3/26/17
We won’t be updating every day, but for the first day or two, there is a lot to cover with respect to care of a dog with a fresh TPLO surgery.
Rose’s mood has greatly improved. We had her on a baby monitor all night and did not hear a peep from her. No more crying this morning either. She’s hooked to our baseboard (eyebolt and tether) so that she can not get any further from her crate than she is now, and can’t attempt to roam, jump or otherwise use her leg. Her incision looks great. She has quite a bit of distal swelling, but almost no bruising for now. It’s hard to keep an ice pack on it, as she wants to chew it, and if I sit with her, she wants to play, so I give her a treat puzzle to keep her busy while the ice is on. The ice pack still wants to slip off her knee (we had it covered with a pillowcase so as not to be directly on her skin).
While folks have been using a bag of peas for ice packs for a long time, I came upon a better idea years ago, that you may wish to try;
While we were trying to provide her with a nice-thick place to lie down, she became very distressed on the overstuffed bed. When we put her in her crate last night she settled down completely. All her crate has in it is a horse stall pad, which is a thick rubber pad. We assumed she might vomit during the night, or have a bowel movement or urine, as she was sedated and was medicated for pain, but we found she settled down greatly when put on that hard rubber surface. It would seem that the overstuffing was causing pressure and pain. We’ve removed that, and just laid down some flat bedding for her. She has been in the crate so long and is so good about staying put when on the floor (she’s tethered to the wall with a leash to prevent her from walking about), that when we’re in the room, we let her lie there.
Thick bed vs thin bedding … thin equals more comfort for her. She can finally relax:
Her wound looks amazing, and I found a better way to ice her knee. I use 4″ colban wrap (LOOSLY) around the pack, which holds the ice pack on, and she’s tolerating that well. She has some distal (below the knee) swelling in her hock that I want to reduce, and five she was only able to tolerate a few minutes of icing otherwise. She thought I was there to play with her, and wiggled around so much, that the ice pack would not stay on. Problem solved. Remember, always put something between an ice pack and the skin, as you do not want to add frostbite to your list of problems!
The wound looks amazing, and we solved the problem with the ice pack that wouldn’t stay on her knee.
She’s getting the idea of assisted walking: