Sunday, June 30, 2013

Seppel's FHO rehab

I got a really nice e-mail from someone who was concerned that I might be doing too much with Seppel too soon, and I realized that I should probably explain what we are doing right now 11 days out.


Here is a break down of the exercises we do daily:

AM:
- 15min slow walk.
- ROM exercise
- 15mins Ice

Lunch:
- 15 min slow walk
- Sits to Stands - 10 reps
- ROM Exercise
- 15mins ice or heat.

PM:
- 15 min slow walk
- Mattress walk - 10 reps.
- ROM Exercise
- 15mins Ice


Then we have some exercise that is variable depending on the day. If there are stairs available, I will slowly walk him up and then back down the stairs.

We are loosely following the Top Dog Health FHO Guide

I was strongly advised by two veterinarians - one I trust, and one who is Seppel's surgeon to get him moving as much as possible, and using the leg as much as possible. I have read several reports of the TDH FHO guide being very successful for people, but I also cannot ignore what my veterinarians are telling me.

I try to watch Seppel closely to determine how much exercise he can and cannot do. The pictures I posted a few posts down on Monday I was allowing Sepp to do more than he probably should have been doing. We are only 11 days out and it's critical that he doesn't do a lot of running or jumping because he could actually injure his good leg. We really don't need him getting a blown knee that's for sure!

SO in short, I try to monitor my dog - if he's looking painful, or slowing down we may not do all of the exercises listed above. The above list is just a general guideline as to how our days are going thus far. I might also not do those exercises one after the other, we may go for a walk, I may ice him, and a few hours later we do the sits to stands - it really depends on how he is feeling. I pretty much do 15mins of ice after each physical activity. I've introduced a little bit of heat, but I feel like he benefits more from the ice in terms of the pain.

In other news I tried to reduce his tramadol. I gave it to him AM, Lunch, and PM[about 5-6pm] only yesterday, and in the middle of the night he was whining. Our instructions for now have been to give the tramadol 4x a day, but I thought the tramadol was making him a bit more reactive. I thought we would taper down to 3x a day, then maybe 2x a day, but clearly, he needs the medication. He hasn't cried since he was on the "big drugs". I gave him a tramadol and he was able to finally quit crying and go to sleep.

Poor guy.

I hope this better explains what we are doing as of right now. He's still not putting a ton of weight on the bad leg, but he is using it 90% of the time. When we do the ROM exercise he has decent range of motion so I'm pretty happy with where we are at so far.




4 comments:

  1. Bindi's first surgery was the same way - they wanted her to get moving ASAP but not jumping/running. There were times she pushed it too much, but she recovered very quickly. We did the ROM exercises and ice as well. Sorry he hasn't been able to come off the tramadol yet but hopefully soon! Glad he is recovering, I know how much you love your dog and know you would never do anything to hurt him!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did you have to do those exercises for the TTA??? [I've never heard of this, so I'm interested!!] Did Bindi lose muscle mass in that leg as well???

      Delete
  2. I'm so happy we are over that part. Hard work, but worth it :)
    Sepp will do great with the fantastic care you are giving him :)

    Tora and Orbit

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahaha I bet!

      Thank you for the kind words, I can only hope we are as successful as you were. Orbit looks amazing and he is our inspiration!

      Delete