Hello from Scotland.

We wish to thank everyone on this forum for their inspirational stories and support.  The dogs are so brave and helped us make the right decision with our beautiful boy Max.

Max is a GSD between 7 and 8 years old.  (He was a rescue dog)

Max started to limp several months ago.  At first nothing much but gradually it became more pronounced.  Several trips to the vets drew a blank – the first diagnosis being that weakness in Max's hind legs were putting additional strain on his front.  We were not convinced and so pushed for xrays to be taken.

The xrays showed nothing.  A specialist vet was asked for his opinion, he could find nothing.  We knew that something was really wrong Max looked so unhappy and had lost his spark. Max was then referred to the animal hospital.

The vet there felt straight away that there was an abnormality in his spleen.  After blood tests and MRI scans nothing was showing up – everything seemed to be clear – apart from a growth(?) in his spleen.  Max had to be operated on.  They could fit Max in over the next few days if we were happy to leave him in…

The sooner the better we thought and thank goodness we did.  Max did not have a growth but a torsion in his spleen.  It had twisted and had started to rot inside his body.  The vet said that at any minute the absess could have ruptured and killed Max within hours.  He was a very lucky dog – they usually only saw this type of thing post mortem they told us.

Max had to have his spleen removed and took 2 weeks to recover – having to have a silly lampshade on his head to stop him upsetting his stitches in his tummy.

Max was still limping.  Worse than ever – his shoulder was wasting due to lack of use of his front leg.  Back to the hospital – more tests.

Again - nothing was found but the vet there was convinced that a small tumour was cutting off his nerve supply to his front leg – he recommended that we amputate Max's leg.

We could not leave things as they were – Max was in a lot of pain - we had never seen him look so low.  There were 3 options offered to us. All seemed like the end of our world.  The vet was saying that amputation was the only way forward. 

We had so many concerns.  Max is a very large dog, his back legs are not 100% and he had already had a big operation – do we put him through another and risk him not coping with 3 legs.  After reading lots and lots on the internet (your website took a hammering I can tell you…)  We decided that we had to give Max a fighting chance.  We ordered his Ruffwear harness and booked him in for the next available time. The following Tuesday.

The weekend before the op. Max was in serious pain he was dosed up on painkillers and looked defeated.

The day after his operation we got to speak to his surgeon.  The op. had gone well he told us, they had found a tumour.  "How was Max coping on 3 legs?" Max was already pulling on his lead!!!  He had to stay in a couple more days as he had a drain in him to release the fluid. 

The next day – the surgeon told us that Max had removed his drain himself and that he might as well go home – as long as we could see to his dressings.

We simply cannot believe how amazing our dog truly is.  He is now 5 days on from his op. he is bright eyed, his ears are up and he is jogging about.  The first day home he looked puzzled at me messing about with a sling – he just hopped out of it, down the 2 steps to the garden and had a roll on the grass.  He looks happier than he has been in months.  

I will try to post some pictures soon.  It's still very early days and I don't want to tempt fate but so far we do know that Max is very relieved that we made the decision we did.  He looks like a pup again!  If anyone is in any doubt - we would say go for it…

Thank you all so much for your strength and positive stories.  I couldn't bring myself to post sooner, I'm certain some readers never do but your dogs have given hope to many I'm sure and will continue to inform others in the same situation of the best way forward. 

Thank you so much.