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 )