The antibiotics worked! And it was almost instant - it only took 3 doses (1 day) to notice an obvious improvement in her weight bearing. So it looks like we have a low grade infection. The plan now is to see if it recurs, and if so, we will need to keep plate removal as an option.
The normal post-op appointment and xray is normally done at the 8 week mark. But because we x-rayed at 7 weeks, we are going to do the post-op appointment x-ray at 12 weeks to make sure the bone has healed fully. This is so that if plate removal is necessary, the bone is more than strong enough to hold together without the reinforcement. As the bone fuses back together in the healing phase, it creates a calcification which actually makes the break site stronger than normal. Daisy is going to have an uber leg!
Daisy running on the underwater tready! We had to coax her a little with treats...
During her rehab appointment this week, we had her going for 20 minutes non-stop, but we alternated between walking and running. This was the first time she had run in the tank, and we were hoping to make her tired as she has been gaining stamina over the course of her rehab appointments and has been hyperactive when she gets home. We kept her feet on the ground this time and increased her "action" time by 4 minutes which doesn't sound like much, but because there were no rest breaks, it really made her work.
Swimming Daisy! You can tell by the look on her face that she really didn't like it.
We tried her with swimming at her last appointment and she just doesn't have the right build to be a good swimmer! She has a dense, heavy body, and spindly legs and without our help holding her up in her little life jacket, she was threatening to sink.
Doing the post swimming therapeutic exercises. They created an obstacle course with big cushions and an ottoman to make her leg work harder and to practice balance and weight shifting just with her back legs.
The girls have been going out with Arin our dog walker, and have been playing tricks on her! It's so hot now that they play the "grass hopping" game to try and keep off the pavement and save their little paws from burning. I suggested that they just hang out at home and not go out in the summer, but Arin said that they wait by the front door and get so excited about going out that she will continue to take them until they tell her they don't want to go! But in addition to grass hopping, they have been finding wet lawns along the way to lay down on and have both objected to getting up. I don't know who is laughing more - Daisy, Charlotte or Arin! I get the funniest written messages about their escapades when I get home. They make me laugh out loud!
