Day 4 home

Well, a new problem has revealed itself.... How to keep an active dog who thinks he feels better calm and quiet for the next 24 days. Eli is acting more like the dog I recognize each day, which includes wanting to be out of the pen and wanting to spend a lot of time outside. He is procrastinating doing his business outside to be able to spend more time out there. Since I am home for the next two weeks, I have been letting him out of his jail during the day under a watchful eye. However, when given the choice, he just goes in his pen and lays down and stares at the floor. I think a trip to Petco is in order to try and get some toys that may alleviate some boredom. We tried the E-collar last night, fondly referred to as the lampshade, and we were able to deal with it until about 5am. We will try again tonight.

Day 2 home....

Eli (and I) are both doing better today than last night. He has stopped shaking and whining and isn't getting up as much. I think he is still confused and not feeling his personal best, but he's certainly better than yesterday. He's still not putting any weight at all on his bad leg, but I guess I wouldn't either. He's on a routine of cream cheese Kongs, marrow bones, and pain meds. Not bad, eh?

To the right is a pic of Brent trying to relax Eli and take some pressure off of me.

Ugh!

Well, we're about 33 hours post surgery, and Eli is a completely different dog. Wide-eyed, shaking, whining, antsy..... it's a bit much. He also continues to bleed from his leg. There's a small incision beneath the major one, and since there's so much fluid building up, it bleeds and oozes each time he gets up. There's a path of blood from the crate to the front door. I wonder if that one needs stitches too. I'll be sleeping (if you can call it that) on the floor next to his ex-pen tonight to try and ward off any licking of his wound. I am anxiously awaiting the 72 hour mark, which I hear is a good one.

Eli's home

So, I thought that my dogs TPLO surgery was as good as any excuse to start this blog. I thought that this would help me with boredom and stress for the next couple of weeks. I also thought it would be another venue aside from Facebook to let a select few know what's going on. Eli came home from the vet today after his surgery yesterday afternoon. Getting him in and out of the car was a bit sressful, but now he has finally settled down and is resting... or so I believe. I really don' t want to put the lampshade on so I am keeping my eye on him 24/7. We will see where I sleep tonight. His wound started bleeding a bit when we got home, but I guess that is normal after the movement of getting him home. He took his pain pills enthusiastically which was encouraging. It's a good thing there's a lot on TV right now!!!