The weather has permitted, lately!

LOTS of sunshine and mid-fifties again today (California is getting much of the rain we typically get in January), so out with Bo on his fourth walk today, and hopefully a little more trotting.

I think I'll start using a pedometer soon, so I can keep heading different directions to keep it interesting, while controlling the distance increases. We're up to about 15 minutes of very slow walking with some brief trotting in the middle.

...weather permitting...

Well, we didn't get three walks in yesterday, hard rain and high winds.

Today marks Bo's fourth week post-op, and he's starting to get really impatient.

The sun is shining and it's in the fifties, so we'll try to get out three times today!

Three Walks per Day - Up to 15 Minutes Each

We're up to about 15 minutes of outside time, three times today.

It's improving his mood a lot to get to go out and sniff around in the front yard, and along the trail.

Still doing the warm, moist heat on his right leg, and passive range of motion/stretching. We'll start doing sit/stand exercises next week to increase muscle mass and joint flexibility.

Monday is the half-way point to his eight-week post-op X-rays on February 15th.

Last of the Antibiotics

Bo's last dose of antibiotics was last night. The yoghurt kept his intestinal probiotics healthy!

He's still limping a little once in a while, and his walk is still pretty wobbly, but he rarely hops on three legs anymore. I am sure looking forward to never seeing him do THAT again!

We're adding a few more steps to his "walk" every few days, and continuing with the physical therapy...

The next big milestone is February 15th - his eight week X-ray to see how the right tibia has healed.

Lazy Sunday in the Back Yard

We set up the portable enclosure in the back yard today so Bo could hang out with us while we lounged in the hot tub. Moments before Ann took this picture the sun was shining on us. It didn't last long, but it was relatively warm and dry all day.

Thanks again, Martha, for loaning us this enclosure - we'll use it a lot in the next couple of months! He loves to be outside, but it will be quite a while before he'll be able to do that without a leash or an enclosure. One squirrel is all it will take for him to damage his repaired legs, until he's fully recovered.

Later, Bo and I walked a few more steps onto the trail.

Last night, he got lots of company when we had some friends over for dinner. He really enjoyed the attention; he's been pretty lonesome.

Back on the Trail

We made it a few steps onto the Fanno Creek trail again this morning.

He gets sore quickly, so we're only adding a few steps every other day, but we'll be back to a mile by mid-February, I predict!

Warm compresses, massage and lots of passive range of motion therapy are helping, as they did last time.

We're both working on patience...

Baby Steps

Last night, I leashed up Bo and we went out the front door together for the first time since December 13th, when he suffered his second CCL rupture. We only went as far as the mailbox and back, but it was a huge milestone!

This morning, at dawn, we went to the trail head at the end of my driveway, another 10 feet from last night's big trek, but progress is wonderful. At lunch, we'll repeat that and late afternoon we'll get the mail again. Baby steps toward a grand goal...

Incisions healed well - infection in check

Bo's two-week post op exam showed his incisions have healed properly, and no outward signs of the infection. He has one more week on the antibiotics, and everything indicates that it will wipe out his bone infection. He is incredibly resistant to medication side-effects - the strong antibiotics have not seemed to mess up his digestion. He loves yoghurt; hopefully the active cultures in it are keeping his pro-biotics healthy...

He's still walking very gingerly, and resorts to 3-legged hopping once in a while. When he does walk, it has an odd wobble to it. He's still learning how to use BOTH rear legs. He had just started getting used to his new left leg when he tore the ligament on the right, so we'll have to start all over again with very short walks out to the front yard in the coming weeks.

In a few more days we hope to let him walk wherever he wants in the house. Until then, we're now keeping him confined to one room at a time.