She Made It!!!!!!!

She is off leash and loving it! The doctor has given Sadie a clean bill of health, and she can now return to normal activity :) So far we have gone around Green Lake a few times and for many long walks around the neighborhood. And she can even chase squirrels in the back yard and Neil's cat around the house! She is the happiest puppy I have ever seen!! Thanks for following along and I hope I don't have write about her other leg anytime soon :)

Slowly But Surely

Well, I actually think she is starting to return to her normal self again. She is loving her walks and is firmly back in the habit of having them, and is very vocal if she doesn't get them! She is still getting to know my boyfriends cat, who is not too fond of Sadie, so it has been really tough. Especially since she is still on the leash and not able to roam the house and get to know the cat.

She had a great Thanksgiving even though she didn't get to come with me, but I did give her the turkey neck as a special treat!! I couldn't bare to watch her crunch it up (yuck!) but I know she loved it.

She has also started coming on car rides with me using her knew seatbelt contraption. At first she wasn't so sure of it, but it is actually working out wonderfully. She now sits in one place but can still lay down if she wants or look out the window. I love the seatbelt!

Overall I am so happy with her recovery, I couldn't have asked for better results. And it is great to know that soon she will be playing better then she did before the surgery! It has been a long road but we are almost there, and hopefully her other back leg will hold up and last a long time before she needs to have the surgery again!!

X-Rays

Ok, so this is about a week late, but what can I say, it's the end of the quarter! Anyway, she got good reviews from her x-ray last week, but she is still not all the way there. The Dr. said that her knee is healing beautifully but it still has a little way to go. So, we made our next appointment for December 12, and this should definitely be the last one!

On the plus side, I have been able to increase her exercise a little bit. She now goes for two 5-10 minute walks every day!!!!! She is so happy I can't even believe what a difference it has made. She loves being outside and although it's not long she enjoys every sniff :) And now she actually sleeps, and doesn't constantly whine when she is in her crate. It's like she is finally able to relax because there is some sort of normalcy back in her life.

She has even started going for car rides again! But on her first one, I had to slam on my brakes and she flew head first into the back of my seat, so she now has a doggy seat belt. I haven't tried it yet so we shall see if she puts up with it.

All in all things are going great, even though she is still living in her crate she is happy that mommy has gotten a little more relaxed and started taking her for walks!! I'll keep you updated on the next Dr. visit.

OMG I hope she is better soon!

We are almost there! Day after tomorrow is her six week check up when they will do the next (and hopefully the last) set of x-rays to see if her leg is done healing. Keep your fingers crossed! Her energy level continues to increase and the tranquilizers have totally stopped working :( I've been giving her a little more freedom, still only in my room, and she stands at the gate and looks our of the room and I can just see the question marks above her head wondering why in heavens name she can't go visit her buddies in the rest of the house. It has got to be frustrating for her.

She has also spotted a few animals outside, not good! Both times it was night and very dark so she saw the animal before me, and bolted. Luckily she was on a leash and didn't get very far! I don't think she did any damage, or at least she is not limping any more than usual. She still has kind of a funny walk, but I think that is because she has lost so much muscle in her one leg :(

So hopefully, starting Thursday, we will be able to start going for short walks and then slowly build up her stamina!! Wish us luck!!

She's Got ENERGY!!!!!!!!

Sadie is feeling good and ready to go! Unfortunately she can't yet :( It is getting harder and harder to keep her confined, she is getting so bored. The tranquilizers are helping but their is only so much they can do when she gets all excited because someone has entered the house. I have slowly been giving her a little more freedom, she is now allowed to wander my bedroom as long as I am with her! I can't tell if this helps at all because now all she does is stand by the door and cry rather then in her crate. She has been getting lots of time in front of the fire which she loves, but she is becoming increasingly more vocal when in her crate, she has now taken to barking in the morning!

And her poor naked leg! It is taking forever for the hair to grow back, and to make it worse she still has a square patch on her butt that is taking forever too, she must be so embarrassed! And she gets so cold, she hates being outside at night. When we go outside for our last outing of the evening she starts shivering and crying until I bring her in to the fire. Although I'm starting to wonder whether is is actually cold or if she has just learned how to get me to take her to the fire? She is sneaking like that!

Speaking of sneaky, she is also working on opening her crate on her own. She hasn't completely figured it out yet, but she has learned that if she licks at the top latch that she can make it move. Now if she could just figure out how to slide it over I think she could actually get out. Boy I hope she all healed by our next vet visit!!!!

Two weeks down........

Hopefully only four more weeks to go. Sadie had her two week check up on Monday, and she is healing beautifully! Dr. Patterson was very happy with her progress and thought that her knee looked great! He calmed a few of my fears, Sadie has had a pocket of fluid underneath the incision and I was starting to worry because it was pretty big and didn't show up until about one and a half weeks out, and the two tranquilizers that I was able to give her at a time didn't seem to be doing much anymore. Dr. Patterson said the pocket of fluid often doesn't appear right away and might hang around for about a week more or so, but then it should go away. And he also said that the tranquilizers that I am giving her, she will build up a tolerance to, so he gave me slightly stronger ones!! YEAH!!!!

So as far as the doctor is concerned Sadie is doing great, although I think she would beg to differ. Sadie says that she is feeling much better and does not think that she needs to be confined to her crate anymore. I'm sure that in her opinion she if feeling better than before and thinks that she is totally healed, she wants to run and play and catch tennis balls! But I keep telling her that I'm sorry but she still has at least four more weeks left until we can start going on short walks. I try to keep her occupied with peanut butter in kongs and letting her sit in front of the fire (or in my lap), so I think she will be able handle the next four weeks, even though she has no choice :)

Tranquilizers are my friends!!

We made it through the first week!!!!!!!!!! Sadie is 7 days post op and doing so well!!! Her leg is healing beautifully, the swelling is totally gone and the bruising is almost gone:) She has not been licking the incision at all, which is good because the e-collar totally freaks her out. She has been letting me sleep at night and doesn't seem to mind her crate. She loves me helping her get up and down stairs, she is a great patient! She is so cute with the stairs, she goes up and down normally with her front end but she makes these huge leaps down two or three stairs with her back end. She looks like a kangaroo:) I thought she would mind being dependent on me to get around but she seems to love it.

The biggest problem we have run into thus far is that she is feeling much much better now, and she is wanting to play!!!!! Which she of course still can't do for another 5 to 7 weeks :( This is where the tranquilizers come into play, they are a wonderful thing, in fact I wish they could give me some. She gets really excited and anxious when people get home during the day and of course around eating time, so the tranquilizers have been a wonderful way to just help her relax!!

I am so relieved with how everything is going!! All the worries that the vet mentioned seem not to be happening, I cannot tell you how happy this all makes me! We go in for our two week check up on Monday so I'll let you know how it goes :)