Hi everyone, Well we have 5 days to go before Dolly has her hip replacement op. Today she has started a course of antibiotics and we have to give her a bath every day in a special solution to help ward off infection during and after the op. It will be interesting to say the least to see how she takes to the baths, the lather has to be left on for 10 minutes before rinsing - don't think she'll take kindly to that but we have to be cruel to be kind.

She'll be admitted 9am Wednesday and hopefully be able to come home on Thursday if all goes well, her walks and exercise in general will be very restricted for the first week then we hope she'll be able to gradually increase activity over the following weeks.

I'll keep you updated, thanks for listening.

A Very Anxious Dolly's Mum

Best of luck to you both

Oh I hope everything works out ok for you both.

Good Luck Dolly!

Chance has just gone through fairly major surgery to mend her broken leg. It is truely horrible to see her suffering and not be able to help or explain it will get better. I say this not to make you worry, as I'm sure your dog will do great. A planned Op is always going to go smoother than an emergency fix of a smashed up thigh bone.

It's just that I wish I'd known what to expect in the days and weeks that followed the surgery. Best of luck for the Op and good luck in the time that follows. Keep us posted on progress.

good luck and I'm sure the OP will go well

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Good luck to dolly, i know someone whos dog had this op and it was amazing how quickly he recovered, but still had to take it easy for a while so the hardest thing was keeping calm and restricting walks when he was raring to go.

Thanks everyone for your good wishes - must admit that as the day of the operation draws near I'm very apprehensive and prepared for some worrying times and possibly sleepless nights. However the vet assures me that there's every chance Dolly will make a full recovery and go on to lead a full, active life (she's only 8 months old), and that if she were his dog he would be taking this route.

Thanks for the support - I'll keep you updated and look forward to sharing this with you all.

Chance - thanks for the warning of what's possibly to come. Hope you don't mind but I'm going to try to send you a private message if you don't mind?

Thanks again,

Dolly's Mum

Got your email and you should have a reply!

My main concern post surgery, is that the vet really did not prepare me (or maybe I didn't think about it?) for just how sad and sore Chance would be. I kinda thought she would come home and just be a bit quiet. I never thought I would end up sleeping on the floor next to her bed, just to comfort her to help her get some sleep and I never expected to hear her squeal out in agony like she did so many times.

hopefully you will have none of this and if the vet suggests they would do the same, then you are making the right decision to go ahead and operate.

Try not to worry too much (easily said eh!) and best of luck for the big day.

i can fully sympathise with this.

When Oscar had his leg amuptated i slept on my living room floor for ten days. He had to have injectable morphine every 6-8hours, for the first 48 hours, then when onto apomorphine for the next 48 hours.

No vet can ever prepare you for the aftercare. But be prepared to be emotional, to not sleep much, and to question what you have done. They also will never go ahead with any procedure unless they think its in the animals best interest.

There were quite a few times where i did think "omg, what have i done to my dog" but this will soon pass. Your dogs recovery will obviously be a lot longer than with mine, but after a few days, i imagine she will adapt.

I bought Oscar home on the thursday night, friday and saturday he wouldnt even make an attempt to stand, on sunday he went for his first walk.

For the first few days, makes sure your best friends are readily available on the phone for support, as you will need it