to play in the last 7 weeks. I let him trot on leash on our last walk of the day and I think things are looking pretty good. Maybe I've been going the wrong way by slowing him down to fix the wonky twist, as it seemed better when I let him walk really fast to encourage the trot.

Here's video from the swim today and some trotting.  (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/fFVpo9XOY7o )

TPLO Day 45

Not much has changed in our world, so there hasn't been much to report of late. We are continuing the process of weaning Jedi off his meds and that's going fine. I started to cut the Trazodone in half yesterday, so he's now getting that 1/2 pill along with the 100mg Gabapentin twice a day. In the next day or two I think I'll switch that to once a day at noon or so.

We had a lot of outdoor time again this weekend and Jedi got to hang out in his outdoor pen. He's always a good boy while I'm doing yard work, and even though he tends to take a nap I think he appreciates the change of scenery.

Our daily creek walks continue to be the highlight of Jedi's day. He's doing well with his 3 laps in the morning, and this morning I added the extra loop through my parent's yard. I imagine we'll go up to 4 laps soon enough. I took a day or so off hill work in favor of the other PT stuff we were doing, but we returned to the hill for a couple of laps today. I'm starting to feel muscle definition returning to Jedi's leg again. We're almost out of our first bag of Myos, so I did go ahead and order a second one to keep him on it through this phase of his recovery.

Here's our video from today. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/mvuZLNPp88o )

TPLO Day 42

 

It has been six weeks since Jedi's TPLO surgery and we are trucking right along in our rehab program. Someone at work today made the comment that it seems like time has flown and that she didn't think it had been that long. I feel much the opposite and this has become such a way of life for us that I feel like we've been doing it forever.

The above photo was taken sitting inside Jedi's pen with him today. 😄 We took care of some grooming needs today and it was the easiest way to tackle it. I trimmed nails after our hill walk this morning, and then this afternoon I tried to tackle Jedi's foot floof with the scissors and then brushed him on our next trip out. I'm going to need to get some trimming sheers to tackle those feet, assuming Jedi still won't let me near him with the clippers. He wasn't a fan of the scissors at first, either, but he did finally give in. Too bad they stink at cutting hair.

Jedi got to spend some extra time outside today, as I decided to sit out on the deck for a couple of work meetings this morning. I put him into his pen around 9:45 and then took him for his hill walk at 10:30, after my meeting let out. We only did one lap around the hill today because Jedi was just dragging. I guess his meds had kicked in and he hadn't gotten his usual morning nap. I put him back in the outside pen until around 11:30 or so when my next meeting let out.

Jedi hung out for a bit while I worked Ren briefly after lunch, and then we went for our creek walk. With the water being down as much as it is, I've been experimenting with whether there might be an easier way to get out. The way I've been going is great for going down, but Jedi has not been patient and it has resulted in more scrambling than I prefer when going back up. Yesterday I tried walking all the way down to the corner and we still encountered about a 10' section where Jedi had to swim to get across. Today we tried the halfway point where I was able to lift him onto the rock and have him wait while I got out. It wasn't terrible, he probably used his leg less than he does on the other spot. Patience and going slow is not a strength of ours....

Because my classes got combined tonight and didn't start until later, I decided to put together Jedi's 6 week video beforehand. We did the wobble board with the biggest ball under it, we played with the FitPaws stuff, and we did some serpentines around cones. I think his gait looks a bit off in the video for two reasons -- the hair adds some weird optical illusion, and he was more worried about looking up at me than striding forward. The regular walking is from just after that. I think we did a bit much today, though, because he was a little wobbly when he poo'd after dinner. Because of that, I didn't take him for a post-dinner walk tonight. I figured we'd done enough for the day.

One more week until xrays and our next followup visit!

Here's video from today. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/b34gyQgrS8Y )

TPLO Day 40

Jedi's walking continues to look good, so this morning I added another lap to our pre-breakfast walk. I'm not tracking time for our walks, but am instead focusing more on distance since that's pretty easy to measure. We're up to three laps around the property now, and we've been able to pick up the pace a bit while keeping Jedi's leg steady. Every now and then he starts twisting it again, so we slow down, work on placing it properly, and then are generally pretty successful at speeding back up.

In addition to our morning walk, we did two laps of the hill walk around 10:30, and then we hit up the creek a little before 2:00, after we'd been outside for a while building & running a course (well, Ren got to run). Because I only have one (early) class on Tuesdays, we went for one more lap around the property before dinner tonight. Given how much we did today, I was happy that Jedi's leg wasn't getting wobbly and tired.

We still have a long way to go on hair growth.... 😏

We have started the process of weaning down Jedi's meds now. I think it was Sunday where I moved his Trazodone to twice a day instead of three times. I'm giving Jedi everything at 9 and 9 now. Yesterday morning he got his last 300mg Gabapentin. Now he's getting 100mg twice a day, which I figure we'll do for another couple of days before going down to once a day. I don't think that the meds are doing anything at all anymore, but I want to bring him down slowly so that we don't bring on a seizure. We should maybe be off the meds by our appointment next Thursday?

Here's a quick video from tonight's walk. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/mRzFqVzHd1Q )

TPLO Day 38

I keep telling myself that we're going to take it easy and have a "do nothing" day, but it hasn't really worked out that way. I didn't take Jedi into town to try to find some curbs this weekend like I had thought about doing. It just seems like so much work to pack him up and deal with the craziness for what would amount to ten minutes of walking. I feel like the trips and out and about will make more sense once we have fewer restrictions and have built up more stamina.

Also, it's hard to feel inspired to haul out when I have all we need for full scale PT right here at home. We have been going creek walking every single day, which means that Jedi has probably drank over 20 gallons of water in the last week... We've also been doing a bit of hill work each day. The typical day right now is normal morning walk, late morning hill walk, afternoon creek walk, and then sometimes a shorter walk around/after dinner. I definitely think we're making progress on building muscle, but I'm still staring at the leg 100% of the time as we walk to adjust Jedi's stride if he starts twisting it too much.

I called the vet clinic to see about adjusting Jedi's Gabapentin prescription to allow us to start tapering him down. I guess Gabapentin is only available in capsules, which is going to make it difficult for us to split doses like we could with tablets. They called in a prescription for 100mg (he's been on 300mg) on Friday. I haven't heard from the Walmart pharmacy yet. We run out tomorrow, so I'll have to give them a call. I'm sure it's the whole controlled substance issue yet again.

Our video of the day is more of the same -- some land walking, some creek walking. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/wTdh3cNOyDc )

TPLO Day 35

Happy five weeks since surgery! We're two weeks from our xray date, so that's the next big day to look forward to, as it will hopefully come with more freedom. Until then, though, we keep plugging away. I have been letting Jedi hang out for a few minutes out of his pen each morning following his PT. He desperately wants to play and will grab whatever is closest, such as the Kong in the above picture. I let him bounce around a bit until he starts to get too squirrely, and then he goes back into his pen for his morning nap. I included some of this in his video today.

  

We have a long way to go, but the hair IS growing in. With a soft goal of returning to a trial in August, I have to wonder what his coat is going to look like by that point. One of my requirements for going back was that he should have grown his hair back by then.  lol  Jedi has so much coat, though, that it's probably going to take a bit to really fill in. (Photo orientation is his belly hair to the far left, leg in the middle, tail on the right.)

I haven't showed the inside of the knee/incision line lately, so here's a follow up on that. Our vet did a great job on this suture line.

I think we're continuing to make progress on building up strength and muscle. I'm still 100% controlling Jedi's speed and pace to try to keep him from twisting the leg as he walks. He still does it if unchecked, but I feel like it's starting to get better. Yesterday we didn't do much other than the creek and a couple of walks, but today we did our morning walk, hill work at lunch, creek walking after I worked Ren this afternoon, and then a quick lap up and down the hill after I taught classes. That's quite a lot and I thought he was still looking pretty good on our way into the house tonight. I'll see how things are looking tomorrow, but I would really like to start to ramp up the hill work if Jedi will tolerate it.

The only other aspect of PT that I've really not tackled so far is curb walking. I would have to drive into town for that. Maybe that's something to put on the list for this weekend. I think the university area might offer some options for that.

As mentioned above, today's video starts with morning play time. The first walking part is part of our slow meander up the hill (impossible to tell, I know), and the last part is the flat area on the way back. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/2gFtrRGMj0Q )

TPLO Day 33

 

Day 33! I feel like updates are going to slow down now because we're largely just doing more of the same. We lucked out on Sunday and the rain didn't come until the afternoon. Plus it was actually warm in the morning, so we got in some creek time. Yesterday we did one lap up and down the hill in addition to our normal walks. I generally try not to do too much in addition to the hill work on those days. I'm still seeing more wobbliness than I would prefer in the surgery leg, and it's definitely at its most pronounced following hill work. We continue to walk *very* slowly in order to get Jedi to place the leg thoughtfully and not do the twisting motion.

Today we drove to Gallatin again for Jedi's chiro appointment. Dr. Vear was very happy with how balanced he is staying and just commented about some tightness in his back. He also adjusted something in his neck. The next time we'll see Dr. Vear is when he comes here in two weeks.

Jedi got to go into the creek this afternoon after I worked with Ren and he enjoyed that. He was ready for a nap at that point,which kept him from having to go out until after my work meeting, thankfully. Then I took him outside one more time before class started tonight and he wee'd out enough creek water to get him through class time.  lol

After dinner we went outside and did some PT stuff. I did video for an update since it's been a while. In this session we have the wobble board, raised cavaletti, and sit/stands on a raised surface. I also asked him to back up, but I think he was getting tired by that point and wasn't stepping back well. I'm pretty happy with weight distribution these days, but we really need to start building up that muscle. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/uyTKNjDzUEo )

TPLO Day 30

Hill work seems like it's definitely challenging Jedi, so we've been laying kind of low the last couple of days. Yesterday we tackled the hill again, but only one time so that we wouldn't push too far. It just seems like the leg gets more wobbly when we do too much, with the leg going kind of in and out with each step. Or maybe there's rotation, it's hard to describe. It seems to improve or go away when I make Jedi go really slow again, so our walks have been at a snail's pace again to get that leg tracking straight.

I went back to heat again this morning after our pre-breakfast walk instead of ice, since all of the rehab articles say that's the best right now. Jedi just is not a fan. He will lay there forever with ice packs, but he gets really squirrelly with the heat pack. We may as well just give up on that one. He also seems to be losing patience for the laser, which he only gets in the morning now.

We have not been back in the creek for a while due to the rain and cooler weather. Today it was only 60 degrees, but I sucked it up and took Jedi down there because we're in for more rain tomorrow and I didn't want him to do hill work again today. I didn't drag the ramp down to the creek this time, but did use the sling to have better control and to help Jedi up & down the incline.

Needless to say he was thrilled. He seems to really want to swim and made a beeline for the deepest part, so he had to be pulled back into the more shallow section. I like the knee action that I'm seeing from him in the more shallow parts. He's really lifting that leg nicely, which is good for muscle building. There was a pretty decent current today, so it was quite a bit more challenging when we were walking back upstream. We just went down and back a couple of times.

The downside of creek time is that Jedi drinks gallons of water and then has to pee it all out.... I had to make a trip into town and things were crazy busy, so it took a bit longer than planned. So.... Jedi peed in his pen. Here's where I get to be thankful that I have a bath mat in there, and he mostly got it all there. His bedding was due to be washed anyhow, so I threw it all in the washing machine and pulled up the puzzle mat to make sure I cleaned under there. We've had issues with swimming before classes before so this isn't new, I just need to be a better planner....

Here's video from today. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/9oTDBMBEZ7Y )

TPLO Day 28

We completed another week in our TPLO journey. Today marks four weeks since Jedi's surgery! That means we are entering week 5 in our rehab schedule, so we are going to do more stuff! Today our post-lunch walk was hill work. Due to the lay of the land, our daily walks include some slight inclines, but today we went all in and traversed the hill in front of the house and at the corner of my parent's property. I tried to figure out how to do video of that, but it probably would have just looked like we were walking on flat ground.  ha....

It's actually a fairly significant incline, so much so that cars struggle to get up the hill when we have winter weather. It's also steep enough for someone who is out of shape for such things to notice it. In other words, hill work will be good for me as well!

(Yes, the above picture is what you think it is, and Jedi is mortified that I took it -- but look, standing on the right leg! 😁 )

We walked up the hill from my driveway to the top corner of my parent's property, and then down the hill alongside their house until it flattened out a bit again. Then back up to the corner and back down to my driveway. We did that loop two times and I figured that was enough for the first go at it. I contemplated taking Jedi and Ren for a lap around the back because time-wise we really hadn't been out very long. As we walked down the driveway, though, I noted that Jedi's leg was doing the wonky thing that he does when he's tired, so instead I opted to take him back in the house and give him an icing session to stay ahead of any soreness.

I tried to give him one more (normal) walk after class tonight, but we were racing up against a thunderstorm that was blowing in and didn't get to stay out very long. He seems to have recovered well from his hill work, though, and didn't seem to have any tiredness or soreness. He'll get his nightly massage and light pad after I post this.

I got video during our quick trip out. Not much to look at, but it shows where we're at for the end of four weeks. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/ViadLn4XVzI )

TPLO Day 26

 

Jedi got to increase his morning walk again this morning! He's been doing well, so I decided to up him to two "normal" laps around our property. This is up from one "longer" lap that included going through my parent's yard. Pre-surgery, our normal routine was four laps in the morning, so we still have a ways to go to work back up to that. I have been continuing to put Jedi back in the house and rotate who is with him during walks. He gets his lickimat and seems okay with this plan, and it keeps him from getting all riled up when I walk the little dogs by.

We've had a good 3" of rain these last couple of days and the creek was raging high today. But that amount of rain also means that we had a lake out in the pasture, so I used that for our PT/water therapy today. I'm happy to report that Jedi continues to be doing well off his NSAIDs and doesn't seem to be suffering soreness from our increased activity of late.

Today's video is from our puddle walk. 😀   (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/6GqQtXGut7g )

TPLO Day 25

 
Truthfully, I don't have much to share today and hadn't planned on making a post. But I did want to mark a couple of positive things. Today was the first day that Jedi received no Deramaxx, so he is officially off NSAIDs. He is not showing any signs of pain or favoring the leg in the absence of the Deramaxx, which is great given that he spent a fair amount of time walking in the creek yesterday. It was only a few days ago that I was freaking out internally regarding Jedi's favoring of the bad leg (going back to holding it up, etc.), but I'm back to feeling hopeful because he's been doing great the last couple of days.

We got 1.5" of rain throughout the first half of the day, which meant that the creek was running pretty fast and high today. No creek therapy today, unfortunately. I did have to set up for my Agility Foundations class this afternoon, though, so Jedi got to wander his way through a lot of that. I let him go on the wobble board, he did some "bottoms" on the travel plank and tippy board, we did a few trips through the cavaletti poles, and then I asked him to back up onto the FitPaws stuff. That seems easier for him right now than supporting his weight on the hind end while he steps up with the front paws. Things are progressing great!

TPLO Day 24

I'm feeling relief on several fronts today. After seeming to really favor his leg on Thursday into Friday, after a full day of rest and returning to icing, we're back on track again. Even better, our little escapade into the creek yesterday did not set us back at all, which made me feel better about doing more today. All of our PT equipment like the cavaletti and cones were put away for mowing this weekend so I haven't revisited that yet. I have added time back into our walks, but I wouldn't say we are doing any sort of distance because I'm letting Jedi stop, sniff, and eat grass pretty much as much as he wants. While I'm not a fan of that behavior, he has been putting all of his weight onto the leg while doing it so I'm going with it.

When he's wet you can see that hair is starting to grow back in!  😀

As I stated above, since Jedi seemed to do well with our (very short) trip into the creek yesterday, today I went out looking for more opportunities to get him into water -- preferably something more appropriate. A friend has posted pictures of where she takes her dogs swimming in this area and I got a couple of leads from her on places to check out. They were about twenty minutes away, so I loaded Jedi into the van and we set off to check things out.

Unfortunately, while they looked like great location for "normal" times, both would have required more physical effort than Jedi is ready for right now. One was down a pretty long and super steep hill, followed by a fair trek to get to the water (at least today, while the water levels were low). The other one had a decently long walk from the parking area, a much smaller hill, but still a long trek to get to the water. The walk to & from the van would have already been pushing the limits on where we're at with our walking at this point, much less the exertion of the water workout. Maybe one day we can check them out again when everyone is healthy and sound.

Since that ended up being a bust, we came home and I decided to take the weed whacker down to my parent's side of the creek to see if I couldn't find and open up a better place for us to get down there. There ended up being a really nice spot that would almost work without the ramp, but I still brought the ramp down to make things safer. In this location I was actually able to get Jedi up and down by myself, but I did still use the sling on his hind end for more control.

The water on this end of the creek was much better, and the rock was more even and easier to walk on as well. This is going to be a great place to continue Jedi's water therapy going forward! We can return to the other end of the creek when he's ready for swimming.

When we came back into the house I decided to go ahead and ice his leg again, but I quickly learned that icing a wet dog is kind of mean. It didn't take long before Jedi was shivering, so I felt pretty bad about that. I went and grabbed the space heater to help warm him up again, so that's the story about the picture above.

Here's video from our creek fun today. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/wZsstfxlf5U )

TPLO Day 23

We are into the fourth week now! Yesterday I was feeling a little defeated and actually quite concerned. It seemed like Jedi was getting progressively worse about favoring his bad leg. He wasn't just weight shifting when we stopped, but was fully picking up and holding his leg like during the first few days. His walk also seemed like it was avoiding putting weight on that leg as much as he could, so I really felt like we were backsliding.

So yesterday we took several steps back. Jedi had limited walking time throughout the day. I put him back in the house during morning walks, figuring that the chilly morning air, wet grass, and bouncing around when the little dogs went for their walk weren't good things. We returned to icing and ditched heat altogether. Jedi had icing sessions 3 times, I think two of them included the laser, and then our last session of the day was the full body massage with light pad.

I am happy to report that he seemed so much better today. We must have just really overdone things and made him sore. I have it in my head that healing should be a linear process and just keep improving day by day, but that is clearly not how it works. Truthfully, it's not been that long since I went through recovery from my appendectomy and FOR REAL, I know what it's like to feel like hell after doing too much. I let Jedi return to walking today, but we are back to going sloooooooow and not staying out quite as long. During his very last walk of the day I could tell that his leg was starting to get tired by the way he was swinging it out a bit.

Jedi's big excitement of the day was his first trip to the creek since his surgery. It was quite the production to get him down there. I carried the ramp from the front of the house and tried to make an easier entrance into the water. Even with that in place, though, I had to have my mom help me move Jedi through a few positions to get him down there, mostly just holding him in place while I moved to the next spot. I brought out his sling to give me more control over him as we navigated things.

I had briefly scoped things out with Ren before I brought Jedi down, but I must have walked a slightly different path and it quickly got very deep. My creek has never been this deep in that spot. Usually the only swimming area is in the corner. Chest height and whatnot is actually good at this stage, but there was definitely one point where Jedi's feet weren't touching anymore and he tried to swim. We need to wait until the bone is healed before we start that kind of kicking action, so I brought an end to that and we made our way out. I think the other end of the creek would be better and not get so deep, but I haven't figured out how to get Jedi down there because the bank is so steep. I'll have to take the weed whacker down there and try to find the best path where I might be able to put the ramp. There's also a boat launch that a friend told me about that I'm going to check out to see if that water depth would work for us.

Here's video from our creek adventure today. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/iYl-_yhqFYo )