Hello everyone!

My name is Audrey and my little girl Ruby is about to be a Tripawd. I'm at college right now, so my mom calling me to tell me that was the vet's recommendation shook me to my core and devastated me.

You see, we got Ruby not just because I wanted a puppy, but also so that we could train her to be a Diabetic Alert Dog for me, since I've had type 1 diabetes since I was three. We found Ruby on a website and she was less money than her brothers and sisters because she didn't have the wavy labradoodle coat that most wanted. We didn't care, because the moment I saw her I was in love! However, we noticed when we brought Ruby home that her back left leg was bowed out quite a bit. She was 9 weeks old then, and now at 14 weeks her leg is very visibly disfigured and she holds it up when she stands still. She can still run and jump, but we noticed that it must be bothering her quite a bit.

We took her to the vet to get xrays and found that one of her growth plates was broken and the other wasn't, which made it so only half of her leg was growing. The bone that was growing was twisting in very unnatural ways and for it to even be possible to fix it, it would take 5+ surgeries and $15,000. Plus, the vet said that she would be in a lot of pain constantly and he had no idea if the surgery would even work. So, we decided against it. My mom then called me to tell me the last option was amputation. The vet said she would be able to still be an alert dog for me and her quality of life would be monumentally better with this option rather than the risky surgeries and much better than leaving it go.

While I understand that, it still upset me a lot to learn of this. I know her life will be better and she will be okay, it was just shocking to me and I feel bad for my little girl.