I have a 17 month old lab mix pup who broke his back hind leg very severely. The vet put a pin in the femur and he did very well with surgery–this happened the last week of May. He is a VERY active dog and he refractured part of the femur four weeks ago. He was at the vet on crate rest while we were on vacation for 3 weeks. We have had him home for two weeks with a schedule for "rehab" of waking and house rest–no playing,running, or jumping. (difficult!!) He has done well with that, but he still puts no weight on the leg–only "toes" and it seems that the leg is misshapen. The vet told us he may need to have his leg amputated if it doesn't heal well. We are very concerned that this will happen. He just lets the leg hang now and most of the time walks on three legs. We don't know if we are expecting too much too soon with the leg in getting the muscle back or if the injury was just too bad to heal. I would appreciate hearing from anyone with any experience in this type of injury. We are taking him back to the vet on Monday, if possible. He has an appointment Aug. 20 for xrays and she was expecting him to be "back to normal" by then. Doesn't look to me like it is going to happen. He is such a sweet boy–we just want him to get better and if that means three legs, we'll deal with that, but we hope it doesn't.

While my Max didn't lose his leg due to a break, his situation is maybe a LITTLE similar, his front left elbow joint was destroyed by valley fever. For a while, he did what it sounds like your dog is doing– walking on three, putting very little weight on the toes, even when given painkillers. After seeing his x-rays, two vets confirmed that amputation would by far be the best option for our little guy.

Max's surgery was on Tuesday, and even though we've had some bumps in the road since then, you can tell that he feels TONS better without the bum leg getting in his way. It's been very rough for me emotionally, but he's gone through all of it with his usual big doggy smile.

We'll be sending good thoughts for your puppy's healing and hope that the vet visit goes well!! :)

Hi, just weighing in – of course you'd rather not amputate your baby puppy, but we had to amputate the right rear leg of our 8 year old lab last year and he is 9 years old today, in perfect health and loving life … so if amputation ends up being your best option, just know your pup will do great on 3 legs.