My Poor Dog

Our older dog, Merlin, a labrador cross is at the vet's for surgery today. We won't get to see him again until tomorrow.

He's getting a doggie equivalent of knee reconstruction surgery. He had an op like this on his left hind leg a couple of years ago. This time it's the right hind leg. We know that in the longer term, this surgery works quite well. He feels cold weather a bit in the left leg, but he was almost at the point of never using it.

In the short term though, this is quite traumatic for all of us. Limited walks to very short and only on soft surfaces (no walking down the street for several weeks). Dog gets carried up and down stairs, which is quite a job with 27 kilos of dog. He'll ache and whinge more than usual.

We also have two dogs, and the second is healthy and is going to need lot's of exercise. Always fun trying to balance the needs of the healthy vs that of the injured.