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Hi everyone, I'm looking for some advice on a harness for my dog but first I'll give a little background on the situation -
In January of this year, our 3 year old(turned 4 in May) Goldendoodle Myles was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in his front left leg. We had it amputated and continued with Chemo. There were no complications and Myles recovered right away. A couple days after the surgery, my wife watched him attempt to lift one of his rear legs while peeing. He fell over, but got up and walked over to, and leaned against the fence so he could lift his leg while peeing. A few days later, we was able to balance on the 2 legs, just so he could continue lifting his leg. 2 weeks ago(August, Wednesday), Myles began limping on his rear left leg. We didn't witness him doing anything to hurt it, and waited a day before we took him to the vet. When we didn't see any improvement by late Thursday afternoon, we decided to be safe and arranged to have X-Rays taken at the Vet on Friday. Usually they would take a look at him first but given his history, they had no problem booking him right away, as we would also take advantage and have his lungs x-rayed for signs of the first cancer spreading. Friday afternoon, I went in to pick him up and see the vet. He had cancer again in his rear left leg, but no signs of it in his lungs. The vet had gone ahead and x-rays the rest of his limbs to see if it was anywhere else and did not see any sign of it. He was surprised, as he would have expected it to show up in his lungs (its been 6 months at that point since his first amputation). We had to do what was best for him. Asking the vet, he said in all his 30 years, hes never seen this situation. He is still young, and beat all expectations from the last surgery. Three legs didn't stop him from doing anything he could do before - running, jumping, lifting his leg to pee, or even digging holes in the yard.
A lot of friends and family thought that the best thing for him would be to put him down.The vet is one of the best in our area. We talked about options. The first time around, we were not in a good financial situation and it costed around 6K for surgery and treatment, which required a bank loan as unfortunately we didn't have insurance. On top of that, we are expecting our first born son in October. We felt we had to at least give him a chance. The peeing with one leg up might seem like a small thing, but it just showed us that he wouldn't let anything stop him from being happy. I assumed he would have just started squating in order to pee, but no, he learned to balance on 2 legs and lift that leg higher then the rest of his body. The vet reassured me that he wouldn't recommend going further if it wasn't in the best interest of the dog. There are 2 legged dogs out there but not many large breeds. He said he was nervous and didn't have the experience with this situation, but given his age and attitude, the fact that the cancer wasn't (at least yet in his lungs), and the support from us - he would support our decision to give him a chance. I truly believed he was sincere, and that profit was no motivation. I asked, given that Myles has been such a good customer, if they could do anything kind of discount(No shame at this point). At the end of the day, the clinic is business and they have to deal with this sort of a thing on a daily basis. I don't expect them to help out no matter their intentions, and the reality is that it's just wouldn't be good business. He said that they could provide some kind of discount or at least some kind of interest free payments, which I thought was above and beyond. We decided to go through with it and give him a chance. The surgery was booked for the following Tuesday, though we changed it to Thursday to spend a little more time with him and have his first few days home during the weekend. Everything went well with the surgery, and Myles was OK. The vet, talked to his business partners and said that we can pay what we can, and they would write off the remaining. Though this was great news financially, it just reassured us that we were doing the right thing, and that the advice from the vet was truly in Myles' best interest.
2 days after the surgery, Myles was able to get up on his own and walk a few feet, than around the house. Just a week later he is able to run around the park. He is still getting the hang of balancing while using the bathroom but he is getting it. He seems almost as happy as he was before, and even happier than he was during the last recovery. We have no doubt now that his quality of life will not be diminished during his final days.
So back to the topic of this post, can anyone recommend a good body harness for a dog with no left legs? The legs were completely removed to reduce the chance of the cancer spreading, so he has no stubs.
Also, Here is a <a href="
I'm so sorry you are dealing with cancer, but what a supportive team you have on your side. And now that you've joined us, we will support you in your journey too. We will be Myles' cheerleading squad! It was a courageous thing to proceed with surgery, and if it wasn't for folks like you, even three-legged dogs would be around today if the earliest pawrents way back when who were told "amputate or euthanize" didn't take that brave step. We have no idea what our animals are truly capable of until we are faced with such a decision.
OK about your question; have you looked at our Gear blog harness page?
http://gear.tri.....p/#harness
I'm pretty sure that the Webmaster could work, because even though he's missing two legs, it only needs one of the front legs to stay on. It will rotate a bit, the longer he wears it during a day, it does that for front-leg Tripawds too, but it's just a small thing to re-adjust the strap.
You could also check out the Custom Pet Support Suit, and let Eric (manufacturer) know your situation. This would be a great way to assist Myles during his recovery and rehab.
Thank you so much for joining us. Your devotion to Myles is beyond measure, especially when your own life is going through so many changes. You will both be amazing parents to your human kid too!
Keep us posted and let us know how we can help. I hope you don't mind I moved your post here, but it's an amazing story and I wanted to make sure people saw it.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thank you Jerry,
I'm linking a couple of videos of today. Big improvement. We didn't want to take him out until he recovered a little more.
6:15 pm
Team Tripawds
Administrators
25 September 2009
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Oooh can't wait to see them. FYI, it's best to post the Share Link of a YouTube video like your other one, it looks like this vid format isn't supported here 
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet