Today was a great day in the land of Romeo.
I was worried about how much his incision was still oozing – we’re at one week post surgery and his drain is still in and he is soaking his bandaging each day. The bigger worry though was the possible problem with his back leg.
Yesterday it became even more noticeable that Romeo wasn’t using his back left leg the same way he was using the right leg. He was slower to put weight on the left when he got off the couch and his gait just seems weird.
So we scheduled a trip to the vet for a recheck. Trent got Romeo in the car himself and I met them at the clinic. (If I haven’t mentioned it, I love my husband more than I can explain for taking the week off work to help with Romeo’s recovery.)
Apparently Romeo walked with spring in his step to head to the car when it was time to leave home. Well, actually first he headed for where my car is usually parked and then looked confused since it was at work with me.
After not wanting to get out of the car at the vet and finally being convinced to join us, Romeo got to show off his moves for the clinic staff. Last time they saw him, he was relying on people to help him walk anywhere and he was uncomfortable and cranky.
Today he showed them that he can hop across the parking lot and explore the lawn and even pee without anyone’s help. It was very impressive.
We actually did his whole exam outside since Romeo had much better traction on the grass than he would have on the linoleum inside.
So we learned that his left leg isn’t painful and is most likely strange since that’s how a three legged Romeo is compensating for a missing front leg. There is still a chance something is up, but for now we’re good.
As for the ooze, we unbandaged Romeo and the vet checked out his incision. We got a thumbs up. Everything still looks good – no infection – but Monday the drain needs to come out. So our job is to help him drain more. We’ll try unbandaging him now and then and making him stand up; this usually makes all sort of fun stuff come out. This will be done outside. I’m fine with cleaning up messes in the house, but there is a limit.
While we were all looking and poking and prodding, Romeo seemed chilly. Even though the sun was out, it definitely wasn’t warm today. Poor Romeo has no hair on a large chunk of his side, so without his bandage I’m sure he was cold. Even with all of his hair, this dog is a wimp about the cold.
When we were done and Romeo was rebandaged, we headed back to the car. He got a good trot going, the fastest I have seen so far from Mr Hopalong. I was sad to have missed a video of it since it was pretty amazing.
On top of the good news from the vet, Trent reported that Romeo was even more himself today. Romeo spent some time sitting up on the couch, looking out the window, one of his normal pastimes.
I’m so relieved our big guy is headed the right direction!