Raven's Recovery: Putting One Paw in Front of the Other

Weekly carpal progress

Weekly armpit progress, clockwise from top left

Lovely Miss Raven is doing fantastic. We are at the one month mark today and her leg is looking great. Her most recent follow-up was on Halloween. The vet was super happy with how everything looked and decided that from here on out, we're ok to go bandage free and let the fresh air finish up the healing process! Raven is doing such an awesome job not licking excessively (with the help of a little bitter spray). She's also walking a lot better without the bandage. I'm sure it felt funky and was probably restricting her range of motion a little. In the picture collage on the left, you can see how far Raven's carpal injury has come in the last four weeks. Top left: initial wound, top right: two weeks into recovery, bottom left: three weeks in, and bottom right: four weeks from initial vet visit. It's totally filled in/granulated, which means there's no longer bone or tendon exposed and no holes remaining. The gray perimeter you see in the bottom right photo is new skin forming. Her armpit wound has really come a long way as well. It was pretty deep and required a drain and stitches (which Raven promptly ripped out on day 1). Despite the awkward location and difficulty keeping the stitches in, it's done remarkably well. She'll probably have a long scar there where the dead tissue sloughed off, but no biggie. She'll still be beautiful, scars or no scars!

Dainty little temp bandage!

Now that all the extensive home care is finished (no more bandage changing, no more medications, no more weekly vet trips), Raven is good to move on to the next stage of her journey toward furever. We're taking her out to the Canine Pet Rescue farm this Friday and turning her over to Carla & Co. She'll stay at the CPR kennel (which is a gorgeous facility on a breathtaking spread of land out in Dacula, GA) until she gets adopted. They'll put her through their awesome training program and she'll learn how to be a real GSD. I'm super excited for her...I know she's going to thrive. I'm sure she won't have to wait very long for a home either; she's such a beautiful and sweet girl.

Enjoying the patio at Midway!

Last night, Raven and I met some friends for drinks. We sat on the restaurant's patio for a couple hours and Raven was super well behaved. There were loud crowds and other dogs on the patio, but she minded her manners perfectly and even let strangers pet her. This was Raven's first social outing. We've taken her for walks in the park several times, but nothing like this before. She handled the socialization so well. I was a proud foster mama! I have to say: I think all my foster dogs are beautiful, but it's extra fun when I have an ultra stunning dog to show off (ahem...Cowboy...). Miss Raven certainly is a showstopper! Nobody can resist her beautiful dark sable coloring and all that shadowing around her face and ears. And pink/fuschia is definitely her best color. I just can't wait to see how pretty she is when that leg is completely healed! She is getting closer to that point every single day. You know I'll share whatever pictures I receive! Stay tuned.