So... bad news and good news.Bad news is - I've been waaaaay negligent in updating Koda's blog.
Tsk tsk! Sorry!
Good news is - Koda and I have been busy taking long WALKS, which is why the blog hasn't been updated!
It's been over a month since the last post and Koda's been working his little atrophied muscles with twice daily walks down our long street and back. He always starts off with gusto, but I always hold my breath on the return... dread weighing on my heart if he were to start sitting down frequently or holding up his re-hab'ing leg.
But my worst fears have slowly been replaced with sighs of relief, as with each completed walk, Koda has only needed to sit down once or twice. But from being out-of-breath and not because his leg hurts. He sits for just a few seconds—literally—then pops back up and continues his walk with pep and vigor. Besides being out-of-shape, the warmer temperatures slow him down a bit too. All that fur.
Here's the x-ray from Koda's last follow-up visit with the surgeon. Everything looks great! No inflammation of that CCL tendon. The "cut line" where the tibial head was removed and rotated has completely healed. And the holes that were drilled into his leg bone to secure the metal plate are filling in nicely with new bone tissue. So now the leg bone is less fragile. Hurray on all accounts!
With that, Dr. Munjar felt his legs and just remarked that his left quadricep muscle is "very puny" and needs a lot of exercise to build it back up. So he discharged Koda with an aggressive exercise regiment of twice-a-day walks, incorporating hills, trails and switchbacks. Even some off-leash play at an uncrowded dog park.So we've been out walking... and walking...
And even a little running! Yes! Koda is running again!
But he gets winded pretty quick, so he stops to just sit and enjoy being outdoors. After being cooped up in the house for months, this must be heaven to him. (Oh! And by the way, we got to remove the baby gates - giving Koda free reign to go up and down the stairs all he likes.)
When we're not taking walks, Koda hangs out in the backyard. What do you do if you're a husky in summer? You dig yourself a ditch in the dirt and curl up in it to lounge away the day.Well, we're going to get back to walking and hopefully we'll have more happy news to report in a couple weeks! Thanks for reading and for all the support!
