Day 10 Post-Op - Progress & Privilege

Koda's little stunt on Tuesday (Day 8) appears to not have done any damage to his leg bone. He is moving along just fine.


He walks with a big limp, only because he is taking full-sized strides with that Bionic Leg now and placing a good amount of weight on it. But as you can see in the video, when he wants to hustle, it's back to the Three-Legged Hop-a-Long.

I decided to trust Koda with a bit more square footage. I've been feeling sorry for him and I had the feeling he just felt disconnected because he couldn't see me or what was going on around him. So I configured the baby gates to add the dining area adjacent to Camp Koda. Now getting out to the backyard for potty would be easier, he could see out back, see past the kitchen to the front door windows, as well as watch me in the kitchen. He seemed content to just sit and look around.

Of course, I watched him for a bit to make sure he didn't try any funny business. He didn't. I'm so impressed with how well he's accepted this new freedom.

Eventually, I found him just laying on the area rugs - watching, and sometimes just there with his eyes closed. Later, I checked on him and he had gone back to his bed, napping.

Speaking of napping - in the hope of good behavior, I stopped putting on the Cone of Shame at night since Monday. He didn't seem to be licking his stitches, so I wanted to reward him for it.

Another reason I wanted to open up his space was to include his regular feeding set-up in the area. He's been getting more finicky about eating. Feeding time has not been in the usual place and I'm always holding the bowl under his mouth, instead of him standing at his feeder. It could be these little things that make him feel uneasy - because it's just not normal. Nothing about his life has been normal for almost 2 weeks.

Bingo! Once I let him feed himself from his bowl—in it's usual spot—he finished without me coaxing him. Yay!

His stitches are really healing quite remarkably. With the fur growing back in and covering the cut, it's even harder to see the incision. He still doesn't like to be touched there very much, even gently. But petting him anywhere else on that leg seems to be fine with him.

In the picture below, you can see a close-up of his stitches. The skin is really knitting together well - no puckering, redness or oozing at all. You can barely see the blue suture string used to close up the incision. He gets the stitches out in 5 days.