Dec
21
TPLO 6 Weeks
Home treadmill
Ticket is getting close to the end–5 days until followup xrays. This week was 6 weeks after her surgery. She is up to 30 minutes on the underwater treadmill with an incline. That is no problem for her. At home, we are doing two strengthening exercises every other day. So we climbed up and down hills for 10 minutes, and cavaletti for 10 minutes earlier this week. Tonight or tomorrow morning we’ll do some proprioceptive work on the soft balance disc, and some limbo exercises where she has to duck under a bar.
I am under instruction to increase the length of her walks, because her biggest issue right now is muscle mass. She still has some atrophy, and without building that muscle back up, she’s at increased risk for injury. Of course, NOW the weather decides to get cold and nasty. So yesterday, she got two 15 minute walks (with a bit of incline) on the land treadmill at home. We really need to be walking for 20-30 minutes, but this is the first time she’s been on the land treadmill in awhile, so I didn’t want to ask her to stay on it quite that long.
I admit, while Ticket is doing “fine,” and her PT keeps reassuring me that she’s doing well at this stage post-op, I’m still fighting frustration. Ticket still tends to offload off the surgery leg when standing, and doesn’t have the muscle back that I would like to see at this point. My only basis for comparison was Ticket’s first TPLO, where she was a rockstar and recovered exceptionally well. This time, the injury was more chronic, there was more cartilage damage, and it’s just going a little slower. It’s hard to be patient when I have a hard deadline, but I’m getting lots of reassurance that she will be ready. Ticket’s recheck xrays are next Wednesday, but even if we see her bone is healed, she’s not going to be turned completely loose, because of the risk of a strain.
This weekend we’re heading to San Antonio for Christmas. Acres of trails for Ticket to walk on, and it looks like the weather will be good. We’ll also continue working on her strengthening exercises. Hoping for good news next week!
I’m going to try to take some pictures/video of Ticket working through her strengthening/proprioception exercises and get those posted–I know they might be helpful for others after cruciate surgery.
