At this point in time all seems well. The stitches were taken out by our local vet yesterday. She thought there was a little swelling on the knee so a further weeks antibiotics were prescribed and we have a follow up with our vet next week. I wasn't concerned, the swelling, very slight, around the stitches, wasn't a great concern, but I agreed with her that better to err on the safe side given the implications should any infection take hold. It's a bit scabby where the skin has joined so again better to know that the healing process gets a helping hand.
He still doesn't put all his weight on his leg, particularly when standing, but there are now times when his pad is properly on the floor, with some spread of his toes, the best sign we have its bearing weight. In a nutshell, it no longer looks 'lame', which is great.
Walking wise, he is still on three walks a day, up to 10 minutes. They are very slow and we don't get far obviously, but he generally looks ok, far better than he did pre op. We are very very careful and avoid close contact with other dogs, holding his collar to stop any possible jumping if we can't. His walk isn't perfect, a long way to go yet, but better than I had expected.
He remains in his pen whenever in the house, other than an occasional trip to the lounge (where it is carpeted) but still on the lead. You'll see photos of the pen on this blog. It has been great! He has space to move but has been completely protected when someone knocks at the door, friends are round and when we are just getting on with stuff.
Between me and my better half we have taken holidays to ensure he hasn't been on his own for the past two weeks. To be honest, I think we could have left him in the past few days. We did go out for an hour or two on Sunday to get him used to us not being there 24/7. For my birthday this year (before the problems started) I got a 'pet cam' which means we can keep an eye on him from our phones, it is proving really useful to check what he gets up to, which in the main is sleeping!
The comfy cone has been great, and is still on when he is unsupervised. Hopefully we'll see the back of that by the weekend.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of the past two weeks has been nighttime. We have a 'soft' dog who has sleep upstairs in the bedroom for most of his 10 year life. Being left downstairs just doesn't work for him so we have a choice. Sleep downstairs, carry him up every night, or let him howl and cry all night! For the past two weeks one of us has taken the sleep downstairs option. It's not a good long term option and at some point we or he is going to have to do something different. Yes, of course I could just leave him and apply the method I used when he was a pup, with a quick squirt of water when he whines at night to shut him up, before going back upstairs to bed. Not an option I'd choose after 10 years though. We made the choice to have him with us so now we need to take some ownership of the consequences. Imagine if you'd had your leg broken and pinned a few weeks ago and you were told you had to stay on your own in the kitchen all day and all night, and if you complained you got water squirted in your face! Not going to happen in our household!
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