Tripawds Three Legged Dog & Cat Forum Archives
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Hi everyone. I'm brand new here because my brand new puppy is about to get a new look. My poor Penny, a 6-month, female, miniature pinscher full breed, had a sad freak accident two weeks ago. She went to jump down from the top of our sofa (something she's already done many times) and simply fell wrong, suffering a complete fracture of her left radius and ulna. We took her to the 24 hour emergency vet, who set and splinted her leg and told us it was an extremely expensive plate and screw surgery or amputation. We were horrified by the news, and took her for a second opinion the next day. This next vet told us we could try keeping it bandaged and check her X-rays again in 1-2 weeks. Well, we went in on Thursday expecting that some healing would've begun to occur, but unfortunately the break had slipped right back to its original position. It will be a non-unionized fracture and will In fact require one of two bad options.
After doing lots of research on both the surgery and amputation, and speaking with a good friend of our breeder who has actually had two dogs WITH surgery and one amputee, we've opted to remove her leg. The person we spoke with told us that the surgery required both dogs to be crated almost nonstop and sedated heavily for several months to recover. Additionally, they both had complications-infection, a shorter repaired leg, a slightly twisted leg. One ended up needing amputation after the surgery. After learning about how well dogs adapt to three legs and how much faster and easier the recovery is, my husband and I just feel better about amputation--she will suffer for a much shorter time with much lower risk of complications. Cost is a big concern for us, but even if we had the money I still wouldn't feel good about putting her through the surgery, especially at such a young age (this girl has an insane amount of energy! Typical min pin).
So, I'm sad to say, Penny will be losing her leg sometime in the next week. I know lots of people here do this to prevent the spread of cancer, but anyone who just doesn't think the surgery is worth the pain/stress/recovery? Also, how have people managed puppy energy post-op? We plan to keep her either crated or in a small pen we set up in the living room after she got hurt.
We also have a 5-year-old min pin who she loves to play rough with. Would it be a good idea to have him stay with family for the first week of recovery? We wouldn't allow them to play together, of course, but our big boy is quite high strung and barks at any noise off the street, which always gets the puppy riled up and jumping around.
Any advice or support would be appreciated! This has been so hard.
11:46 am
Team Tripawds
Administrators
25 September 2009
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minpinmomma said
Any advice or support would be appreciated!
Welcome and best wishes for Penny! You've come to the right place for plenty of tips and support from others. Start here for help finding the many Tripawds resources and assistance programs.
While you wait for comments from others, use the Advanced Search above to refine your forum search results with specific phrases, and you're sure to find lots of helpful feedback. You can also search all blogs here . Or, consider downloading the Tripawds e-books for fast answers to common concerns and feel free to call the toll-free Tripawds Helpline anytime!
Please keep us posted, your future forum posts will not require moderation.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
10:33 pm
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Helpline Hosts
18 October 2009
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Hello and welcome.
I'm sorry to hear about Penny's accident. I've had small dogs for years now and keeping them from jumping off things is really hard, especially when they are young.
My current Tripawd is a small pug mix named Elly, she weights about 15 pounds. Elly was hit by a car when she was 7 months old and lost her right rear leg, I adopted her as a Tripawd so I did not have a say in the amputation decision. I did see one x-ray the rescue group posted on line and the break looked pretty bad. I don't know if there was an option to try and repair the leg, but I don't think the rescue group could afford to pay for a repair surgery.
As far as managing her energy during recovery and beyond- I'm a huge advocate of food puzzles and games. Elly has several types of games that work her mind and work on her balance. We also do Nose Work which is great for challenging body and mind. You will have to wait for Penny to heal up before doing most of these activities, but some should be OK, check with your vet on timing. When my first Tripug Maggie lost her rear leg to mast cell cancer our surgeon said only short, leashed potty breaks for the first two weeks after surgery.
On keeping the two dogs apart- when Maggie had her amp my parents keep my other pug Tani for a few days. Tani was very mopey without her big sis. After a scuffle when we re-introduced them (alpha pug thing) they were fine together. But my girls were older, Mag was 7.5 and Tani was 6 at the time, and Maggie was a slug during her recovery so I didn't have to worry about keeping her calm.
Good luck with the surgery next week and keep us posted.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Maggie's Story Amputation and Chemo
Find me now on Tripawds Circle
Thanks for your response! Penny is now set to have her operation on Thursday 10/19. It's almost a relief at this point because the last couple days she's been sending some definite pain signals from her broken leg. At least we know she should be feeling much better im the next two or three weeks.
What kind of food puzzles do you like? Penny already has a Buster Cube, though she does tend to get quite rambunctious with it. She'd rather throw it around the room to hear it rattle than actually crack the code lol. I've considered one of those Snuffle Rugs bc they look a little more low-key.
We've decided to send Rusty (the BigBoy) away for a few days because any time he's been allowed to be with Penny, she's used her big cast basically as a baseball bat to whomp on him! It's kinda cute but mostly really stressful.
What kind of space to roam did you give Maggie after her surgery? Penny is crate trained and also has a small enclosure set up in the front room that's about 4x4 feet. I'm not sure if that's too much or not enough space for her. Another of my concerns is that while she's such a big girl now, she occasionally still has an accident in her crate--I don't want to leave her in there and have her get urine on the incision. I was thinking about setting up her crate inside the enclosure and using a potty pad ~just in case~. We never did pads with her to help encourage faster house-training, so I don't know if she'd even use it, but it seems like it's worth a shot.
11:35 pm
Moderators
Helpline Hosts
18 October 2009
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Hi again, sorry for the late response.
As far as toys- we have a variety. Some are the type like Twister (that's my quad boy Obie playing a few years ago!) or the Activity Mat where the toy is stationary and Elly has to work around it. Great for balance and core strength. Some toys are the 'chase' type like this <a href="