Maisy had her first post-op (and, as it turns out, probably her last) appointment with a physical therapist this morning. She’s doing very, very well; the PT said where she is now in her recovery (almost 3 weeks) is typical of most dogs at about 5-6 weeks. The range of motion in her knee is completely normal, although she has some discomfort at full flexion and full extension caused by tightness in her quadriceps and hamstrings. She is walking pretty normally on the leg and bearing weight. She has only lost a very small amount of muscle mass on that leg (about 3 cm compared to the other side).

So, this all means that we can do all of her rehab at home. She won’t need any underwater treadmill/hydrotherapy work at all. She is still on-leash only, but her walks can be increased, she can do stairs as long as she doesn’t charge up them, we’ll be working on some stretches, and as the weeks go on we’ll be introducing her to some other exercises (cavaletti, fitness peanut). The main focuses will be stretching out those tight muscles and rebuilding her muscle mass while the bone continues to heal.

I’ve been so impressed with her ability to adapt to her new routine and restrictions and what has really been a smooth and easy recovery so far. Just more proof that she is a really amazing little dog.

But her caretaker, Solo, is still taking his job seriously.

I literally took this just now while writing this post.