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It’s now been three full weeks since Kojak, our young Rottweiler, had his knee repaired with TPLO surgery, and we’ve become accustomed to new routines (and discarding some old ones, albeit temporarily). If you missed last week’s recovery update you can read about it in Kojak’s Week 2: Life With a Rottweiler After Surgery. If you missed reading what TPLO surgery is all about, you can read about Kojak is Getting Ready for TPLO
This week was less about recovery and more about getting rid of the hated “cone of shame”. Kojak had taken to wandering around the downstairs and slapping his cone on everything he could find. Trying to get him through a door with the cone on was kind of like trying to guide a tank through the eye of a needle. Try as we might, we couldn’t keep him from catching the edge of the cone on a door frame, a stair rail or the posts on the front porch. I finally realized Kojak is smarter than he looks and he was running the cone into everything in his path deliberately! Somehow he knew the cone would eventually fall apart under his continual assault and he would be free of his mortal enemy.
We had our appointment for suture removal at the surgeon’s office on Wednesday morning 16 days post-operation; the guidelines call for removal 10-14 days after surgery but their schedule is so full this was our earliest opportunity. The vet tech came in and inspected the surgical site and immediately said Kojak has been licking at his incision, apparently we gave him a little TOO much time free from the cone. Because of this she was worried about infection so I came home with a 2 week supply of an antibiotic.
Kojak DID get his sutures removed and since he was extremely active in the office (of course he needed attention from the whole staff which they were glad to provide) I also got a new supply of pills to keep him quiet. I’ve been giving them to him and he IS a little subdued during the day but he is still very interested in going out, rolling in the grass, bristling at the deer and generally trying to pull me around like he’s a tow truck.
The End of the Cone Saga
After the suture removal, Kojak had to continue to wear the dreaded cone for 72 more hours to let the little pin holes left by the sutures to heal. It was a big day on Saturday when I took his cone off around lunchtime to take him out and didn’t put it back on when we came back inside. I think he’s really happy to be rid of the cone and the way he showed it was plopping down on his bed and taking a nap.
During the third week and after suture removal we are supposed to do stretching exercises by manipulating his leg (gently) to ensure a full range of motion. He is also supposed to start walking more and on more challenging ground (that is, hills and uneven ground which describes practically our whole yard). He’s also supposed to start doing figure 8’s on both even and uneven ground to build the strength in the leg. Coming up next week is swim therapy and I’m sure hilarity will ensue.
As we started walking on more challenging ground and for a little longer we noticed Kojak was favoring the surgical leg more and more – actually lifting it off the ground when he was just standing and limping on it pretty heavily while he was walking. In fact it seemed to us that his leg was getting WORSE and actually became MORE painful than when he first came home. We don’t remember having this with either of the other dogs, but it has been 6 or 7 years since the last one (Xena).
I called the surgeon’s office and discussed it with them. The upshot of the discussion was we’re probably overdoing it on the walks. It’s also possible that he was still feeling some of the effects of the anesthetic when he first came home and as they wore off, he started feeling more sensation in the surgical leg. The remedy is to back off on the walking a bit by going back to just potty breaks (out for a couple minutes then back in). We’ve cut back and we’ll see how he recovers.
We have an appointment with the dog swim therapy pool early next week. We did get him in our pool, briefly, and he was kind of panicky so I’m expecting a real challenge getting him to swim.
For now, we’ll leave him in his favorite position to allow the soft tissue to heal. There is supposed to be a breakthrough sometime during weeks 3-6, but each dog is different. We’ll see how our little trooper progresses.
To get the full story on Kojak’s trials and tribulations during recovery you can go back and read about first week after surgery – Kojak Recovers From TPLO Surgery – Week 1.
