Nysse had his six-week post-surgery follow-up today. He got his gait and other movement assessed, and his legs and hips stretched and squeezed and prodded. Everything looked very good, he’s moving well, but he has lost some muscle mass on the right side.

There was no X-ray, which is what they had told me before was what we’d be there fore, but I guess that’s only good. The half-hour consultation already cost 2000 SEK so I don’t even want to think about what an X-ray would have cost.

The vet’s advice was to gradually increase Nysse’s activity levels, but to keep him on a leash still outdoors. The idea is to not let him out on his own until he is strong enough to e.g. defend himself or run up into a tree in case some other cat (or dog, or fox) attacks him.

Both of these seem like good advice at first glance, but are also entirely unrealistic. Take increasing activity levels, for example. According to the vet, a cautious rehab schedule would increase activity 10% a week, but since Nysse is looking strong, we can do 20%. How on Earth are we supposed to measure his activity levels, and estimate a percentage increase? Nysse is not a human whom you can ask to take 20% more steps per day, or 20% more reps of a rehab exercise. He is a cat; his activity is about running and pouncing and climbing. Hey cat, can you please pounce just about 20% harder this week? Can you please stay out for no more than two hours?

The same goes for getting him strong enough to climb trees. The only way to practice his tree-climbing muscles is to climb trees. It’s not something he can train indoors, or while on a leash. (Although he did try the latter a few days ago, when he suddenly started climbing a tree while we were out on a leashed walk. That was a bit scary. I wasn’t afraid of him falling, but of him pulling the leash from my hand and climbing up high and then getting the leash tangled up in the branches.)

I guess all we can do at this point is trust him to more or less know his own limits. So we’ll be letting him go out again during the day when someone is at home and awake to let him back in when he gets tired and comes back. Hopefully he won’t overdo it.