Convalescence Continues

It's now been two and a half weeks since Tango's surgery, and he seems to be recovering well. We began our 5-minute walks on Tuesday, and he really enjoys them; okay, let's face it, other than meal times, they're the highlights of his day. They give him the opportunity not only to exercise his atrophied thigh muscles, but also to get the latest sensory information about what's going on in the doggy world...kind of like a canine version of the "Lifestyle" section of the paper or "Entertainment Tonight."

We're continuing with the PROM exercises (I WILL post a video clip demonstration tomorrow), and on Monday we'll be adding some new exercises to the routine.

In the meantime, we're trying to ward off boredom with rawhides, dried tendons (YUM), and Tango's beloved orange rubber ball (which used to have feet until he chewed them off...and ate them). His preference would be to chase the ball, but since we're weeks away from that, he contents himself with chewing on it. (Thank goodness it no longer emits an ear-piercing squeak.) We just have to make sure not to leave it with him for any length of unsupervised time, or he's likely to finish what he began with the feet.

The Moment of Truth

We dropped Tango off for surgery on Tuesday morning. By noon I'd received a call from Dr. Lotsikas to let me know that all had gone well, and that Tango had been a "perfect gentleman"...which was a welcome surprise, considering how distrustful Tango can be around strangers. Amazing what a dose of narcotic painkiller can do!

We picked him up the next day, after having vet tech Holly spend more than 45 minutes reviewing instructions for Tango's post-surgical care. She even did a creditable imitation of a dog to show us the exercises we'd be doing with and to Tango over the following weeks. She told us what we could expect in the coming days (including that fact that Tango might not defecate for up to 5(!) days because of reduced food in his system and the affects of anesthesia on the digestive tract).

As we left with Tango (looking groggy but pleased to see us) and his Rimadyl, Tramadol, and antibiotic, I looked at the pages of instructions and restrictions that we'd have to impose on him over the next two months, and it occurred to me that surgery had been the easy part. Now the real work of rest, recuperation, and rehabilitation would begin.