Bummer! Elvis is almost 2 years out from his TPLO and I must say we're so glad we did it. It was a long recovery, but totally worth it for us. Sadly, there are a lot of newfs on here who have had it done but there are also a lot of tips and tricks for recovery as well.
Is there a vet school near you? We took Elvis down to Ohio State and even with a three day stay afterwards (my husband had to go out of town and I wasn't comfortable driving Elvis 3 hours in the car alone post-op) we only paid $3,000 total for everything.
We have a combo of tile/wood/carpet floors so we got Elvis used to wearing traction booties before his surgery. He still rocks them to this day and has never had any trouble with them. They're a lifesaver on our slippery floors and at the vet office.
We also built his ramp and had him get used to it before surgery. We have three steps off our porch that he needed to get down, so we built our own ramp out of plywood and covered it with outdoor carpet. He didn't have any trouble with that either and we kept it up for about 5 months after surgery.
Now, we didn't have any trouble keeping Elvis confined or calm because he adores his crate and is extremely low key, but if Dudley isn't used to being crated or confined in a small area you may want to start practicing that too.
I also stocked up a new toys for him. He fell in love with what I nicknamed the "Recovery Ostrich" so I bought a few more of the same toy for him to hang out with. He also had some puzzle toys if he got antsy, but he never really did.
One last thing - Elvis was a huge fatty when he had his surgery. He immediately went on the green bean diet and two years later he's down from 185 pounds to 132 pounds. Weight loss (when done properly) takes awhile but low and slow is what you want. We were told not to decrease Elvis' food by more than 25% or his body would go into protection mode and he wouldn't drop weight.
