Sorry about that...yes!  there IS a happy ending to my Maggie's journey!  See her blog as Karen pointed out

It's just that I was NOT prepared at all for the two weeks of HELL...(didn't find this site until 2 months after maggie's surgery)....it's nice to be prepared or at least forewarned..

Tracy, Maggie's Mom

cometdog said:

Just jumping in to add…

Maxidad is a "just the facts" police officer! 

(for real!)   

 True, and I'll be the first to admit that twenty years as a cop tends to affect my outlook on things as well as the way I deal with problems.  It's my tendency to identify and summarize a problem, then make a decision and act.  Find it, figure it out, fix it.  I don't like waiting, even sometimes when it wouldn't hurt to do so. So any advice I give tends to come from that perspective as well.
I'm glad to hear you're pretty much decided on amputation.  As for the first two weeks, I won't sugarcoat it – they're going to suck.  Although the doctors will give Abby pain meds, there will be times when they're not enough.  Be prepared for a late-night trip or two to the animal hospital to get your girl a shot for the pain.  There will even be some good days where you think you're over the hump, and then it'll be worse than ever the next day.  The main reason for this is because the nerve endings that used to go to Abby's leg will be severed as well, and they'll be horribly sensitive.  They'll die off in a few weeks, and that's when things will start to improve for good.  But in the meantime, expect Abby to be very sensitive, and have some bad incidents where she tries to lie down and gets a world of pain when she does so on a sensitive spot.  She's used to being able to flop down any way she wants, but that's not going to be possible post-op.  She'll have a very hard time getting comfortable.  If she normally sleeps on the bed with you, that may have to stop for a while because it'll be hard for her to jump up, and even harder to get comfortable.  Consider buying an air mattress so you can sleep on the floor with her on bad nights.  We did that with our dog Max, and it helped.  That way Abby can spread out on the floor (on some sort of padded bedding, of course), and still have the comfort of you next to her.  Eventually the nerves will die and she can lay down however she wants again, but not right away.

And in many ways, you'll suffer just as much.  Even though amputation is the right way to go, I guarantee that the first time you see your dog with three legs, you'll immediately think "What have I done?", followed by a wave guilt and remorse.  You'll probably start second-guessing yourself and think you made the wrong decision, because Abby is going to look pathetic, and that freshly shaved wound will look horrible, to say the least.  And the painful days that follow will be no picnic for you mentally, because you love your dog and it'll tear you apart to see her hurting.  And above all, don't make the mistake of trying to run on little or no sleep, or start to neglect your own meals.  Now more than ever, Abby needs you at your best so you can take care of her.  So take care of yourself first.

But you have to be strong about it.  Once you've made the decision, there's no turning back.  That leg can't be re-attached, so you have to remind yourself that you made a decision and now it's time to stick with it (especially because you don't have any choice).  The time for regrets is over - second guessing yourself is pointless and counterproductive.  Just remember:

• The nerves will die off.  The pain will fade away, then be gone once and for all.
• That horrible wound will soon be covered by a layer of peach-fuzz, then light fur, and then Abby's normal coat.  Hard as it is to believe, she'll get her normal fur back.
• And most important, she'll be free of the dull throbbing pain she's most likely been in for a while.  When our Max became a tripawd, he was more or less behaving like he used to within a month.  We often had to hold him back because he wanted to push himself too hard during the recovery process.  Dogs are far better at getting around disabilities than we are.  Abby will adapt to her situation amazingly quickly.  Probably much quicker than you will.

You're making the right decision.  The hard part is to act on it and not second-guess yourself once it's done.  Keep asking questions, and we'll get you through this.

abbydog said:

But how do you know if a dog is having phantom limb pain? You can not ask them.  I wonder if phantom limb pain is a problem that people have ecperienced with their dogs? I am not sure if the nerve endings pain you talked about is the same thing as phantom limb pain. 

 

---

 Interesting.  I've never heard of Farablok, but it sounds like a great product.  As for whether dogs get phantom pains, that's also a good question.  I don't know if it was the same as the phantom pains people get, but something was definitely going on once Max lost his leg.  He'd be lying on the floor half asleep and not moving, and we'd think everything was OK.  Then all of a sudden, he'd let out a bloodcurdling yelp and jump to his feet in obvious pain.  Other times he'd just be sitting still, but moaning or whining because he was in some sort of discomfort.  This lasted a good two weeks, then started to gradually taper off (but with some relapses, so be prepared for that).  He was about 90% better by the end of a month.  But in Max's case, he started chemo right away, so sometimes it was hard to tell if he was feeling crappy because of the amputation or from the treatments. 

From what you've written so far, I don't get the impression chemo will be needed once Abby gets amputated.  So whatever problems occur, you'll know they're caused by the amputation and nothing else.  Once the post-op wound stops discharging, I can't see how it'd be a problem to use this Farablok on Abby.  If it saves you from having to experience even one sudden yelp of pain or session of moaning and whining, it's worth it.  Obviously you should ask your vet about it, but it seems like a good idea.