Sorry I've been tied up today and didn't get back to you before now.

Murphy was under "house arrest" for a whole four months after the THR. He had to be on his leash, and mostly with the Ruffwear harness , the entire time. He had been pretty much confined for the three months prior to the surgery, too, as he was first recuperating from the amp and then from additional hip dislocations. And the resulting surgeries. We still use the harness at times when he will be on slick floors, in unfamiliar situations or for loading in and out of the car or the camper. He is capable of using his ramp without it, but it is his security blanket, so we have decided that he is welcome to it.

He did eight weeks of twice weekly PT starting at two months after the THR...sounds like your Tuck has started that around the same time. This spring we discovered that he had been cheating and using his front end far too much, so he headed back to the rehab vet for another four sessions. We picked up some new tips and different exercises then. His earlier therapy covered underwater treadmill, swimming in the tank, priopreception exercises like the Cavaletti course, core strengthening, sit to stand and others that I can't remember right now. The latest therapy included an inclined treadmill and we got the harness to do pulling a sled. They also re-did all the previous exercises, too.

We do find that we tend to panic or over react more with him than we do with our old Golden. Having been through so much with him has done that to us. We are trying to let him "Be More Dog ", but sometimes it can be difficult.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and I will try to answer them for you. I have mostly posted in the original forum, but I know there is a way to search for other threads I've started over the last months.

Kathi and Murphy

Murphy was not quite three when he was hit by a car and ended up with the THR as his eighth surgery. His hip was dislocated, knee blown out on the other side, and he was really lucky to have made it out alive. He had the hip restored and sutured in place and a TPLO on the knee. Unfortunately, it turned out that his femoral nerve on the knee side was too damaged to recover, and after he had spent three weeks in the hospital, the decision was made to amputate the leg. He had the hip dislocate multiple times following the first surgery, as he had very shallow hip joints. The THR was the third or fourth (I can't remember which) that our surgeon had done on a Tripawd. He has done many, many more on four legged dogs, and in fact has taught the procedure. I'm sure that if your doctors at Cornell contact Dr. Randy Acker at Sun Valley Animal Hospital in Ketchum, Idaho, he would be happy to consult with them. He had a KYON replacement.

Unfortunately, we lost Murphy two years ago after he developed an aggressive bone lesion in the hip. Up to that point, he lived a joyful life, doing anything and everything he wanted to do. He has a YouTube channel that you can check out. It's called "Murphy the Three Legged Dog". We did a fairly good job of following his recovery. Some of the videos were lost due to a glitch with YouTube, but the majority of them are still there.

All told, Murph was on leash restriction for seven months, counting the time from his accident until he was cleared to just be a dog. Check out my original posts in the Beyond Cancer section "Total Hip Replacement after rear leg amputation" for a better feel for the timeline.

Kathi and the Turbotail April Angel...and the Labradork