Today has been a lazy day.. the whole weekend has been lazy actually. I haven’t felt that great this weekend so it has put me into more of a snuggling on the couch kinda mood, which the old fart does not mind!!
I have stopped taking Franklin every day for long walks as I have found that he has been showing signs of weakness? soreness? tiredness? in his front leg in the evening after our walks. So we have been limiting our walks to just 15 minutes every other day and spending more time in the backyard walking around, lying on the deck checking for squirrels and hopping up and down the deck stairs.
I guess I am just afraid that his front leg is going to give out. He does have a bit of a weaker back leg as well , on the right side, from blowing his knee muscles about 4 years ago. We have come so far and he is doing so great I am selfish in the fact that I don’t want anything to happen to him I guess. lol Yet, I don’t want him lying around all the time because then he is not exercising the legs. geesh.. what a tangled web!
I know that the walks are strengthening his leg yet I don’t want to push him too hard either. After all.. it has only been 7 weeks since his operation. But my sweetie did take him for his walk today.. and so far he has been ok…
Just one day at a time is the way I am looking at it, and taking it with a smile. After all, if we did not go through the with amputation, there is a good chance that maybe he would not be here with us at this time. Or if he was, he probably would have been in too much pain to be happy to be with us.
I don’t regret the decision to amputate one bit.. The only thing that I do regret is that I should have done it in September when we first found out about the cancer and not waited till 2 months later.
I took Franklin to the vet Friday. I wasn’t feeling great so I took a vacation day from work and ended up driving down to the vets during the day. I wanted him to check his incision because I had felt a few hard spots under his incision and just wanted to make sure that everything was ok.
Happy go lucky Frank’n’farter was happy to see everyone.. and when the vet came into the examining room, he left the door behind him open. Well.. Franklin went out the door and down the hall with the vet running after him. I just laughed when he brought him back.. I said to the vet.. “he can run faster now than before!”
Needless to say.. everything is fine. Vet was very happen with the healing, etc and those hard spots were just some scar tissue underneath where the incisions were done for the amputation. He explained that the swelling was finally all gone and that now you can feel where the skin was stitched inside, etc. We weighed him and he only weighs 43 pounds. When he went in for his surgery he weighed 50 pounds. Obviously Franklin has lost a little weight on top of the weight of a leg. Which is good, because that is less weight that his front leg has to support.
What can I say.. I’ve never been through this before.. so I didn’t know. I was afraid it might have been some lumps underneath that may have been bad. lol The vet told me no worries.. and to call or come in any time I have a concern with Franklin.
So… I guess all my concerns way back when have been confirmed…
yes… 13 year old dogs can have their legs amputated
yes… they do manage fine on 3 legs without that pain in the 4th leg
yes… they do figure out how to eat a pig ear with only one paw on the front
yes… they do become so much cuter!
yes… they do turn into snuggle whores on the couch with you when you watch the news
yes… he is a happy dawg…. again.
bark atcha later
You said it…. one day at a time. Sounds like Franklin is happy and as long as he is getting out and exercising a litle bit I reckon that’s pretty good for an old dawg especially if he gets plenty of time to survey his territory and cuddle his human.