A torn cruciate ligament repair is a long road - often three to four months of crate rest, careful leash walks and steadily building exercise. PetHealthLog lets you follow that week by week: log the rest, the walk minutes, the pain meds and the surgeon's recheck dates, so you stay on the plan and arrive at each visit with a clear record. Free, no account, works offline.
Start tracking - it's freeThe surgery is one day; the recovery is twelve to sixteen weeks, and sometimes longer. After a TPLO or other cruciate ligament (CCL/ACL) repair, the first stretch is strict rest and very short toilet trips on the leash, and then exercise is built back up in small, controlled steps that the surgeon decides. It is in that long middle, week after week, that it gets hard to remember exactly where you are.
That memory matters, because advancing too fast can put the repair at risk and going too slow can leave the leg weak. The surgeon's plan usually comes as walk-minute targets that step up over time, plus medication, cone time and recheck dates - and all of that is far easier to hold in a log than in your head.
PetHealthLog is free, asks for no account and works offline, so each day's rest, walk and dose lands in one place. By the recheck, you have the real picture of how the week went instead of a guess.
A recovery log only helps if it is quick to keep and matches the plan your surgeon gave you. Here is how PetHealthLog handles a cruciate repair.
The repair runs in stages - strict rest first, then slowly more movement. A dated log lets you see which week you are in and what changed, so the long timeline stays clear instead of blurring together.
Surgeons usually set a leash-walk target that steps up over the weeks. Log the minutes each day so you stay exactly on the plan - neither rushing the leg nor falling behind - and the surgeon can see it at the recheck.
Add the post-op pain relief and any other medication, and tick each dose as you give it. A clear record means a missed or doubled dose is obvious, and the medication picture is right there for the next call.
Log cone or recovery-suit time and jot a quick note about how the incision looks each day. If something seems off, you have the dated detail to describe accurately rather than a vague memory.
Export a clean PDF of the rest, the walk minutes, the doses and your notes. At each recheck or X-ray, the conversation about advancing the plan starts from a real record of how the weeks actually went.
The surgery and the rehab plan are your surgeon's department - but day to day, the crate-rest weeks usually mean keeping the dog confined, stopping them slipping on the floor, and protecting the incision. The everyday things owners reach for are a recovery suit or a soft cone instead of the hard plastic one, a support sling or harness to help a big dog up and down, non-slip runner rugs for slick floors, and a ramp so there is no jumping into the car.
These search links show popular options on Amazon. They are just the everyday extras that make confinement and incision care easier - the surgery, the medication and the rehab plan come from your vet.
Recovery suits & soft cones → Rear-leg support slings → Non-slip runner rugs → Folding dog ramps →#ad - affiliate links: as an Amazon Associate, PetHealthLog may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Informational only, not veterinary advice.
The morning pain-med dose and the timed leash walk both happen in the thick of a busy day, often before coffee or last thing at night. The last thing that should stand between you and logging either one is a login screen or a dead signal by the crate.
PetHealthLog stores everything locally on your device. There is no account to create, nothing is uploaded to a server, and there is no tracking. It opens instantly, lets you mark a dose or log today's walk whether or not you are online, and keeps the data yours. You can export a backup any time and restore it on another phone.
Free, offline, and ready the moment you open it.
Start with PetHealthLogBefore surgery, a torn cruciate often starts as a sudden back-leg limp. Log which leg and how long it has lasted to bring to your vet.
A general recovery log for any operation - meds, the wound and the rest period after surgery.
Follow the recovery after a kneecap operation, another common orthopaedic repair with a careful rest-and-rehab window.
Track mobility, pain relief and good and bad days for a dog with hip joint problems.
Keep up with joint supplements that often continue long after the surgical repair has healed.