Hi astella, I haven't thoroughly read every reply you've had on this thread, so please forgive me if I'm repeating advice. It seems so tight knit here, I think you may have already seen a link to my pup Iris' story, if not, it's full of inspiration and will put you at ease. We are 3 days post op.

Unfortunately for Iris, she had a couple of months to prepare herself, as her leg was in pain. My toughest emotion right now is realizing if she's doing this good, she must've been so used to pain for so long that this should've been done sooner! Based on finances, this was the soonest it could be done, but Iris couldn't be happier the day has come, that she doesn't have this 18" long appendage called a leg, giving her grief any more.

Our recovery thus far has been so ridiculously easy that I don't feel like I should be giving advice.

Just prepare by designating a recovery area, partition it off so your pup doesn't have free access to the rest of the house, with easy bathroom access or areas, and then make the recovery room slip proof (I was lucky to have a few cases of carpet samples, they are working great) and you will see, some adjustments will need to be made. The blanket I put down to protect the rug, will slide when she's drinking as it overlaps the hardwood. So I just added carpet samples underneath.

If the cone of shame isn't already on, just put it on and forget about it. I stressed out how much she fought me for getting it on, that once we got it on, it took about 5 minutes and she just decided the cone was another part of life.

She didn't lick the wound the first night as we snuggled (without the cone), but started to give a lick here and there on day two, and we are just in way too deep to let an infection screw things up. The collar is harder on us than the pet.

I was advised here about putting her bowls up on books and that has worked fantastically. Two separate piles of books, one for water one for food, so they are narrow enough for the E-collar (cone of shame ) so she can reach them with the cone on.

You're vet should have a wagon to bring your pup to the car. Bring a towel as they will likely inject a last dose of antibiotics into the wound and that will leak out. Iris would've walked to the car but she knows when she's being spoiled and let us wheel her out there...

Also take care of yourself! Go grocery shopping and run those errands now! My scenario is near perfect and I still have to carefully plan how loud I'll be while cooking or if I need to take a trip to the store.

Other than that I have no unique advice. This has been very easy and aside from having to let her whine herself to sleep when I have to proceed with life on the other side of the partition, this is so much less draining than I thought.

In respect to those who have had complications etc with recovery, I want to say again, our recovery is textbook easy! Once you are post op, we will be viewing your updates and someone will have advice within a few hours at most. If one of our veteran members here says relax, I'd say relax. If they say it is time to call/ go to the vet than do it.

Keep us updated!

Hi astrella,

The site was down for maintainence, sorry we couldn't reply sooner. I had the same anxiety too! The drive home was tough. Your pooch will be just fine, you should be picking her up today right?

Have you ran your errands and slip proofed and partitioned off an area? Your Riley may be more active than you think upon arrival home! That's the only real advice I have. Let us know how she's doing when you have the chance!

Tommy won't be mad at you....he'll be so happy to see you and ready for you to break him out of the clinic...lol.  Definitely for the first couple of weeks until the staples/sutures are removed Tommy's activities need to be confined to short potty breaks on a leash.  You don't want him over exerted himself or if he'd stumble and fall causing the incision to open up.  My Leland also enjoyed being outside and since nicer weather is on the way (at least here in WV) I can understand why Tommy wouldn't want to be strictly confined to the house.  With Leland we'd take an old flat bed sheet and lay it out on the ground.  We didn't want him laying on the dirt/grass and have something work it's way into the incision or having pesky bugs climbing on it.  We'd also take a dish towel or cotton cloth and lay it over the incision (he was a hind leg amp) just to be doubly safe.  Leland was happy laying under a shade tree, sniffing the air, and looking around but I was always right there with him. 

Regarding diet/eating when Tommy comes home.  It was a fight to get my Leland to eat when he first came home.  A lot of dogs don't seem to have much of an appetite and I would suspect all the meds from the clinic play a part in this.  In the beginning if Tommy is resistant to eating feed him whatever you can get him to eat.  Leland wanted nothing to do with kibble and I was grilling steak, chicken, hamburger, and pork to get some food into his body (even with the grilled meat it was a fight at times...).  Once the recovery period is over and things are getting back to normal you may want to look to altering Tommy's diet to something where he won't put on too much weight.  I think it's been mentioned that Tripawds need higher amounts of protein because their body is exerting more energy to move since they only have 3 legs.

Anyway, don't ever worry or hesitate asking questions...that's what we and Tommy's vet are here for.

Sahana and her Angel Leland