Luxating Patella Surgery - Post-Op Day 7

Today is Wednesday, which means, that yesterday it had been 7 days since Oliver's surgery. It seems like much longer than 7 days.

He's doing really well. The stitches look good, more photos of that below. He's using both legs when he goes out to potty. It's really pretty amazing, that only 7 days ago he had total knee overhaul.

His favorite part of today was that Grandma Carol sent him a get well card. We read it together, and he already feels better. He says "Thank you Grandma!!"

He's already bored with the crate rest, 1 week down 7 more to go. It's going to be a long season.

His poor little back end, he looks so funny with all his fur gone.

Since it's been nice outside, I've been trying to give him a little more time to lay in the yard, as long as he doesn't try to run and play (even though he wants to soooo badly). Yesterday we went for a walk around the neighborhood. I know what you're saying, "but you just said he's on crate rest for 7 more weeks!" I mean that I walked, and I carried him. It looks really ridiculous, but I think he really enjoyed it. He had something different to look at and outside smells to smell...so I think it's going to have to be a regular thing for us all to keep our sanity.

P.S.--that rope is our makeshift leash. We have to use it or he'll take off and run around the yard.

This is what devil tape does to my precious pomeranian. The poor guy, we just got this off tonight. He took it pretty well this time, and God bless adhesive remover pads. We still have the other leg to do (that's slated for tomorrow night). We got a little tape off his ankle last night, and the redness is gone today, so I'm hoping that this will go away and feel better for him by tomorrow.

Earlier this week he managed to get out of his Kong Cloud collar (it looks like a travel pillow, we thought it would be something nicer for him than the regular cone) and pop a stitch..maybe 2 we're not sure. You can see the area in the middle where there is nothing holding it together. Lucky for us, and for him, that it had already healed enough to hold together. We've been taking it really easy on carrying him and moving him around so we don't disturb it...because we all know that we'll be really screwed if that opens up.

The left leg looks pretty good too. It's a little crusty, but not infected or anything. Earlier this week it was a little puffy, so we were keeping a pretty close eye on it, but it's fine now.

He's still on all of his pain meds. I can't tell if he's in any pain or not. The funny thing about dogs is that they will do everything they normally do, even if it hurts. So we're keeping up the dosing, Tramadol 3 times a day, and Meloxicam 1 time a day with dinner.

Here's a little clip I shot yesterday. You can sort of see that he's still having a bit of trouble getting up, but that he's walking almost normally. It's still a little stiff, but he can get around ok. As far as the rehab goes, I'm not sure how much walking he'll be able to do, but for sure there will be no stairs or jumping for at least 8 weeks. This is going to be the hardest part since we have stairs everywhere. So we'll have to continue to carry him outside.

So, overall it's going pretty well, we weren't sure what to expect, but it definitely could be worse.

Happy Wednesday.

Jessica