I read up on the surgery and the rehab period, which can last up to 6 months. We did have one thing on our side...Basil was only 10 months old at the time and they had never performed the surgery on that young of a dog. They suspect his bones will grow faster because of that. Also, he is a very active dog so his muscles were in excellent shape. Of course, that was also a downside because he can only go for "potty" walks for about the first 4 weeks of recovery.
We are in our third week of recovery now and things are going well. I have been on a rollercoaster ride of emotions and surviving on not much sleep. Keeping an 11 month old puppy calm and quite is a near impossible task. There have been many times where I just give up and cry. But, things have been steadily improving and Basil has been adapting to the new routine.
Unfortunately, Basil is spending more time in his ex-pen than I would like because I attend school. He was originally supposed to go into doggy day care on those days but that's out of the questions during recovery. So, now Basil has a dog sitter stop by on those days to give him special attention, then I stop at home for a little while before heading to school - those have been some truly late nights as he isn't nearly ready to go to bed when I get home.
I have found that anything he can chew on helps tremendously - filled chew hooves, bully sticks, pressed rawhide, frozen peanut butter in a kong...the list goes on. Also, I try to play with him when he's laying on his side to reduce the risk of injury. He has given me my fair share of scares though. At 3 days post TPLO he jumped up on the bed. He also gets really wiggly when he meets dogs or people so that always concerns me. He has figured out how to climb on the chair and climb off without jumping - good! He's getting to be a pro at the steps so now I use the sling just in case he slips or falls.
He got a B+ at his first recheck, an A+ at his second (he'd been kenneled for 5 days), and his 4 week check up is on July 20th. Hopefully we'll be able to do 5-10 minute walks a couple times per day. He is on Rimadyl but will hopefully be coming off soon. He received Tramadol for pain for 10 days which helped tremendously. We ice the leg 3-4 times per day and do PT exercises 3 times per day. He has managed to maintain muscle mass (I think the stairs help) which is exciting. The vet seems quite pleased - hopefully she'll still be pleased on the 20th.
Stay tuned for more developments and check out Basil's pictures at www.geocities.com/eversograceful1/Basil_Pictures.html