March 18, 2018
It's been three weeks and two days since Greta had her FHO surgery. She's not recovering as well as I had hoped. She has become very timid walking, having lost her footing several times on any hard floors. She loses her footing when she becomes scared and rushes. If she's take it slowly she'd be fine.
She also still licks her incision. I'm loath to put at large e-collar on her. She has a fairly long snout and body; that combination makes it so the cone would need to be very big. Our home isn't large and has some narrow passageways. She's so afraid of anything out of order that I'm afraid that she wouldn't move, or that she would get stuck or something and then not want to move at all.
I can see that her leg is becoming atrophied already. She's using it less instead of more. She doesn't let me exercise it for more than a turn or two of a bicycle motion before she pulls away. I can't wrestle her. If she would leave it alone so it healed up, I'd look into taking her for hydrotherapy. There's a place not far from me that offers pool time for dogs.
She's gotten so fearful of movement that, if she's upstairs, she will hide under the dining table and not come out. She won't cross the threshold of the dining room/kitchen. I generally have to pick her up and carry her to either the top of the stairs or the deck to go out.
I have started letting her outside off the leash, at least when there are either no other dogs outside or only Henry, my Bichoodle. They play a little bit, and I'm hoping that in playing she'll use her leg without thinking about it. She does a tiny, tiny bit, but that's all.
I have to travel this coming week for work. I'm worried about my folks having to take care of Greta. When I'd scheduled the surgery I had no travel for two months afterwards, but that changed and I now have two, albeit short, trips.
For about 5 days now I have been using wound closure strips to try and keep Greta's incision closed. They were working pretty well, until today, when she really licked. She was wearing her fancy dress, but still managed to open things up. So, now I've put a bandage on her leg, hoping it will keep her from bothering it. I've also gone back to giving her Tramadol and Dasaquin. She was taking Dasaquin pre-surgery to help with the joint pain. I'm hoping these two will make her leg hurt less and allow her to put her foot down. Poor girl.
She also still licks her incision. I'm loath to put at large e-collar on her. She has a fairly long snout and body; that combination makes it so the cone would need to be very big. Our home isn't large and has some narrow passageways. She's so afraid of anything out of order that I'm afraid that she wouldn't move, or that she would get stuck or something and then not want to move at all.
I can see that her leg is becoming atrophied already. She's using it less instead of more. She doesn't let me exercise it for more than a turn or two of a bicycle motion before she pulls away. I can't wrestle her. If she would leave it alone so it healed up, I'd look into taking her for hydrotherapy. There's a place not far from me that offers pool time for dogs.
She's gotten so fearful of movement that, if she's upstairs, she will hide under the dining table and not come out. She won't cross the threshold of the dining room/kitchen. I generally have to pick her up and carry her to either the top of the stairs or the deck to go out.
I have started letting her outside off the leash, at least when there are either no other dogs outside or only Henry, my Bichoodle. They play a little bit, and I'm hoping that in playing she'll use her leg without thinking about it. She does a tiny, tiny bit, but that's all.
I have to travel this coming week for work. I'm worried about my folks having to take care of Greta. When I'd scheduled the surgery I had no travel for two months afterwards, but that changed and I now have two, albeit short, trips.
For about 5 days now I have been using wound closure strips to try and keep Greta's incision closed. They were working pretty well, until today, when she really licked. She was wearing her fancy dress, but still managed to open things up. So, now I've put a bandage on her leg, hoping it will keep her from bothering it. I've also gone back to giving her Tramadol and Dasaquin. She was taking Dasaquin pre-surgery to help with the joint pain. I'm hoping these two will make her leg hurt less and allow her to put her foot down. Poor girl.
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