This is one of several chapters chronicling our successful story of recovery from bilateral TPLO surgeries.
We got lucky. We had a few weeks to prepare for bringing home a 65 lb tripod of a dog recovering from major surgery, and prepare we did.
I read. A lot. I scoured the web. Some stories were sad, some were happy, but they were all important to know.
We examined the fine print of our pet insurance policy so there wouldn’t be any financial surprises.
We pulled the baby gates out of the basement. We got an ex-pen. We knew that confinement was key to healing. It proved to be beyond valuable.
We cleaned the house, washed her bedding, and prepped areas with fresh sheets & towels so that wherever our girl wanted to rest, her incision would never be in danger of infection.
We made about half a dozen ice packs: 3 parts water to 1 part isopropyl alcohol in a ziplock bag = cheap and cold. By making that many, we could rotate them out frequently and keep her comfortable.
We scheduled vacation time from work, so that she was never alone for those first 5 days after she was discharged.
The night before surgery, we gave her a bath—a GOOD bath. Aside from the cleanliness factor, remember- there will be no baths allowed for about the first 2 weeks afterwards.
Most importantly, we jammed a summer’s worth of fun into the 3 weeks we had before the big day. We ran, we played, we swam. We hiked, we went to the beach, and we watched her wrestle with Levi long into the warm nights. She may not have had any idea what we were going to be doing to her, but it sure made us feel better dropping her off for what we knew would be 12 tough weeks.
Yours truly- Tigerlily
We got lucky. We had a few weeks to prepare for bringing home a 65 lb tripod of a dog recovering from major surgery, and prepare we did.
I read. A lot. I scoured the web. Some stories were sad, some were happy, but they were all important to know.
We examined the fine print of our pet insurance policy so there wouldn’t be any financial surprises.
We pulled the baby gates out of the basement. We got an ex-pen. We knew that confinement was key to healing. It proved to be beyond valuable.
We cleaned the house, washed her bedding, and prepped areas with fresh sheets & towels so that wherever our girl wanted to rest, her incision would never be in danger of infection.
We made about half a dozen ice packs: 3 parts water to 1 part isopropyl alcohol in a ziplock bag = cheap and cold. By making that many, we could rotate them out frequently and keep her comfortable.
We scheduled vacation time from work, so that she was never alone for those first 5 days after she was discharged.
The night before surgery, we gave her a bath—a GOOD bath. Aside from the cleanliness factor, remember- there will be no baths allowed for about the first 2 weeks afterwards.
Most importantly, we jammed a summer’s worth of fun into the 3 weeks we had before the big day. We ran, we played, we swam. We hiked, we went to the beach, and we watched her wrestle with Levi long into the warm nights. She may not have had any idea what we were going to be doing to her, but it sure made us feel better dropping her off for what we knew would be 12 tough weeks.
Yours truly- Tigerlily
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