Looking back at my calendar, surgery was Nov 18 and she was cleared for all activity by Feb 9. So like … 9 weeks? It started off a follow up visit every week, then every couple of weeks, then a final visit to sign off.
** She came home in a cast, which is one reason small dogs are more successful. I carried her out the sliding glass door and down the 4 deck stairs multiple times a day while she was in her cast. We put a plastic bag over the “foot” so she could go potty in the snow. Also, she held her poo for a really long time (like, until the cast came off) and I think I have a thread on here freaking out about that. But, all went well in the end.
I carried her in and out for a few weeks while we were making sure that “no jumping, no stairs” was adhered to!
Once she was cleared for “hand-walking” we did a little bit around the neighborhood based on her increasing strength. Also, when she was just cleared to begin outdoor walks, I set up a small obstacle course to walk through (step up on a mat 2 inches high, walk across and step back down. Step over the cute draft blocking tube that normally sits by the basement door. Little slow stuff to make sure she was pushing off that leg, not favoring it. My favorite part of the walks was that I could hear her pushing off her back legs evenly as we progressed - a nice square gait. At first she could only do a little, then she got stronger and stronger and we were cookin’ around a pretty big route through the neighborhood.
I did little dog version of carrot stretches (cheese!) by getting her balanced on all 4 legs and scratching in different places to move her little fat ribs so she stretched through the new repair. I even used a red light soft laser (so did the vet, but hers was WAAAY more powerful than my home version!) every evening.
I rehabbed her more like a version of horse recovery and human PT … the vet’s instructions were pretty much to increase walk length. But, having rehabbed so many (human) orthopedic injuries over the years, I did a little extra, just 'cause. Overall, it was a great result but soooo stressful during rehab (as it always is, when outcome is unknown.)