Thanks to everyone for all their support with comments, emails and phone calls. After a really rough (for us and him) first week, he is doing much better this week. Starting today he is no longer on pain medication and gets his stitches out on Monday. He had a setback the first week when he did one of those twisty dog shakes, reflexively. It hurt him very bad and he didn't want to move again for a full day. Then he slipped and fell down on some linoleum which caused hemorrhaging under the skin, leaving his stomach black and blue. Every day he starts acting more like himself. He goes out unsupervised now, and even chased a dog out of his yard. He was 85 pounds at his most recent weigh in, down from his normal 100+. For now we are sticking to very short walks around the neighborhood not more than two blocks distance before making a loop back. After that distance i start noticing his leg shaking from the stress, and it would suck for me if he couldn't make it back. He's wanting to go longer though, so now we will probably do two walks a day because at this point it's all about strength building.
