Jack's Three-legged Journey

What a difference a week makes!  On one of my return trips to the surgeon’s office this past week the really nice vet tech told me, “Yeah, the first week is really hard.  But then it will get easier.”  And he was right.  Jack ended up having to go back in for a second catheter on Friday night, but on Saturday he really seemed to turn the corner.  He started taking care of his potty business with no issues, his personality was back to normal, he started putting a little bit of weight on his leg… funny, now that I think about it, he also got his Fentanyl patch taken off on Friday night.  Well, I’m sure the narcotics really helped him get through the first few days. But we’re glad they’re gone now!

Here’s a picture of him today.

We get to start rehab and physical therapy on Friday, which I am so excited about.  I noticed today that his thigh muscle has gotten really small.  It will be good to have some people who know what they’re doing show us what we can safely do to help Jack get strong again.  We go back in to the surgeon for a follow up X-ray in two weeks; I feel like he is healing well but I will be so nervous that day.  One day at a time, I guess.  That’s what Jack tells me, anyway.

Jack peed this morning!  I was just about to take him in for the catheter treatment again- maybe he weighed his options and decided the catheter wasn’t that great.  Ashley had to put him down and leave him for a minute, and he did a couple of scooches to get to a place where he felt more comfortable.  It scares us to see him move around on his own, but the surgeon assures us that it takes more than that to make the implant fail.  While we were diagnosing this problem, he spent three weeks learning to walk almost entirely on his front legs, so I don’t think he puts much weight on the back leg when he scooches.

He seems to be doing pretty well today.  He is happiest and sleeps the most when someone is sitting right next to him and there is no noise in the house.  He starts whining whenever I get up or there is some kind of commotion.  I think I would want it to be quiet and peaceful, too, if I were in his shoes.

For now, we’re using Jack’s Ruffwear life jacket to help him walk- we can put one hand on the handle and use the other hand to pull up on the back end of the life jacket.  We have not been able to sling him successfully- he hates it and we can’t find a way to keep whatever sling we use (we’ve tried horse cinches, long lengths of fabric, slings made just for this purpose) out of the way of his male anatomy.  The life jacket works pretty well, but I ordered a Ruffwear Webmaster Harness yesterday and am SO excited for it to arrive.

Here’s Jack on Day 3.  His swelling and bruising is a little worse today, but I think he is looking pretty great, overall.