The first 6 days

Dallas has been doing much better than what I had expected. He was able to hop around on three legs, only using the injured one when needed. When I got him home he was a little whiney, but had an appetite and was wagging his tail. Two things that I know mean he is doing just fine! 

first getting home and settled

His leg was wrapped as pictured to the side. It was to stay wrapped for the first two days. They also gave us a soft e-collar to use. The e-collar did not work. Dallas tried everything to get it off and every time he did. Luckily my husband and I work opposite schedules so one of us was always able to be home with him. Moving into day two, Dallas had loosened up his first bandage by licking and walking. 

Day 3

Even though we were able to be with him almost around the clock, he still managed to rip out 2 stitches by day 5. The wound was staying closed, but we continued to re-wrap it up when we had to be away for longer than 5 minutes. I know it sounds ridiculous, but the one time I did not wrap it up, he licked the wound open. It was only a small portion of the wound and even that can cause an infection! I was terrified. We finally figured out a way to keep his leg covered. We used an old pair of gym shorts, cut the leg off the right left, made a hole for his tail and put them on! The bottom of the shorts on his left leg was secured with medical tape. He was able to walk around the house with them on and could not take them off when we left him alone! MIRACLE! 

Dallas in his gym shorts

Aside from the licking, the wound looks really good. The red (bruising) went away around day 4. He has started going on short walks, about three of four houses up the street. We're also doing range of motion techniques with him to build the muscle back up and to keep his tissue from getting stiff. 

Our house has turned upside down. We have a spare mattress on the first floor in our office to sleep with him. No stairs allowed except two little ones to get into our house. He's acting more like himself, wanting to wrestle, chew his bones and stretch. I know we still have 7 more weeks to go, but I am so happy with how this recovery is going. 

Day 6

On day 6, Dallas is happy, silly, hungry, curious, begging, barking and continuing to give out his love. He hair on his leg is starting to come in, thankfully because it's going to get cold again in Minnesota! 

Tomorrow starts a new round of physical therapy activities. 

The day of what we thought would be surgery...

On January 22 I took Dallas into the vet for surgery. I signed the dreaded paper work that explained EVERYTHING that what was about to happen to my poor baby. Dallas was to have surgery at 11am. I was nervous all morning, checking my phone constantly to make sure I didn't get a call saying something went wrong. And then at 11:15am I had a voicemail. I rushed into an office at work to listen, thinking the worst. Dr. Mary's message left in her lame and lifeless voice said that the surgeon had canceled last minute due to illness and that surgery could not be done today. My reaction was, "What kind of surgeon does that!?" I immediately called back, raging with question and anger.

Again, Dr. Mary's lifeless voice answered the phone. She explained that the surgeon was sick and that surgery could be done the next day, Friday, and that the owner of the practice was coming to perform it. Okay, that made me feel better. Someone was stepping up and taking ownership for this. The worst part was that Dallas had already been prepped and sedated.

This poor thing. I had to wait a few hours to pick him up, although Dr. Mary seemed like it didn't matter when I picked him up. The whole ride home he whined. The saddest whine I had ever heard from him. As we walked into the house he acted like he couldn't use his back legs. It was strange. He hadn't eaten since midnight and had no desire to eat or drink. I mean look at that face, he couldn't even give an function to his tongue!

Later that night he began to eat and drink. By morning, just in time to take him back in to the clinic, he was back to normal. And I had to make that dreadful drive up the street, around the lake and to the clinic, again.

Background_What made us decide to do surgery

Dallas

After searching and reading what felt like numerous websites about TPLO (Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy) surgery, I told myself to blog this experience so others 
can continue to learn what happens during this procedure and what to expect during recovery. 

This all starts back in October when our chocolate labrador, Dallas, was playing at a park in our neighborhood.
He was running after a toy and hyperextended his leg. I wasn't there when it happened, my husband was, and 
he didn't mention to me that anything unusual happened. When I arrived home from work Dallas was laying in
the yard and had a really hard time getting up to greet me. After most occasions at the park when he would run
hard he would have a little limp the next day. Mind you, Dallas got at least 4 walks a day, play time in the yard
and time at the park. He's a very active boy!

That night I had gone to bed and Dallas stayed on the main floor of our house. He's a bed hog and I was taking advantage
of the extra space! I woke up not long after to him whining. I went down to check on him and he was
half way up the staircase just standing there. After some coaxing, I was able to get him to finished the mountain
climb to the top of the stairs and into bed. 

Dallas limped for the next 5 days. He was still using his leg, but it was noticeable that he was barring most
weight on his right side. My husband took him to the vet 7 days after the injury started. I forgot to mention
that we did not have a vet in Minneapolis yet. We moved to the Twin Cities just over a year ago and we
were able to continue with our veterinarian in Iowa when we made trips home. After suggestions from dog-friendly
websites, friends and online ratings we landed at a veterinary clinic near our home. 

Dr. Mary did not impress my husband. She gave Dallas an x-ray and sort of did the drawer text. If you're
unfamiliar with the draw test you should view this page. His x-rays were shown to my husband and
Dr. Mary said she could not confirm if he had torn his ACL or not because of inflammation, but it
looked as if something was wrong. She claimed he failed the drawer test, but my husband wasn't convinced. 

We called a local vet back that gave us some advice. He said that if it's not a complete tear to the ACL
it can heal if you treat the dog as if he is on crutches for 6-8 weeks. After much deliberation between 
the two of us we decided to try and let it heal on its own and not jump right into surgery. Trying to keep
a 4 year old, at the time, under control was difficult. He was gradually getting better, but I also do not
think we did the best we could. He was still taking the stairs, jumping when he got excited and acting
like his leg wasn't so bad. We thought he would make a turn around. And then, one night he came to 
jump into bed at a fast speed and he jumped too soon. He back leg's smacked against the side of the bed. 
Poor thing recovered himself, but started to limp again. 

So on January 22 we scheduled the TPLO surgery with Dr. Mary's office.....