Tully's hip replacement

We're half way

Today Tully had her 6wk check up, followed by some physio. Won't know if the hip has set properly until we travel back to Sydney for xrays in a few weeks. But the specialist thinks it looks good.

I was a bit worried because we've had a couple of Deska incidents.:rolleyes2: Once he jumped on her from the couch - she was laying on the floor. He spent that night sleeping in the hallway, I was so mad. Another time she escaped from the crate in the car just when he was doing a full throttle spin and she was squished.

Still not walking too long, specialist wants us up to 30min but she struggles. The physio thinks the Deska incidents may have delayed her healing a bit. And she has also lost weight - that's a surprise, now I'm wondering if was counter surfing as I slept and of course she can't now.

Fur is taking a looong time to grow, the scar is covered but she looks so strange. People are wary of patting her now and she gets upset (Deska loves getting all the attention now). So I'm thinking of making a legging so the shave isn't so obvious.
 

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Caro, it is a long healing process...our Rory was several months before he was moving really well and he got tired easily. Basically it sounds like Tully is on track and that is good. Gentle hugs to Tully.

Trini
 
trini gilmore said:
Caro, it is a long healing process...our Rory was several months before he was moving really well and he got tired easily. Basically it sounds like Tully is on track and that is good. Gentle hugs to Tully.

Trini
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That's good to hear. According to the schedule from surgeon at week 6 she can walk 20min but she's struggling, I tried twice doing 30min and it was too painful for her. The specialist that said to up the walking is in Sydney so I only talked to him on the phone, maybe I misunderstood. The Canberra specialist said she has a lot of scar tissue that might be slowing her down. The physio thinks it's silly to increase her walking from 15min to 30 min so quickly. I guess I'll just slow it down again - there's no point pushing her more than she's ready. She does tire really easily.
 
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Caro said:
That's good to hear. According to the schedule from surgeon at week 6 she can walk 20min but she's struggling, I tried twice doing 30min and it was too painful for her. The specialist that said to up the walking is in Sydney so I only talked to him on the phone, maybe I misunderstood. The Canberra specialist said she has a lot of scar tissue that might be slowing her down. The physio thinks it's silly to increase her walking from 15min to 30 min so quickly. I guess I'll just slow it down again - there's no point pushing her more than she's ready. She does tire really easily.
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Caro, although I realize the Dr's have indepth medical experience that most dog owners don't have...I still think we know our individual dogs best and are the better qualified to set the time table for our dogs recovery process. Pushing too hard, when a little dog is "telling us" it is too much/too soon can do more harm than good. Each dog, like each human, heals at a different rate.

Trini
 
Sheep - don't worry, she's getting lots of cuddles, much to Deska's disgust.

Trini - I agree. The local specialist had asked if Tully was putting it on to get sympathy. I was quite annoyed and said did you see the state of her hip by the time she started showing pain, Sarah (the senior specialist) didn't even pick it up. I know Tully doesn't show pain unless it really hurts.

I have spoken to the vets again about the walking. The reason they want me to walk more is Tully has a pronounced limp (when I say 'they' I mean our Canberra specialist and the Sydney surgeon when they talk to each other). They think the limp may be due to the way scar tissue is forming and think walking will help.

Otherwise the limp could be misalignment of the implant or an infection under the cement. If it's a misalignment there's nothing we can do - Tully will just have a permanent limp. I was told because they haven't done surgery on a dog her size they are not as certain about the angle as they would with say a lab or BC. They think it's good but only time will tell. And an infection will show up at the xrays in a few weeks (she doesn't have a fever though).

I did a 1/2hr dawdle with her last night on the local campus (flat ground) and she held up fine. We did 25min this morning at Deska pace, slow, and she wanted to go more but I decided to carry her home. Then tonight she managed barely 10min and is sore tonight. So basically a long walk can only be followed by a short walk - which kinds of defeats the purpose.

I've noticed she can do the long walks with NSAIDs, without NSAIDs is when she struggles. It's just that she's had ulcers from NSAIDs so I'm wary to keep her on them (plus her ulcer meds are expensive).

I'm thinking if they want her to walk more surely 3 x short walks a day are better than 2 x long walks. I'm going to check on Wed if that's okay (the surgeon is part time) but I might give it a try on Mon just to see how it goes (tomorrow she's resting). When she's miserable like this I feel so mean.
 
Poor Tully, poor Caro, what a trying time. She looks sooooo tiny in her photo, still very very sweet even if half naked, she's very cute!!!
Wishing she feels better and up to more walking asap! Hope this all works out soon!!
 
Caro: Is there any advantage in having a CBC done on Tully to see if an infection is brewing? You could just go to your regular vet and see if antibiotics are needed.
 
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