Rob's German Shepherd Nellie's Recover Report
October 20th, 2009

On September 25, 2009, our dog, Nellie (A white German Shepherd) had surgery on her left leg to repair torn ligaments. The procedure was called a TPLO surgery and requires a total of about $5000 and 4 months of recovery time. If all goes well, Nellie’s life of being an active playful member of the house will be resumed fully at that time. Thanks for all of your notes and emails and posts on Face book, etc. wishing Nellie and my wife and I well (and Shep too). We all appreciate it. Here’s the latest on Nellie’s recovery:

For the first two weeks of recovery Nellie couldn’t put any weight on her legs so she was completely confined in a tiny area in our family room. We basically boxed her in; once per day we had to carry her to her bathroom area and that’s quite a chore with a 100 pound Shepherd. The first two weeks were rough on everyone.

As time wears on, Nellie gets more restless and wants to move around and be with the family so we tried giving her a new friend…she didn’t seem very interested.

Then we tried getting her into the holiday spirit…and once again she didn’t seem very interested.

This is what cheered Nellie up the most. After two weeks of total confinement, she was able to move into phase two of her recovery. She still has to remain “quiet” but now she can limp around twice per day on her own and she spends the rest of her time in her kennel in the family room or bedroom. She’s like a kid that way and always has been; she loves her kennel.

Nellie is currently sporting a Halloween cast.

To keep Nellie’s mind alert and occupied we give her a Kong ball once per day; it’s an indestructible rubber doggie toy which has a small amount of food inside, some of it in the form of paste so it drives dogs’ nuts trying to get the food out and tires out their tiny little brains.\

Every afternoon Nellie eats her dinner in her kennel.

Multiple times per day she gets water…in her kennel.

And this is Nellie’s excitement every day…she gets to walk down the hallway, through the garage and outside to her pee and poop area twice per day! With only three legs, it takes a lot out of her and she’s ready for a nap after this. Her life will be like this for the next 6 weeks or so.

Is that not the sweetest face ever?

Shoot us an e-mail for questions or comments.