This page is dedicated to following Brutus’ recovery from Cranial Cruciate Ligament Surgery.  I want to share his experiences so that it may be helpful to anyone else going through it.  Please follow this page to get updates or check back often.

December 4, 2015: Surgery Day

Dropped Brutus off this morning for surgery.  Everything went smoothly and he did great.  Here is a picture of him in is recovery suite.  Nicely high on some wonderful pain meds, he will sleep well tonight and come home tomorrow.

December 5, 2015: More photos from surgery day

I am pretty sure that if he could talk, he would he yelling bad things at me for posting these photos. lol

   

December 10, 2015: 6 Days post surgery

So far things are going well.  Most of the bruising and swelling are gone and he is using the leg more each day.  He is not really trying to lick it or mess with the staples but wears his cone or donut when I have to leave the room or at night when we are all sleeping. His hair is beginning to grow back and I think that makes him itch more than that incision.  Here are a few pictures.

December 16, 2015: 12 days post surgery

Things are going really well so far.  Brutus is using the leg and his incision is healing nicely.  We head to his regular vet tomorrow to get is staples removed.  Yesterday, we went to his physical therapy consultation.  Accept for Brutus’s dislike for restraint, it wasn’t too bad.  We are going to have to work on him laying down on his side for a massage and for the range of motion exercises. I have a week to see if I can improve this before his next appointment. Judging from the picture below of how he spends his days, you would think it would be a simple thing to get him to do but no he enters a complete and utter panic.  I think we can improve this with some green beans and other goodies.  Wish me luck. lol  We do get to walk each day for a whole 5 minutes increasing to 10 minutes over time.  This is so exciting and should help with his feeling of being couped up.

    

January 17, 2016

We are 6 weeks post surgery.  Brutus is walking 15-20 minutes a day and using his leg most of the time with a slight limp.  Looking into a new place to finish his therapy and look forward to getting him in the water treadmill.

January 31, 2016

Got our X-rays yesterday and Brutus’ bones ar healing nicely. we will begin to return to normal activity over the next 4-6 weeks.

March 11, 2016

Hello, everyone.  Brutus is walking about 45 minutes at a time. Or for about 1.75 miles, which ever comes first depending on how he feels that day.  We have taken our time getting back to normal activity and he still limps which we know can take up to 6 months to go away.  I’ll keep you posted.

April 1, 2016

Brutus had a great visit to the vet today.  leg looks great nad his weight is at 90.6 pounds.   He just needs to put on some more muscle in the leg and we will be good to go. Yippee!

April 13, 2016

 

Went back to the vet today because he gave us a scare.  Woke up holding his leg up and not wanting to put any weight on it.  Thankfully, all the screws and plates are nice and tight in their places and everything feels fine, so it looks like he just tweaked it while playing with Xena.  As you can see, he was not happy with his trip to the vet, but he did drop another pound which means we can start increasing his food intake again now that the weather is warm and he is active and hiking again. Now if we can keep him around the 90 – 92 pound range, we should be good.

 

 

August 21, 2016

It’s been a while since I have updated, which I guess is a good thing.  It means we don’t really have anything to report.  His leg is doing really well and if the heat and humidity break, we can get back to regular hiking.  I still make a face and panic a bit when he runs the wrong way or jumps for a toy even though I try and make sure he doesn’t.  Until we reach that 1 year anniversary, I won’t feel like we have made it past the final hurdle.  Until then, we hike on.

December 29, 2016

As we close out the year 2016, I close out this page dedicated to Brutus’ Recovery from his CCL injury.  We passed the one year mark of his injury and surgery, so now it’s time to move forward in hopes that I will not have to create a page like this in the future.  To all those who might have to face this type of injury with your dog someday, please know that it will get better. Although it is a long road, your pup will heal and be better than ever.  Good luck to you all

Thank you for reading.

Brutus and L