Tails, Tips, and Trends for Four-Legged Friends
Kaz scores an 8.5/10!
8.5 by Dr. Lozier’s standards and a 9 by mine, Kaz’s 17 week check-up was a victory. Before the surgery, Lozier said she was at a 6 or 7 and he predicted her to be between an 8 and 9 after the surgery. Hearing him rate her at an 8.5 was such a relief.
After Kaz’s disheartening 8-week check up, we were really dedicated to building the muscle up on her lame leg. We were committed to taking 2, 1/2 mile walks every day. Each day she seemed to get a little stronger.
Well, the good news is that Kaz’s bone has compeletely healed. The bad news is that Dr. Lozier thinks her femur might need to be straightened. She is still showing signs of lameness in her left leg and Dr. Lozier attributes it to her slightly bowed femur. Of course, when they initially x-rayed her for the TPLO, she was 1/100th off of their measurements for suggesting femur straightening. We opted against the extra surgery because it sounded like she probably didn’t need it.
I was hoping that the Christmas tree might bring a little excitement into Kaz’s penned up life, but she only likes the tree when she gets to chew on the branches.
It’s getting tougher to keep Kaz confined to her pen and designated area in the yard. She is ready to go! We stopped giving her all pain medications on week 4 and she is feeling fine. If she looks like she’s limping more than usual or if she seems like she’s hurting, we’ll give her a half of a pill. But by the way she acts when we take her outside, you’d think she never injured her leg.
We are 4 weeks into Kaz’s TPLO recovery and her limp/walk is looking great. She is almost moving as well as she was before the surgery (just a slight limp). We haven’t been able to walk her any great distances, so I’m not sure what her walk will look like over an extended length of time, but I think it’s looking pretty promising right now. She has never been vocal about any pain in her leg post-op and her limp looks a little worse if she’s stiff, but for the most part she seems ready to go.
This first clip shows how we use the sling to get her down the one step out of our house. I think we are technically supposed to use it for support whenever she walks, but she refuses to try and go to the bathroom with it on. So we use it on the step and when we go to the vet for her check ups.
We teased Kaz a little bit to get this footage. We started walking our old route down the sidewalk and I’m sure she thought she was finally going to go for a walk. We had to force her to stop and turn around because we still have to wait another 4 weeks before we get the go-ahead from the vet that she’s able to start seriously walking again.
I feel very fortunate that Kaz is recovering so well. After reading so many negative stories about TPLO surgeries, I finally feel like ours is going to turn out successfully. We just need to continue with her restricted movement schedule for another 4 weeks and then we can slowly start reintroducing walks again. Let the countdown begin!
Week 3 has flown by and there isn’t too much to report since Kaz is doing great. Even though I can sense Kaz’s impatience at her recovery, she is a trooper and continues to be as mellow as she can.
She is now power walking during her potty breaks and is using her bad leg as well as she was before the surgery. She knows that these breaks are the only time she has to be outside, so she has begun to walk us all around the yard before doing her business.
