In case you were wondering, the surgery I am referring to (in my last post) is the plate-removal surgery Owen had about three weeks ago. Normally, after a TPLO surgery the plate would stay in unless there was some sort of complication, such as an infection. We had planned to have the plate removed because he retrieves in ice cold water during the winter duck hunting...blahblah... I know I said it all before...
I am glad we did because he never seemed quite right after the first surgery and still limped a bit now and then -- most days actually -- even though he was still eager and able to give it the pepper chasing tennis balls.
After the second, less complicated, less invasive surgery, Owen was immediately and obviously improved. He was walking tentatively on the leg that same day and running within a two or three days.
We don't know why the plate was causing problems (there was some obvious inflammation in the connective tissue on the x-ray), but for whatever reason, removing the plate seems to have recovered him completely. Unfortunately, as relatively easy as the surgery was, he was still defrocked of his fine feathering.