Sounds about right to me.The drainage is pretty impressive isnt it.The fact you mention you are seeing some signs of small buds coming out.That to me shows signs of recovery.I would leave it alone and let it start growing but keep it out of the wind or you could get lots of leaf drop.I have a tree that was unhappy and dropped all its leaves,the lot.I repotted into a more perlite mix.Its remained green and lots of little new buds are coming out from the main stem.Now its fingers crossed and hope the roots can do their stuff again and then work with the top.I have made the mistake before,that when i see signs of recovery,i get all excited and perhaps water it and feed it and then it snuffs it!!! keep the mix moist on your meter and let it get down low before you water again,with enough to see it come out the bottom of the pot.Its then hard to over water this mix.As it drys,so the roots thrive.
Its winter here and i have 7 trees in terracotta pots out in the elements.No word of a lie,it has rained everyday for the past 10 days,my plants have been drenched and they still do not read saturated on my meter.
They look fine too. Cheers

Well I still should get some pics up but I have quite a bit of new growth that looks healthy. The older leaves have pretty much all dropped off and some of the branches are looking dead but like I said their is also a lot of new growth. This is on my meyer and oro blanco. My bears lime is still in a nothing state (no major leaf drop or twig die back but not really growing much). I will try and get some pics up. We are back to cool bay area eves with mild day temps and lots of smoke from the fires.

Could just be the old leaves are dropping of old age anyway.They quite often drop leaves as a lot of new leaves start to grow,The tree in a nothing state is ok too.It means there is nothing wrong and probably putting out roots as we speak.I have had twig die back as the tree is recovering too.I would cut off down to a healthier part,right next to an upward facing bud.Otherwise leave the tree like you are and watch all that new growth.I have a tree doing exactly what yours is doing.Dropped quite a few old leaves but tonnes of new stuff,all over the tree and its winter here.Doesnt get too cold though.Never below 4c at night.Good luck with your trees.
P.s check out my post=" growing in pure perlite",read the pots and container sections too.Awesome reading.

Thanks for the fead back and high hopes laidback. I will keep you posted.

Hi Big mario.One final thing.I found cactus mix was too fine and stayed wet.It also compacted.That is what you have to guard against.
I have just bought two new dwarf citrus.One is a "lemonade" variety and the other is an "ugli fruit".I left them for a few weeks and transplanted yesterday.They were both in 8 inch plastic planters.The lemonade is about a metre tall and the ugly fruit shorter but bushier.What suprised me,was the lemonade for all that height had a root ball you could fit in a baked bean can!!! The rootball on the ugli fruit was larger.
Anyway,one i removed the old soil,which was very barky(medium chunky),hardly any fine stuff.I then mixed this mix,50/50 with perlite and repotted in the same pot. I did the same with the other tree and mixed 70% perlite with 30% of the mix it came with.
What i have noticed,is the trees always looked healthy when i bought them and then they gradually went off.I think i have worked it out.The general potting mix or container mixes i have used have been too fine and contained too much peat. I now use a pot and tub mix,which consists of bigger particles which will leave more air spaces.It will be interesting to see how this goes.The mix the tree was in originally,stayed evenly moist too.Definately to do with particle size.It was very compacted too and very tight to the roots but the roots looked healthy.
I used some mesh to stop the mix coming out the bottom with no drainage layer.Mixed up and then the last two inches on the top,i put the pot and tub mix(no perlite) with a small amount of slow release.This covers the 70/30 perlite/tub mix so the wind wont blow it away.
Interestingly,i noticed there was no slow release fert mixed in with the existing soil.So,i didnt mix in with mine either.When i see new growth and it needs water,i will feed at half strength with soluble fert high in nitrogen.The dwarf trees dont need big pots.
How is your tree looking now?Cheers