Day 1 - February 24, 2018

First Full Day

Greta started out her night after surgery sleeping on the bed, but she got off before I'd turned the light out and opted to sleep on the dog bed.  At 4:00 AM she woke me with whining.  She was looking at the bed, but not moving towards it.  We went out instead.  She peed, a bit, but I don't know that that was what woke got her talking to me.  

Back inside she maneuvered her way down the stairs and I lifted her onto the bed, her single leg push-off that she demonstrated right after we got home from the vet, gone.  (Which is probably better anyway.)

She spent her first full day resting, but her whimpering of the evening before was gone.  I'm thinking that that was from the anesthesia wearing off.  

Exercises

She let me ice her incision three times during the day, as prescribed in her discharge papers.  I tried to start the range-of-motion exercises with her, but she didn't want me spending any time with her leg.  I was able to do a few extensions twice during the day.

Eating & Drinking

She hasn't eaten on her own accord yet.  She needs to have a meal with her antibiotic, so before giving it to her I've mixed up some kibble with a 1/3 of can of canned food that I from when another of my dogs was sick and off his feed.  She gobbles that down!  

She hasn't been terribly interested in drinking either.  I've brought a small bowl of water to her, but she didn't drink any, though she licked my fingers when I dipped them into the water, but not eagerly. She did drink from the upstairs water bowl during a stint upstairs, so she will drink when she's thirsty.  

Going Out

We started the day by going out front, on the leash, for Greta to relieve herself.  She'll pee out front just fine, but she only pooped once.  (But she hasn't eaten anything, so maybe she doesn't have to.)  But when we are in the front yard she will just stop and stand stock still, refusing to budge.  I've had to pick her up and move her from the yard to the sidewalk.  She walked on the sidewalk, but was most interested in sniffing for the rabbits that frequent our yard.  When I'm ready to go in, she again stands stock still, digging in her stubborn heels, so to speak.  I had to pick her up an carry her into the garage to go into the house.  Later in the day I tried taking her out through the front door, wondering if the garage was scary for her.  But she did the same thing.  So, growing weary of picking up my 50 lb. dog, I decided to try taking her down the back stairs.  She was doing fine with the stairs down to our apartment.  So, starting at about 28 hours post surgery, Greta went out (on her leash) in her regular backyard, hopping down the nine steps from the deck to the patio.  She's much happier out there.  So, unless the steps are snowy or icy, we will continue to go out back.  The difficult bit is that, even with a bum leg, she can still pull.  Last year, almost one year ago exactly, I sprained my ankle taking her down those steps to go out.  She was 9 weeks old and afraid of the steps still.  I was carrying her down, missed the bottom step, and sprained the ankle - at 1:00 AM.  Sigh.  Greta was fine.  She ran off, did her business and came back.  I zipped her into my jacket and gingerly went back up the stairs.  There's no way I could zip her into anything now.  She's not a large dog, by any means, probably technically a medium dog, but still too big for me to carry very far.

By evening Greta was starting to get an interest in her toys.  While I was watching tv, she came into the living room with her Kong.  She didn't chew much, but she's starting to feel like herself.

The morning after surgery.  +21 hours

Incision +21 hours