I've never really seen a Tripawd with a prosthesis. I stopped counting how many people asked me why I didn't get one for Lalla at the time but I live in a country at war (Israel) so as you can imagine, army vets with prostheses are a common sight – unfortunately – so once can understand why I was asked The Prosthesis question so often. I'm sure that prostheses aren't recommended for every Tripawd – for example, in the case of degenerative bone disease, its instinctively-layman safe to assume they wouldn't be of much help. Alameda East Veterinary hospital did come up with a revolutionary prothesis (http://www.wfsb…..etail.html) which sparked some interest, but this is obviously an extremely expensive solution. I think that the main thing to do, and considering how much research is underway and under consideration, is to focus on finding a cure for canine osteosarcoma (and subsequently, human osteosarcoma) which is the prevalent cause for Tripawd-ness. Aniamls in nature survive without a limb as resourcefully and naturally as if they had four; trapped foxes will often chew their leg off to get – and go free. They lick their own wounds and are off after the badgers before you know it. Looking back, that's exactly what Lalla did too. A prosthesis would have made things even more difficult and uncomfortable for her and knowing my girl, she would have probably chewed it off.

:-)

Some of my other dogs have been known to be rendered usless and unable to walk if they have so much as a bandage on their paw so I don't think they would take well to a plastic leg.

In general terms, I can't imagine most dogs taking to a prosthetic limb easily.  It won't move normally and would be heavy to carry around and what is the benefit of it?  It's never going to look like a real doggie leg so it's only going to draw even more attention to the dogs 'disability'.

Legs don't make a dog.  If their fur drops out and they look a bit silly (after chemo) that doesn't matter either.  What makes a dog is its spirit and it takes a lot more than a loss of leg or temporary loss of fur to quash that.

And if humans don't like the look of MY beautiful dog, they need only look the other way.  (Their loss).

So no, prosthetic dog legs are not for us.