I'm glad to hear he's doing well despite the bumps.....Nikka had a complete hip replacement (she was 1 1/2 when we adopted her and had such severe hip dysplasia her hip was completely out of the socket with no hope of getting it back in permanently). We had the worst time trying to keep her quiet (even with Ace) and off that leg for the 2 weeks recovery time. The funny part is we fought her for 2 weeks, tried every trick in the book to keep her quiet and off that leg, then finally the day came when the vets said start letting her use that let again...we were thrilled.. so we let her out in the yard to use the facilities without a leash and she refused to put her foot down. It took us another week of battling to get her to use that leg.....