It’s now day 7-post luxating patella surgery, and as far as I can tell, Henry’s doing well for the most part, although he’s completely miserable in his crate. It’s the most time he’s spent in there, ever. He never sleeps in there, but on my bed with me and only goes in to fetch his toys out. He’s having a hard time adjusting, but he has to suffer now for the greater good of the functionality of his legs. When I put him on his pad to pee, he spins around like a banshee until he finally can’t hold it in anymore. I spread his legs, so he doesn’t get any pee on his bandaged feet. He only goes pee once a day and because of all the medicine he’s been given, his urine has a really putrid smell, a bit like asparagus-pee. For the short times that he’s out of his crate, he walks pretty well, although he looks like he’s walking on stilts. For being so small, he’s pretty fearless and seems to have forgotten about the fact that he had major surgery. If I didn’t immediately put him back in his crate after his daily bathroom session, he’d be running a muck in the house, bandaged legs and all.

He was suffering from a bout of constipation, as he hadn’t had a bowel movement since we brought him home on Saturday, so I gave him a teaspoon of pumpkin puree and this did the trick, although he ended up going his crate. I really don’t mind where he goes, as long as he goes. On Thursday he goes in to get his bandages removed I believe and I’m a bit scared of this, because I got a peek at one of the staples in his legs, and it was not a pleasant site.

By the way, if you’re reading this and your dog needs luxating patella surgery, which usually runs in the thousands as far as price is concern, a good option is Care Credit. Care Credit works like a credit card, but with perks such as an extended payment plan and no interest. It’s main purpose is for medical emergencies, such as pet surgery. I used it to cover half the cost of Henry’s surgery. More updates as we go along.