Opal Dog, the Tripawd

Opaldog is 1 month post-amputation and is doing fabulous!  The staples came out after about 10 days and her incision site looked great!  We were able to wean her off of her cocktail of painkillers the following week and she did great with that process as well.  We were also able to give her her first bath since her surgery, which she desperately needed as she was a bit ripe.  Two weeks ago we took her to visit her cousin (my brother’s schnoodle) and they had fun playing tug-of-war for hours on end and doing laps around the other.

Last weekend we took her to the dog park for the first time since last fall when we first found out about her knee condition.  We kept her in the area reserved for antisocial dogs to keep her from overdoing it.  She just ran and ran with the biggest doggy grin I’ve ever seen on her.  I cried seeing her running around so free and happy, and most importantly, pain free.  It was the first moment where I knew with 100% certainty that we did the right thing amputating her leg.

Her hair has almost completely grown back in, which will be the last piece of her recovery (in my eyes at least).  There are some times where our other dog will bump into her or if she gets touched in just the right spot on her nub, and she will yelp, growl, or let out this horrible noise that breaks my heart.  I think it’s a reaction more out of fright than pain, but I still go into panic mode and give her a through once over looking for signs of damage.

Here’s her most recent picture 🙂 

Today marks one full week post amputation and Opaldog is doing great!  She’s maneuvering stairs like a pro and is able to hop on and off our couch with ease.  She even jumped up onto our bed the other night, despite doing our best to keep her from being too active.

Her incision is looking great too!  Per everyone’s advice I purchased a donut to go along with her cone of shame and it seems to do the trick nicely!  I’ll be happy for her to get her staples out in a few days though.  If she’s feeling this good with them in I can only imagine how great she feel once they are out.  She still has some bruising, but thats quickly dissipating.  Swelling has gone down completely too, and her hair is starting to grow back!

I can’t wait to see what this next week has in store for her recovery! 

Opaldog is doing so good!  Her bruising is gradually fading and her little bottom is slowly getting back to a normal size due to the decreased swelling.  She slept through most of the night last night and is doing great as far as pain management goes, she’s able to go the full 12 hours before needing the pain medicine.

We counted how many staples she has, just out of curiosity- 33.  Poor thing..

I had to leave the house today for the first time since she came home and although I was gone only a little after an hour, she tried eating her ecollar, not sure how she managed to do that, but this dog is so mischievous that I’ve stopped asking how she accomplishes things.  Hopefully she knocks that off when I have to return to work on Monday.  The last thing I need is for her to break her ecollar and mess with her incision.  Anyone have any tips on how to prevent that?

She has also started to show some interest in toys again, but only after our other dog started to chew on her favorite one.  She then bogarted it for the rest of the morning by using it as a pillow 🙂 

Opal got to come home today!  Opal is a superstar at recovery already!  She’s walking around, albeit a bit unsteadily, is slowly getting her appetite back and is super snuggly.  Oh, and gassy!  SO very gassy!

She has some serious bruising and is pretty swollen.  Her incision site looks pretty good too, but there is some oozing that we’re keeping an eye on.  Overall, she is doing great and we couldn’t be happier having her back home and on the road to recovery!

Here is a picture of her we took tonight.  Her shaved bottom makes me more sad than her missing leg!