4 Weeks Post-Op

On December 31st, we celebrated that Diego is 4 weeks post surgery! His original surgery date was November 19th, but on the 17th he developed a nail bed infection on his right foot. Infection is one of the biggest complications of any arthrodesis procedure so we certainly didn't want to start off that way! He had two weeks of antibiotics and we took another set of xrays to make sure nothing else was going on. Luckily, he responded to antibiotics and there was no change on his xrays.

Thursday night

So, on December 3rd he had his right carpus arthrodesed by Dr Andrew Jackson at Blue Pearl. The surgery report said that surgery was a success. He spent the night there for 24 hour monitoring and some extra good pain medications. I picked him up the next evening and the poor guy was pretty sore and out of sorts. Once we got home and settled though, he slept really well.


The first few days were quite a challenge. He had surgery on Wednesday, I picked him up Thursday night after work. Friday morning he woke up with a very swollen upper arm. I don't have a whole lot of experience with bandages yet, so I brought him to work with me. Dr Amy Whaley examined his leg and started us on this bandage adventure successfully!

Friday morning at work

Swollen and bruised

1) His leg was swollen because of the pressure of the bandage. It happens with bandages. We removed his bandage, iced, and air splinted his leg to help reduce the swelling. Due to the amount of bruising and swelling, he also received a laser treatment.

2) We discovered that the splint under his bandage wasn't as smooth as it could be. This was likely causing some discomfort so a new one was made out of a different material that is smooth to start with.

I spent the next few days removing his bandage and repeating the air splint, ice, laser routine. Then rebandage. Diego became a model patient, even with frequent bandage changes. He learned to lie on his side on the table and let us work on his leg without an issue. The most common sight during a bandage change is Diego lying on the table with his eyes closed and his tail gently wagging.

When I first got Diego, he didn't trust me, or anyone really. While I would never wish this on a dog just to get where we are now, it has really helped me develop a working relationship with him. And it has built trust we needed to get a working relationship.

Air splint!

Diego will let me do just about anything to him. This is such a change from when I first got him, when he didn't even want me to pet him. Sometimes he still gets worried (like when we had to use the forced air dryer on his foot) and I need help, but overall, he has come so far in his handle-ability. I really never imagine he'd be this good. I never thought that a dog who disliked being handled so much would fall in love with his first technician at Blue Pearl. Or allow two people at my work to change his bandage without me. But he continues to surprise me.


Now that we are four weeks post surgery, his bandage is only being changed every 6-7 days and there hasn't been any swelling.

He is happy because he can use his peg leg well enough to hold bully sticks again!

This has been a huge learning experience for me, and I am so happy to report that he is healing right on schedule. Diego has helped me learn how to be a better Veterinary Technician. I am not a bandage master, but I can certainly bandage a leg with a splint now!