Look Who's Walking Now!

ALL CLEAR! (to gradually resume all normal activities)! Yea! Moose got his last (baring any unusual problems) checkup and x-rays from the Ortho doc and he said he looks great and the surgery site is fully healed! I guess I was sort of expecting that but as I was talking to him it sunk in and when he said 'walks' I had to keep myself from crying I was so happy. I think it is still sinking in that I can now take my dog for a walk! Granted it won't be a long one yet but he can start to be a normal guy again!

So we rushed home and went for our VERY FIRST WALK! This is not only the first walk in >3months, it is his first walk in his new neighborhood! Other than the last trip to the vet he has literally never stepped off our property since we moved here. He stopped and looked at me a few times like he was wondering "really? we are going this way?" at least that is what it looked like. He was also entirely engrossed in the new sights, smells and sounds. The sounds included lots of dogs going totally nuts when he walked by... lots of woofing and flinging themselves at windows. I am pretty sure they were just welcoming him to the neighborhood ;-). I have to include a pic of him peeing (he is mortified) because since he has been confined to the back yard he has not been marking things and lifting his leg so that is back to normal. Plus he is standing on his TPLO leg which he has been doing from the start but since he was not lifting his leg to pee I wondered if it was partly out of fatigue or discomfort. Apparently not! Just no need to mark his own yard.

As for the details for fellow ortho-dogs... We are 90 days post op and he has been using his leg fine for at least a month although he still does not put full weight on it when he is standing still. Doc says that will continue to improve. For the past few weeks I have let him out in the back yard unleashed when I am out there and that has been fine except he overdid it on Saturday and was limping but that was all better by Monday (phew!).
I am posting his x-rays for comparison to last time. I can definitely see a difference although there are still two gaps that I expect will continue to fill in. After his last round of x-rays I started giving him silica supplements and really wonder if that did not speed things along. I doubt it hurt and it was not that expensive so worth a try if you are trying to heal bone. He took 500mg 2x a day in addition to his Gluc/Chon Vitamin C & E + Fish oil. The doc did not give us specifics on what he is allowed but I am aiming for 10 min walks 3x a day for the next week to see how it goes. We walked for about 5 min outside the vet then when we got home we probably took a 10 min walk and he seemed a little sore but the man-handling at the vet might have added to that. It is also hard to call something a 10min walk when he stops and snifs so much so for comparison purposes I think his 10 min is more like 6 or 7 min of actual walking.