Update

I picked Buster up from the vet yesterday after work. I wasn't prepared for what the metal sutures would look like. I assumed it would be similar to regular stitches (start at one end of the incision and then kinda sewn through to the other end)...but each of the metal stitches is tied off so there are metal ends sticking out from EACH stitch and the incision is pretty long so that's a lot of ends sticking out. Once I touched the metal ends, I felt a little better about it. They looked like they would be really stiff but they're softer than they appear. Still not what I expected though. And there's a small open area to encourage draining. I don't deal well with looking at regular stitches so this is taking some getting used to. They would prefer I don't put a shirt on him to allow the area to breathe, plus the shirt might get stuck to the metal pieces. The vet also put him on a additional antibiotic. He's now off the muscle relaxer (last dose was the morning of 7/30) and he seems to be doing well without that.

I'm very impressed with how he's doing walking! I think he made a lot of progress over the past week...it just wasn't apparent because he was so bandaged up that he didn't feel like walking. He is walking SO much better now! His appetite was the best last night that it's been since his surgery. And he was quite a fighter last night when it was medicine time - he seems to really be getting his energy back! He also got up on the couch this morning. That's the first time he's done that in a week and a half (and that time he was heavily medicated from the pain patch). He seems to have learned to use the little step I set up to help him up and down from the couch. I'm hoping he does well today while I'm at work. I'm worried about him messing with the area or the stitches. He seems to be doing ok for now though. I hate to put that e-collar on him if I don't need to.