Dudley is doing GREAT! We made the journey to Columbia, MO today for Dudley's one month post op follow up visit at the MU Vet School. It was a long day. Our appointment was scheduled for 1:30 but they were way behind so we had a long wait for our appointment. Then we waited 2 hours for radiographs. We didn't get out of the clinic until after 5 pm and didn't get home until around 9 pm. His elbow has aligned very nicely and the bone is healing wonderfully. You can still see the line where the cut was made in the ulna, but the edges are fuzzy indicating that it is healing. Dudley did have some fluid on his elbow and apparently the pin that they'd placed in his ulna had started to work it's way out and was irritating the muscle and tissue and causing that fluid build up. They removed the pin and when they did that some of the fluid drained out so the pocket of fluid is smaller. It will eventually go away now that the source of irritation has been removed. But, it's like night and day now that the pin is gone. Apparently that pin was quite an irritation. Now that it is gone Dudley has almost no limp whatsoever! He still obviously favors that leg, but he's already walking better. Now starts the rehab process. We have 9 weeks of rehab. For weeks 1-3 we are to work on endurance on short leash walks. We're still to keep him restrained. It's really important now that we keep him restrained since that pin is out. We will have to be very diligent on the "no running, no jumping". He's just so quick now! Even at MU he jumped up on the bench before we even knew he was going to try! They had taken his leash off during the exam and then they took him off the table and set him on the floor and left the room. I sat down on the floor to be with him and before I knew it he'd jumped on the bench! This is going to be difficult but I know we can do it. He does have a stitch in his elbow where they took the pin out but after that comes out he can swim so we'll probably pursue that as an activity since it'd be great non-impact activity that he loves. I might freeze, the I'm sure he'll love it! Weeks 4-6 will be long leash walks. We'll be able to give him more leash and allow him the freedom to roam a bit more. It will build up his muscles so that his leg will take lateral stresses. Weeks 7-9 starts the off leash activity. The doctor said that Dudley should be able to return to his previous activities after successful completion of rehab. And he sees no reason why Dudley couldn't do agility in the future if this rehab is managed well. So we're going to do the best job of rehab that we can. One benefit of this rehab is that I'm going to end up really strong because as soon as I think Dudley is starting to lag behind or get tired on a walk, I scoop him up and carry his 30 pounds home. As the walks get longer, the distance I might have to carry him gets longer. I might get some major muscles out of this!