If I had a remote control that worked on Ellie I would have pushed the pause button this morning, then hit rewind and play. I would have set the whole scenario on a continually playing loop. It has been one hundred and ten days since her TPLO surgery and I can honestly say that this morning was the absolute best of her recovery. The energy level and all around attitude of Ellie was perfect this morning and not only did she trot smoothly but she also did her slow gallop without a hitch. There was no barfing, no burping, no butt faucet, and no sign of cooties. The dog accompanying me on my walk this morning was the dog from January and it was like popping in a favorite dvd to view.
As smoothly as Ellie is moving she still has just the slightest sign of a “lean” to her good side. It kind of makes her walk and trot like John Wayne. I guess a better description is that she ambles and I don’t know if The Duke actually ever trotted so I guess I cannot compare the two. She will probably always have a slight tilt towards port but it really does not seem to bother her. Once in awhile she starts off with a skip just to kind of get going but then she looks pretty close to normal. After all we have been through, if a little skip here and there is needed I can happily accept that as long as Ellie is not in pain.
I plan on speaking with Dr. Ahmsberry of West Hills today so that we can discuss whether or not Ellie will go on the Baytril to nuke any proteus bacteria left in her pee. I believe they want to do a culture to see if anything is still swimming around in there. Ellie has not exhibited any signs of having a relapse but I and the folks at West Hills certainly want to ward off any possibility of it reoccuring. Making sure that Ellie is drinking plenty of water has been of the utmost importance so that she keeps things flushed.
The initial time frame for keeping this Blog was through four months of TPLO recovery. I get a tremendous amount of feedback and emails from people which has made this whole process very satisfying as well as cathartic for me. I am going to continue updating Ellie’s Blog through 17 weeks. Ellie has gotten used to her new status of a ‘Web Diva’ and I would hate to prematurely do something that might fracture her fragile ego.
