anyone had any questions they did ask that provided helpful info on keeping the remaining legs safe?

K -

I'm going to sound cynical but let me tell you from experience that vet's don't know what it's really like to have a 3-legged dog long term, not even orthos.  Dr. Pam here does because she went through it.

I've been doing this 3-legged business for almost 12 years now and not one, including Comet's current ortho vet really understands life on 3-legs.  I've asked and asked and even asked if there were studies I could read.  There were none according to one vet I asked.

I have had several vets including neuros and ortho vets examine Comet and surprisingly they seemed to not know much about life on 3 legs.  The neuros that examined Comet were almost facinated with her defects and made me feel like they wanted to "study" her (at my expense of a CT and xrays).

All I can tell you is that I had to learn on my own and I didn't really do anything restrictive.  I let her do what she wanted.  As you may know, she blew her back knees out but she also would stand on them and twirl. 

So, I guess my point is, if you get info from the ortho, that's great but don't get disappointed if they kind of give you a medical text book response.

I'm so glad Ajax is doing so well!  He's one handsome and happy boy!

I think I expected Tazzie to still want to do everything that she did before surgery, and some dogs might be able to do this.  Once Tazzie was healed I put her harness on her and loaded her into the van to go to the dog park for short visits but it soon became apparent that this was just too much for her and she wasn't really enjoying it.  She preferred to lay in the back yard and take it easy so we adjusted our schedules and spent more time with her outside.

Tazzie was very big (185#) so she might have been harder on her remaining legs than other dogs (plus she had surgery on both knees prior to her amputation).  I had her on Dasuquin (a glucosamine supplement) as well as fish oil to protect her joints but she still developed moderate arthritis in her remaining front leg.  She also developed a stiff back due to hopping around on 3 legs but she did get quite a bit of relief from acupuncture so I wish I had started that sooner.  The Power Mushrooms helped keep her energy up and might still help your dog fight cancer even though chondrosarcoma does not metastasize as often as OSA.

Each dog is different but I think that in general you should keep any extra weight off, give some sort of joint supplement with glucosamine, consider fish oil, and start acupuncture early on if symptoms of arthritis or stiffness set in.

Pam

Regarding the fish oil; it is important to use a higher dose for cancer so a 50 pound dog should get about 2000-3000 mg daily.  Note that the goal is to get the maximum amount of omega 3 oils so you can't just look at the total mg of fish oil.  I used to use 3V caps because they have the highest mg of omega 3 oil per capsule but they are currently off of the market.  Now I buy Nature Made Double strength fish oil and give Kona 1 capsule twice daily (she weighs 65 pounds).  Loki our 155# dog takes 2 twice daily ( a lower dose for skin) and Tazzie used to take 4 twice daily.  Most dogs readily take these in their food.  Make sure to use a brand that tests pure (mercury free).  Nordic Naturals is very good but pricey for big dogs.  I haven't seen the info yet on the product from K9 Immunity as far as actual mg of fish oil but it does also contain the mushroom supplement.

FYI dogs can take flax oil but it is not as readily bioavailable as the fish oil so you have to use a much higher dose to get good levels of omega 3 oils.

Pam