Rocky's Recovery

It's now been over 2 weeks since Rocky had his surgery. The recovery period has not been easy for him or us. The first week was the worst, he literally slept for 24 hours a day and did not move at all from his bed, not that I blame him, he had major surgery and was clearly in pain and completely drugged up. We were giving him a quarter tablet of doggy "codine" 3 times a day which was knocking him out. He would just lay there like a lump the poor guy. We had to carry him up and down the stairs and he would only go out briefly. He saw his friend CJ on the second day out, and it's amazing, dog's are so smart, she knew right away that something was wrong with him, and was so calm around him, when usually they horse around and play like crazy.

The doctor did call and check on him to see how he was doing, we let him know that he was not walking at all on that leg and mostly just sleeping, he said as we got close to the week mark to wean him off the codine that he should not need it as much. Once he was off the codine, which was a full week after we brought him home, we did start to see signs of life in him a bit more. My mom had seen him the first Saturday after the surgery, she came to visit him, and then the following Saturday and the difference was remarkable. He was a lot more alert and excited the second week since he was off the drugs but still not moving the greatest and overall very calm, especially around my parents two dogs.

Every day does continue to be an improvement it seems, although it was quite slow and small in the beginning and he still not there yet. The saddest part of this whole experience is how his personality has changed, what we can only hope is temporarily. There was one day I came home and he was sitting in his bed in the hallway, and I walked right past him, I had no idea he was there and he didn't get up. I miss him running upstairs from the basement when I come home to come and greet me. Its been a struggle for him.


He's finally getting back to going up and down the stairs, although up seems to be more difficult for him than down. Sometimes he will go up a couple and then get "stuck" and turn around and go down and try again with more momentum, he also goes up partly sideways. He's also finally able to get up on the couch, although he cries a bit staring at the couch like barking at it, he obviously wants to get up but is reluctant, but eventually does it.

Only in the past couple days has he started playing with his toys a bit more again, for at least the first two weeks he wanted nothing to do with his toys at all. Something he absolutely loved, he got so many new toys for Christmas and he hasn't played with them at all.

I took him to the surgeon on Thursday to get his staples removed, which amazingly did not hurt him at all getting them out, he barely even noticed. Overall the doctor said that he is still within the normal recovery window of healing and he is not concerned that he is not walking on the leg just yet. Although the leg seems to get closer to the ground and he's not carrying it as high as he was at first it still has yet to make touch down. The doctor told us to keep taking him for walks, the intent with that is that as he is out walking, hopefully he will get distracted and forget about his leg and to continue doing the leg exercises with him since his leg is very stiff. He wants to see him back in a month from now and I'm hoping that he is walking on the leg by then.