Huckleberry-Finn's Total Hip Replacement (THR) - Part 5 (4 week post op)

Where has the last month gone? I fell down a rabbit hole these last few days of looking at videos of Huckleberry in the days leading up to surgery and then post surgery. It's hard to now remember how petrified I was, and my worries in those weeks and days leading up to handing him over to the surgeon and putting my trust in that they would make it all okay. 

People told me it would get easier, and the initial few weeks would soon become a distant memory, but I was so blinkered by what was happening and how scared I was for Huckleberry, that I couldn't see too far into the future and all I could focus on what was happening and how I didn't want to have to go through any of it. 

So where are we after a month of a Total Hip Replacement? 

I've had to silence many of the Facebook groups in the last 2 weeks and pick the posts I read. I've become infuriated at the amount of "my dog has Hip Dysplasia, but I'm not going to operate, just medicate, even though he / she is only young" posts I've seen. I totally and 100% understand each decision is everyones personal choice, but it upsets me to remember how Huckleberry would walk pre-op and the pain he was so clearly in. Surgery was never not an option for us - it did take me a few weeks to come to terms with the decision, but purely because of the anaesthetic. But I knew, if he needed a hip replacement due to pain, there would never be a doubt in my mind; and so here we are. 

I get angry with myself for actually leaving it as long as I did, taking advice to go to physio, Hydrotherapy and try X, Y and Z first. However, I am grateful that the surgeon gave me those options to try but at a point where I showed him a video of Huckleberry walking after a run on the beach, he was able to say to me "Enough is enough, the time has come that he needs surgery". Up until then, it had been very much a "lets try this and see if it relieves the pain for him". 

I just feel infuriated that we are a dogs voice, and if a dog is clearly in pain and young, why would we not give it a good quality of life. It seems most peoples apprehensions have been regarding recovery time, ease and what its like. So, I suppose that's one thing I hope I'm doing with this blog, and that's educating and informing about the recovery. This was definitely the gap that I struggled to find when I was doing research. I wanted a complete account of recovery, not just "yeah it was easy" or "It was hard!". 

To anyone reading this, PLEASE don't base your decision on 12 weeks being tough. Base your decision on your dogs quality of life and a 12 week recovery time being a small snippet in both yours and your dogs life. It's hard, don't get me wrong. The first couple of weeks are rough, and I don't think I have cried and experienced anxiety ever like I did in those first few weeks, but honestly, the last 2 weeks have been nothing short of mundane and all about routine. 

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Last week I made the decision to go slightly against the grain and take Huckleberry out of his confinement pen, and allow him to move freely in our living room, and kitchen. I mean they're hardly big enough to swing a cat in anyway (no cats were harmed in the making of this blog!), but in doing this, we have made our lives so much easier. 

He sleeps for one! He climbs the small step up onto the mattress and then onto the sofa and he sleeps throughout the night, which means I'm getting sleep and finally able to sleep on the mattress myself - which in turn means I'm far less anxious, grumpy, tearful and more myself because I'm actually getting some level of sleep, and we all need sleep. 

His paw chewing habit has stopped completely thank goodness. Honestly it was driving me WILD! For some reason his boredom was coming out in paw chewing. Something he's done a little before with a grass seed irritation, but nothing like this. They were bleeding. After a quick clean up, and a careful trip to his groomer who I owe a huge thank you to; we cleaned them up, moved him out the pen and he hasn't chewed them once because he now has free access to his toys. 

His personality is back to normal. He no longer looks a depressed dog. He fetches his toys as he did before, he sleeps comfortably and he can follow me into the kitchen when I'm cooking or hanging washing up which he has always been used to, so he's happy. 

I have a huge thank you to make to a follower on Instagram (she'll know who she is), whose dog is going through similar and who reminded me of my words "every dog is different". Every dog is certainly different, and mine is used to be outdoors and active, not penned in a pen big enough to barely move. Every time I have questioned myself, she has reminded me of what I said in the beginning and that's that each dog doesn't come with a text book, and we know our own dogs. I know he needed to get out that pen, and he's a different dog in doing so. The next stage for me which I'm going to do from next week is start taking him to the stables with me and setting him up a bed whilst I groom the horses and just purely getting him out the house. 

I know I've been a huge advocate in putting him in the car to take him for his poo's and wee's and many people have messaged me saying this has worked for them too rather than trying to make dogs do it in their garden that don't usually. Again, anyone reading this - YOU know YOUR dog. So long as you lift carefully, the surgeon said he was happy for me to do this if it meant Huckleberry went to the toilet regularly. 

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We also had a 3 week check up with the surgeon last week; something I requested. Again, one the Facebook page I follow, I was told "its at week 6, not early", but I called my surgeon and asked if I could have one at 3 weeks and what were the reasons I couldn't do earlier than 6 weeks. They confirmed they had never heard this rule, and I could have an appointment when I wanted one. Hell, I could have one daily if I wanted... I joke, but we basically came to the conclusion that providing I was happy to pay for this, then why couldn't I have an appointment. It wouldn't be something I would put through my insurance as I didn't want to push my luck, but I was happy to pay. Huckleberry is a calm car traveller, and doesn't get stressed so this was a helpful factor in the surgeon being happy that we did the journey. I think stressful dogs would perhaps need to wait if they get agitated in the car - but again, YOU know YOUR dog. 

So, mum and I got up at the crack of down last week to drive 3.5 hours to the surgeon. My nerves and anxiety were high on the day. REALLY HIGH! I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask about the extra walking I'd been doing and when I could look at getting him booked back in for Water Treadmill. I think I mentioned it last time in my blog as well, that I had noticed him hopping on a walk occasionally and I was getting increasingly concerned that this meant the Hip Replacement hadn't sorted his knee out and we would need to start preparing for Luxating Patella surgery too. 

If you're confused at this point, don't forget that Huckleberry has two issues with his one leg - his knee luxates (pops out) and he had very slight Hip Dysplasia. His Hip Dysplasia wasn't horrific, but the fact he showed quite severe pain after long walks forced us to make the decision to do the Hip Replacement, and there was always the possibility of a follow up surgery on his knee. It was very much a chicken and egg situation in that the knee operation could sort the hip pain or visa versa, but in all the X number of years my surgeon had seen this, he had research and reason, AND experience to prove that doing the Hip could solve the problem and you get better results doing the hip first if you need to pick one to go first. 

So anyway, I went into a panic that we would have to go through a following surgery and another amount of recovery time, which thankfully is shorter for luxating patella surgery, but nonetheless, still a surgery and still a pain. 

I told the surgeon my worries regarding his knee and he had a good feel - all whilst we held our breaths - but was shocked when he said it was the most secure it had ever felt to him! He said whilst before he could make it luxate in and out very easily, he couldn't do that now and if he was going to do it, he feels like he would need to use force, which obviously he didn't want to do! Additionally, he had a good feel of his hip, moved his leg around, watched him walk and said he looked super! We had a laugh about how hard it was to keep him contained (all he wanted to do was jump up!), and he confirmed he was happy with how much I was walking him and to look to increase it by 5 minutes in 2 weeks, which would be the week before our 6 week check up.

So, all in all, a very positive appointment! 

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That's it for my update really. I do know that everyone will have differing opinions on whats right or wrong, but it really got to me in the beginning when I was told I was doing recovery wrong and Huckleberry would NEED all these different types of medications. I remember fetching him and not being prescribed them and panicking. All because I had taken a social media group as gospel. And I guess in sharing my story, I hope I'm sharing nothing more than we know our dogs, we are their advocates and no way or recovery is right or wrong. Things can go wrong and things can go right.... but no one ever shares when things do go right. 

As the surgeon said, things could still go wrong for us now, but we can't panic about that. At some point, you need to breathe in this, relax and know you're doing the best, so if anything were to go wrong.... it just was always going to. 

Here's to week 5! 

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Labels: Canine Hip Replacement , Cockapoo , Dog Hip Replacement , Dog Orthopaedic Vet , Hip Dysplasia , Hip Dysplasia Dog , Hip Replacement Dog , Huckleberry Finn , HuckleFinn , Orthopaedic Specialist , THR Dog