TPLO Day 77 (11 weeks)

Today we are at 11 weeks post op from Jedi's TPLO procedure. The once per week update seems reasonable these days given the overall repetitiveness of our daily routine. I had hoped to have a good update following our latest vet appointment, but I got a call earlier this week saying that Dr. Wearing wouldn't be in the office this week so we needed to reschedule. That was a bummer. I have a dentist appointment Thursday morning, so we will be going in on Friday next week. A 12-week followup seems standard for many, and hopefully it's just another week to solidify bone healing for us.

I had hoped that a good set of xrays would mean some additional activities for Jedi this week, but honestly, I've already gone ahead and increased his freedom about as much as should be allowed. He's doing well with house freedom, although today he scaled the couch and jumped into the dining room while I was in the bathroom, so I guess that's a thing again.... No more leaving him in the living room behind a baby gate. I've let him drag the leash a bit in the agility ring while I'm out there and he's been pretty good about things, and I've also started to tug with him some, which makes him very happy.

Our fun addition to the household is a pet scale! Now I don't have to wait for vet visits to get a weight, which I've been obsessing over during Jedi's recovery. The whole family is going to do regular weigh-ins, and now I can stop guessing at their weights. Jedi was 40.4lbs this morning, which means he's about where he was at for his 7-week vet appointment, and surely he's put on some muscle since then. One of these days I will have to wean him off the morning lickimat routine. I think staying in the 39-40 lb range is where we want to be, but it's hard to judge since he's going to lose muscle mass from being neutered at the same time as his TPLO.

Today's video includes our morning jog along with some walking to show the current level of instability that I'm still seeing. I will do an updated video prior to our vet appointment next week to show the vet, and to see if he feels that it would be appropriate to refer us to a physiotherapist. I also included some of our morning fitness stuff. We've also been doing rear paws up, side paws, and individual paw exercises, but I largely focus on "front paws up" to work on weight-shifting to the rear. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/vN_bMoDw9Pc )

TPLO Day 70

It's been ten weeks since Jedi's TPLO surgery! Ten weeks seems like a literal lifetime, but yet I continue to have people remind me that "it's only been ten weeks." This week I put entries in the mail for an agility trial at the end of August, which was hard for me to do given that it seems like we have a long, long road ahead of us before we can even consider that. But then I realize that, given that the trial is 20 weeks post op, we are only halfway through our recovery and rehab to meet that date. Ten more weeks.... How much can change in ten more weeks?!

We are at the stage where I feel like things are changing at a snail's pace. Jedi has been doing well with all of his rehab exercises, but the leg continues to twist and bend in ways that really bother me (cue all of the people who say, "it's only been ten weeks"). At some point I feel like I should make an appointment with a rehab specialist down in Chattanooga just to get another opinion and a plan to move forward. Based on their website it seems like I need a referral to do that, though, so I figure I will wait until our followup appointment next week and ask Dr. Wearing.

As much as I'd hoped that this would be a celebratory "we're rocking it" post for the 10-week mark, we've taken a bit of a step back the last couple of days. It started yesterday, when I had Jedi in his outside pen while I worked Ren through the agility course I had set up for class. We have done this many times with no issues and I have no idea what might have happened, but when I came to collect Jedi for our trip down to the creek he was holding his leg up. As we walked towards the creek he was putting weight on it, but the twist was so bad. We still went down to the creek, but I didn't throw his toy for him. I let him carry it and swim around on his own, mostly to see if he was using his leg (he was). I iced his leg and did an extra light pad session yesterday afternoon. I also gave him some arnica.

Although he seemed to be doing well last night, I'd already planned to keep things low-key today. I kept us to a walk this morning instead of trotting our laps, but something was going on that had all of the dogs going nuts (deer in the thicket, maybe?) which resulted in a LOT of pulling from Jedi. Perhaps because of that, he was favoring his leg again later. I did let him swim today, but for a shorter period, and I cut out our normal p.m. walks. He just seemed very tired this afternoon, and when he's tired the wonky leg is always worse. My guess is that tomorrow morning we'll stick to a walk again. We're still doing the fitness routine for breakfast, too.

Just a short video today, to keep up with the habit. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/9QKY6WDTiFM )

TPLO Day 63

Today we are nine weeks out from Jedi's TPLO surgery! That seems like a crazy amount of time when you think of it. It also marks nine weeks of sleeping on the couch in the living room.... This week I sent entries for a USDAA trial in Indianapolis that will require two nights in a hotel over the 4th of July weekend. Clearly Jedi is not running at the trial, but I do plan to take him with. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to manage that one yet.

To celebrate the 9-week milestone, I've started to let Jedi have some free time outside of his xpen while supervised. For the most part I've kept him confined to the living room or have him in the office with me during a work meeting. I have a baby gate propped up against the couch to keep him from jumping up there, but he can get up there via the steps if he wishes (which he did once so far). The only "oh crap" moment we've had thus far is when it was time to lock the dogs up so that I could go out and teach a lesson. When Jedi saw me reaching towards the treat jar he ran down the hallway and used the ramp to go up onto the bed. I mean, I guess it's good that he used the ramp.... Since then I've been sure to put him into his pen before grabbing for the treats.

The goal of the extra free time is to encourage more use of the leg in situations where he's not all hyped up about going for a walk or a swim, and where his gait is not influenced by myself or the leash. Jedi is not generally one to pace about a room so he's not been super active during his free time, but I've been happy to see that he seems to be putting weight on it well when standing.

We've taken it a bit easy the last couple of days because I was just getting the feeling that Jedi was tired and we were doing too much. Between the jogging, the fitness work, the hills, and swimming I do think we might overdo it some days. Yesterday we walked our four laps and did not get to go for a swim due to rain and high water in the creek. This morning I let Jedi do "intervals" on our morning walk, in that I didn't jog, but I let Jedi trot to the end of the leash, reeled him in as he walked, and then let him trot on again. The water cleared up today, so the boys did get to go for a swim again this afternoon.

Here is our 9-week video from today, just a gait analysis video for this one. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/OvupXsatu8c )

TPLO Day 60

 

There is not a lot to share, this is just a midweek check-in. Plus we're on day 60 and who doesn't like round numbers?

Most days are a carbon copy of the last. The weather has been a bit warmer and a bit more humid, which might be affecting the dogs' energy levels a bit. Even Ren seemed a bit done in this weekend so we didn't push too hard and took things easy. For the most part, though, we're still jogging four laps in the morning and getting in a 5 minute swim each day. The hill work seems to come and go. If Jedi seems tired (or his leg seems tired) then I forgo it.

We're still dealing with the twist as Jedi walks, which stems from him toeing in and stepping too far under his body. Interestingly, during his nightly massage sessions he also still tries to tuck that leg in tight and crosses his right lower leg under the left. I can still manipulate his stride to get him to place his foot straight, and he strides out wider on his own when he's pulling like a freight train (like on the way to the creek), so I'm still hoping that this will go away with time and the return of his muscle. It sure is a long process, though. On the other hand, I realized today that if the goal is to return to an agility trial after 20 weeks, we aren't even halfway there yet....

I have a couple of videos today. One is snippets from our morning fitness session, in which I chopped off Jedi's head in most of the clips....  (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/fGLRTE9O3fI )

The other video is just our standard progress update video -- trotting, walking, and swimming, since we do it every day! (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/SKI6z1cGveE )

TPLO Day 56

Today is eight weeks since Jedi had his TPLO surgery. As you can see by the above picture, his hair is finally starting to come back in! There is even some "floof" starting to grow in his pants area. That shaved bit on the top of his back is going to take a good bit of time to grow out long enough to where it starts to blend in better. It's still quite a chunk out of his top line.

Routine-wise, we've made a couple of recent adjustments. Because our morning walk includes a lot of trotting, we're now doing a fifth lap. For the record, the fact that I am RUNNING behind my dog is proof that I love him. 😂 This morning I at least put on tennis shoes. Trying to jog behind him in my garden shoes was getting difficult. Sadly for me, Jedi is getting used to me running. It used to be that he'd be trotting along and then realize I was running behind him, so he'd whip around all excited. This gave me a chance to stop and catch my breath. lol He's doing that a lot less now, which means fewer breaks for me. Oh well, it's good for both of us.

The other change to our routine is the addition of fitness work at meal times. I brought some of my FitPaws stuff into the house along with a rubber bucket/pedestal. I also bought a couple of foam balance pads. At the trial this past weekend I had a good discussion with a physiotherapist about how small micro movements of the muscles are what we're looking for right now to improve balance, strength, and proprioception. Not big jarring movements like I was doing with the wobble board.

Right now I'm mixing and matching a lot, trying to find the best combination and to work different muscle groups. We definitely get the best stance when I use a target for both front and back. The most challenging part for Jedi is stillness. We are not good at not moving. I signed up for an online fitness program (for the dog....) and am looking forward to learning a bit more about this. It is not specifically geared towards rehab, but any general knowledge about canine fitness will surely help us. I'm really focusing on Ren as well. Jedi's rehab work has opened my eyes to a lot of weaknesses in Ren's structure and movement. I don't want to go through this again!

Otherwise our routine is more or less the same. We have our morning walk followed by mid-morning hill work. Jedi continues to enjoy our afternoon swims in the creek. I probably should have skipped it today due to how much rain we got, as the creek was pretty high and fast when we went down this afternoon. Because swimming against the current took significantly more effort than usual, I did shorten their swimming time today. We've been doing 5-6 solid minutes of swimming, which is quite a lot with no break. It varies whether or not we go for another walk after my classes at night. We did today because I still needed to get video of Jedi's gait, but now that we're also doing another fitness session with dinner it could get to be a lot. While the leg continues to get stronger and his gait has definitely improved, when he gets tired there is still a bit of laxity and twisting in the leg as he walks.

Here is our video from today. It's a longer one because it covers trotting, swimming, stair work, and some of his fitness stuff. (Link for mobile: https://youtu.be/wkbw2cBGu28 )