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 🙂 