Bandit is an awesome tripod chihuahua. When he was a year old a neighbor was watching the dogs for us while my daughter and I went on vacation. When we came home around 10pm and immediately saw Bandit laying in his crate seriously sick! We were fortunate enough to have an outstanding emergency vet hospital minutes from our home.  We scooped him up and headed straight there.  While they tried to figure out what was wrong, they treated his symptoms and worked up an estimate of $1800.  He had some kind of infection and his liver was shutting down. Part of the problem over the next several days was that his front feet swelled up and his toenails fell off.  He needed several blood transfusions during this time as well. For all the stuff that was going not so well, he was perkier and getting better.  The toes on his left front foot died and had to be removed.  He was then well enough to come home and we followed up with our regular vet.  The initial plan was to do a skin graft from the remaining foot pad so he'd basically have a padded stick for balance.  At home he made no effort to use that limb at all. I talked to the vet, and after weighing the pros and cons, we decided his recovery would actually be better if the leg was removed. His first few days home after that were horrible.  He was in so much pain.  He just laid in my bed with me next to him for about a week.  He got better every day though.

That was 7 years (and 10,000 dollars ago)!  He's a happy, friendly, confident little dog.  He runs in the yard with the big dogs, likes to sleep under the covers, and does most things normally now.  His left turns are a little tight, he goes with us on outings, and sometimes trips out of state. Most people don't even notice he's a tripod at first.  We keep him on the light side (but that's healthier for most dogs in general ). For the most part, we treat him just like any other dog.  That's Bandits story...