Hello everyone.  I thought I would give a quick update.  We are about 18 days after the surgery and yesterday was his first follow up visit.  Everything looks good on the outside but it wont be for another 6 weeks until they take a full Xray that will show everything.  So yesterday though we did start physical therapy.  They gave him a massage an some laser and then ran him through 3 exercises that we do at home now 2x a day.  We have a physical therapy appointment now once a week for the next 5 weeks.  I thought for sure that he was NOT going to do anything those two ladies wanted him to do but with me assisting and treats in my hand he was a very good boy.  Also we take 2-3 ten minute walks a day and each week we can increase it by 3-5 minutes.  It's best to take slow walks that are very controlled because when walking slowly he has to use that legs.

He is still on antinol and another supplement and they have offered us a shot that is supposed to be really really good and you only give it once a month.  The only issue is that I would have to give him a shot so I need to research it before deciding on it.  Supplements are great and they do help but in our case his ligament was completely torn so that is why we never saw any improvement.  It still steams me that our regular vet never ever mentioned one time that there could be a ligament issue and from what I have been told, it's common.  The specialist caught it immediately.  So anyway, it's a ton of work but I am retired and don't mind doing it but I look forward to that 8 week Xray!  I guess at this point he is about 15 percent healed.  Anyway, we will carry on!

Here we are yesterday at the physical therapy with our protective eye wear on.

I love when members update, thank you! Finley is looking great, I know it's still a ways to go but everything sounds good!

Update time! All seems to be going really well. On monday it is 6 weeks and we have completed 4 out of the 6 physical therapy visits plus what we do at home. We can now walk around 25 minutes a day. September 20th he has his recheck and his Xray and the hope is they will tell us he has healed fine. He still can't go into the yard off leash until that happens though. He went from a terrible limp many times during the day to hardly ever limping now. The only time I have seen a slight limp is when he laid in one spot for 3 hours and then got up. Very pleased with everything. Here is a short vid from yesterdays session.

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/atptLvyJtZD6luSbBcWm9HbMI8DQwHtxEumcLdJcucX

Real nice looking routine, bet he'd have gone around a few more times for the treats!

One questions, who's that old man who seem to think sunglasses inside are "cool" ... those went out with Elvis!! << tease >>

aljones wrote:

Real nice looking routine, bet he'd have gone around a few more times for the treats!

One questions, who's that old man who seem to think sunglasses inside are "cool" ... those went out with Elvis!!  << tease >>

Was that the other picture I posted? Those are special glasses to protect from the laser treatment he gets at the end. In the video though that lady had on regular glasses.

He does three 3 more routines there. Here is another one of his routines there.

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/KV3TqatTTx0l7w6BDY87Lj14MWTb7yXkhkJoKqUSzLr

aljones wrote:

Real nice looking routine, bet he'd have gone around a few more times for the treats!

One questions, who's that old man who seem to think sunglasses inside are "cool" ... those went out with Elvis!!  << tease >>

Haha. I get it now, you meant me! 63 and proud of it!

I'm not sure what I'd think about those "things" that give every time you step on them, but he seems to handle them well in stride.

Yeh, 63 and slow on the uptake! again, teasing you. My grandfather, like you, had fantastic white Welsh hair - all I got was the mousy off brown/grey from the English side!
BTW, Can you find those snap front / short sleeve on line for less than $25 each. I used to wear them when I drove but they eventually just wore out ....

Ok, well it's been 63 days today and for the first time he now gets some off leash time. I acutally put up a temporary fence so he can have a nice area close to the house to have some fun in. Can't give him the full yard yet as chasing a rabbit full speed might be too much too soon as he needs to work up to that.

We took the 60 day Xray and he is healed. They showed us a Xray they took right after surgery and you can see bright white line all along the bone where they cut the bone to rotate it and then the Xray they just took now and the white line is gone. When she enlarged it 3x then you could barely see it but you had to be looking for it.

All went well and we are very happy with it all. Quite an experience I must say and there is still some work to do as he they put it, "he cant go from 0-60 in one day he needs to work up to it". We are now walking 2 miles a day. No limp at all.

The funny thing is that today I finished the temporary fence and he got some off leash time for the first time in 63 days and what did he do? Laid down on the lawn and went to sleep!

So all in all it worked out well.

And yes Al, I used a lot of muscles putting up that fence that I forgot that I had and I feel it!

That is great that everything went well and has healed nicely. Hips you just never know. It can be a lot of money for nothing or it can give an animal a whole new lease on life.

TwisterII wrote:

That is great that everything went well and has healed nicely. Hips you just never know. It can be a lot of money for nothing or it can give an animal a whole new lease on life.

Thanks. This was actually the ligament in his knee. We thought it was his hip or my normal vet who is not my vet anymore thought it was his hip but it actually was a blown out ligament.

We are all glad it worked out.