So I've decided my dog is a rockstar! I wouldn't have dared hope he would be doing this well after a couple of weeks let alone a couple of days. I'm trying not to get too excited as I understand they can have a bit of a dip after a few days but it's hard to do that when he's almost his normal self.

He walked to the car unaided and got in and out of the car with minimal help. He also went straight out the garden to toilet unaided when we got home. He's eating and drinking completely normally and is showing no signs of pain. I slept downstairs with him last night but he didn't need me at all and apart from getting up to change sleeping position he was quiet and still.

This is all the more amazing as the vet took him off all the strong painkillers before he came home. He's taking paracetemol and an anti-inflammatory painkiller and that's it. The vet said they can introduce something stronger if he needs it but they try not to as it can affect their stability/mobility. I don't know whether this is my vet's way of doing things or how things are done generally in the UK but so far he's doing really well. They have 24/7 cover so we can ring at any time if we need to and the vet is coming to the house to check him over on Monday.

Dave's always had a really high pain threshold. It just makes me wonder if his leg was more painful than we realised before the operation. He's even sleeping on the side he lost his leg most of the time so it can't be that uncomfortable. All the stitches are underneath him so maybe that's why lying that way isn't an issue.  There's a long way to go, but we can see he's still his happy self and that's all that matters.

Thanks for all the kind messages. I'll update you if there's any changes the weekend or if not, after we've seen the vet on Monday.

So another quick update. Dave continues to astound as all. We took him to my family Christmas day. He jumped into and out of the car without any help. There are 4 steps up to my mum's house so I was all prepared with the sling to help him up and he ran up and into the house as he always has (8 days post surgery). We spent most of the day trying to persuade him he couldn't go up the garden (many, many steps) no matter how much he wanted to.

His stitches came out yesterday and the wound is looking really good. Today is 15 days post op and I went upstairs this morning to get something and turned around to see him following me. No hesitation, no difficulty at all. He just went straight to my daughter's bedroom door and head butted it asking to be let in as he always used to.

I'm so glad I found you guys. You were so confident he could do well even though the vet had concerns because he's a large dog. He's actually done better than we could have wished for.

When he was in having the operation, my daughter said all she wanted for Christmas was for me to promise he'd be able to sleep on her bed again by her birthday (April). I said I couldnt promise that but we'd do all we could to help him get back to 'normal'. I just never dreamed he could get there so quickly.

Happy New Year all, it's a very Happy New Year here for us.

I'm not sure if this works, let me know. Below is a link to the photos I've taken during Dave's recovery. They were mainly to monitor the bruising (which was really bad) and wound healing. 

Dave's Recovery

If this doesn't work I'll try posting them another way.