It’s hard to believe two months have passed since Bacio’s FHO surgery. I remember being so scared, anxious, and nervous driving him to the vet. I knew I was doing what was in his best interest, yet I was still apprehensive and concerned. For newer readers that may not be familiar with Bacio, he was diagnosed with hip dysplasia at a year old, but never showed signs of pain. I held off on anything invasive, like Total Hip Replacement or Femoral Head Ostectomy, until he showed symptoms of pain or weakness. You can the post about his x-rays here.
Ups and Downs of Bacio’s FHO Recovery
The recovery road from his surgery has been a roller coaster so far. The first couple weeks he looked like he was doing very well. The video clips I was taking are evidence of that. He was walking around putting small amounts of weight on his right leg almost immediately. I was so proud of him. Here’s a clip I made, a photo of his incision every day until the stitches were out.
Then the tides turned. After staying with at my dad’s house for the first couple weeks, we tried to go back to our second-floor apartment in Chicago. The vet had said that if he went slow on the stairs that he should be fine. Unfortunately, his first attempt going down the hardwood stairs with his healing FHO leg, he lost his footing and fell. For the next day he was limping wherever he went, and I started getting worried that maybe he tore something. Thankfully we were able to get back to the vet and there were no tears. He was put back on pain killers to help take the edge off.
The fall did more than physical damage to Bacio. It hurt his ego, his confidence, and he began to be fearful to use his right hind leg.
After trying to coax Bacio into using his leg, we ended up going back to my dad’s house to avoid stairs for the time being. I finally made the decision I now know I should have made sooner. Therapy. Enter: Integrative Pet Care, a rehabilitation, therapy, and alternative medicine practice for pets. I had held off initially because the prices were daunting, especially post-surgery. However, after the consultation, I knew immediately I had to get Bacio in there, these people were really going to do their best for him.
Therapy to Rehabilitate After Surgery and the Fall
He is now in a personalized therapy program, and it had been the best thing for him so far. He goes to hydrotherapy twice a week for now and has a laser therapy with an exercise session once a week. After just two sessions, he was using his leg more often and even balanced on it to pee! I couldn’t believe it. I have home exercises to do with him too, but he’s a very stubborn dog and despises them. There is no food or toy that can motivate him, it is so frustrating. To date, we have not been able to get through the whole series of exercises in one day.
I say that he’s a faker, and milking his injury, but in all honesty, I believe he’s just been afraid to use that leg after the fall. Bacio balances on his leg to pee more often now, but it still frightens me. I always think we’ll have the return of the stanky leg, and he’s going to collapse. We have at least 2 walks a day. In total, we probably walk close to a mile, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the day. Bacio rarely hops on the walks anymore, but he will occasionally when he tries to go to faster. Even that is started to diminish, he’s starting to toe touch that back foot when he speeds up.
His knee still wobbles when he walks, I don’t know if that’s because he’s swinging the other leg around or what. Randomly he’ll get excited or try to move to fast and slip on the wood floors here. I’ve put carpets in most of the rooms to prevent that from happening, but it is like he has a beacon for finding the non-carpeted spots to fall on. He does walk around the house now too, which he never did, he’d always hop around, now he only hops every third step or so.
A Slow Recovery, but There is Progress
So, progress is being made. It is slow, but it is happening. Is he where most other dogs would be right now? Not even close. Does he know that? Nope. The past two months have been so unbelievably emotional and stressful for me. I’ve spent most of my time, energy, and savings on this dog. I’ve been asked if I think its worth it on a number of occasions. My response is always the same. Of course I think it is worth it. If I had to go back to the day I had the choice of adopting him or his brother with this big brown eyes, and I knew everything that I was going to go through with Bacio, I’d do it all again. I’d take him out of my aunt’s arms again and sit on her floor with him, even though I’d know that he was about to pee on my lap. There is only one thing I’d do in retrospect, and that would be to get the surgery done sooner, so that he’d be pain free and running around faster.
I know he’s thankful for everything too, he’s been very cuddly lately.
