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Thursday, July 02, 2009

8 Week Worry

Reyna is 8 weeks post-op today. Officially, she can start having more freedom around the house and yard, but still no wrestling with Duncan. Of course, not being allowed to play rough also means that she still has to be crated when I’m gone and at night. For the most part, though, the most significant restrictions are eased at the 8 week mark. There’s only one snag to this – Reyna’s been a bit mopey during our evening walks lately, so I decided we’d stop the evening walks for a few days, and even take this weekend to just relax. We’ve walked twice a day, every day but one, since she hit the 3 week mark, so I figured it would be okay to take some time off. With this in mind, I walked Reyna a little farther yesterday morning than I have before, just so we’d still come somewhat close to getting the same total distance. She was fine when I left, no limp and feeling pretty peppy, and the sitter said she was fine during her lunch visit. When I got home last night, though, Reyna was limping. For the first time in weeks. The limp had eased somewhat by bedtime, but Reyna was bunny-hopping quite a bit both last night and this morning. With any luck, the limp is due to nothing more than a bit of muscle stiffness, but we’ll definitely be taking things very easy this weekend.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe she just laid wrong or stubbed her toe or listened to the "Bunny Hop" in her head and decided to go "hop hop hop". Maybe she thinks it's Easter. No?
She be OK!!!! Love, Mom

John Van said...

Maybe she has reached a sort of "plateau" for physical endurance on that leg. I expect that she will get past it after a little more time with moderate exercise.
Remember they told you this was likely to happen. You don't know what the exercise limits really are till you exceed them once in awhile.
I would not stop walks altogether, just wait until she stops favoring the leg and then get back into it slowly.
Then again, I'm an Engineer and mechanic. You should not be listening to me for advice on your dog in the first place...

Anonymous said...

Then again.....it does sound like some pretty good advice....even if John is an engineer and mechanic. Who woulda thunk?!? Works for me!!! Just take care and don't overdo. Love, Mom