Okay so it has been awhile since I posted anything, so I am going to do a quick recap of each day!
Photobucket album of her recovery so far:
Knee Surgery Recovery Photos by kochdn | Photobucket
Oct. 3 - swelling still going down, around 11pm she finally used her left leg!
Oct. 4 - walking with both legs, no major changes. Not related to her, but our car was running odd and sure enough the engine light came on when my husband went to go get dinner (perfect timing after surgery and $600 to fix..perfect..)
Oct. 5 - emergency vet. We went out to get groceries and some more wet food for her and left her in her crate with her cone - seemed safe, right? Nope, she ninja'd her way around it and pulled out all the stitches on her left leg and untied one stitch on her right leg. She was only 5 days post-op and she was bleeding so we wanted to be safe rather than sorry - it happened at 6:15pm and of course, our vet closed at 6pm, so off to the emergency vet. The bleeding had stopped and she was already on an anti-biotic so they wrapped her leg up and said to take it off Monday morning.
Oct. 6 - called our regular vet to let them know what happened (yes, they are open on Sundays, thankfully) and they asked us to bring her in so they could examine it and make sure they didn't want to staple the place where it had been bleeding. They cut off the bandage and they were happy with how it looked so they just told us to keep the cone on her and they would check it again when we were back on the Tuesday. We were told to not force range of motion exercises so we weren't risking ripping the scab open. On our way home we bought the princess an x-pen, because she had started showing an interest in going upstairs, so we needed to start keeping her more confined.
Oct. 7 - nothing new
Oct. 8 - post-op recheck and injection (I can't remember what it is called, but it helps rebuild cartilage). Everything looked good, told not to force range of motions as long as she was moving on her own, saw her x-rays because we can feel a pin in her left leg, but the vet said it feels fine still and once her muscles come back it should be fine and that they only take them out if they bother the dog. Found out our vet left for maternity leave...
Oct. 9 - 1am: went pee and when coming back up, yelped and refused to put her right leg (the strongest of the two) back down. She still wasn't using it by 1pm so I called the vet and they asked me to bring her back in. My husband had taken the car to the mechanic to I had my aunt take us in, by the time we got there Sophie was using her leg without a problem - little stinker. Vet said everything felt stable and she likely just went too low when she squatted.
Oct. 10 - tried running and succeeded thus giving her mommy a heart attack because she is not supposed to be running yet.
Oct. 11 - trying to be way too active still. As per take home instructions I took her on a slow, short (literally 3 minutes lol) walk on her leash outside for the first time. She did really well but had to be carried home, she was restless when we were here so I put her on the floor and she lost balance and stopped using the right leg again around 5pm. Took her to our vet at 7pm as she wasn't even willing to touch her toe to the ground, and was shaking a ton. Took another x-ray and said everything looked okay and still in place, but to bring her back if no improvement.
Oct. 12 - vet called and wanted us to bring her back in because he wanted to do another angle since we had told him that she was only putting a little weight on it since the night before. Took her in and she was walking around there a little bit but as soon as she saw the vet she pulled it up again...diva! He did the x-ray and said everything still looks the same as it did when they did the surgery, but he was going to send them to the surgeon just for a second opinion. She was using it with a limp when we came home and at some point ripped the untied stitch out and then stopped using her leg all over again. I had a mental breakdown blaming myself and wishing we had never had the surgery done...it has been a long two weeks.
Oct. 13 - took her out of her crate and kept her leg up for a few mins and then put it down. We went to my in-laws' Thanksgiving dinner today with her and little miss sunshine decided that she could use her leg for her grandma and only put her leg up once, and has been doing fine since. She may have gotten a drop or two more than she needed of Metacam but is doing fine, so I am just watching her tonight and skipping her dose tomorrow. She wouldn't eat her food with the drops in it, so we gave her some turkey with it but forgot to lift the bowl...a few hours later she decided to lick the gravy from the bowl (it was mixed in with a can of wet food), so she may have gotten some from that.
She has kept us busy! But she seems to be doing okay, and she goes in on Tuesday for another check and injection and she gets her two remaining stitches out. She will be so happy to not have to wear a cone anymore, she is brutal...as soon as it is off she goes right for her knees so she only really gets a break when we are right beside her or she is eating!