Tripawd Tuesday: Sookie’s Journey to Joy

When and why did your Tripawd lose a leg?

We adopt3d sookie from a local shelter. She was surrendered with 7 siblings. Sookie was the runt of the litter. She weighed just under 4 pounds. Her siblings were all over 7 pounds. She had to be spayed before we could bring her home, we couldnt bring her home until 4 days after we adopted her.

When we picked her up we were told that during the surgery they discovered she had 2 breaks in her front right leg.They did an xray and the vet said the break appeared to be about 3 weeks old and almost healed. She said it didn’t look like the growth plates were affected. She said to keep her as calm as possible for 2 weeks and she should be fine.

She said she may have early arthritis but to just follow up with our regular vet. We had her at the vet within a week of adopting her. She had to go to the vet every few weeks for her shots so everytime we went to the vet they looked at her leg. We noticed in February that she was limping alot and seemed to not be able to put weight on her leg.

The top part of it was growing out and her leg was twisted outwards and seemed shorter. We had an appointment scheduled for shots already so we just waited until that appointment. The vet took one look at her leg and said we need to start thinking about amputation.

He said she was in pain and it’s better to amputate while she is a puppy.

So we made an appointments for 2nd and 3rd opinions. We were not sure how we were going to pay for it since we had not expected for this to happen so soon. We found a low-cost vet that could do the amputation for cheaper then most vets.

They are new but had good reviews so far. So we took her for a consultation and scheduled the surgery for a week later. They did not keep the animals over night so we dropped her off in the morning and picked her up later in the day. The first night was so hard. We were scared and worried we were going to do something wrong.

We made it through the first night with almost no sleep.

The next day she seemed ok. She was up walking and eating, we were so happy and thought ok we got this. Then on day 3 she was less active and seemed very uncomfortable. We got worried again. Thankfully I work from home and was able to be with her.

By day 6 we were worried and almost out of pain meds so we took her to our regular vet and got more pain meds and were able.to give them 3 times a day instead of 2. That seemed to help. She still slept alot but was eating, drinking and using the bathroom.

It was hard but we made it to 14 days post up. She started being more active so we started giving her more freedom and taking her for short walks outside.

Every day is better. We are now 26 days post op and doing great.

She did rip a scab off the incision and had a lump so back to the vet we went.

She said the lump is her skin folds and just looks more pronounced due to the way her fur is growing back. She said she is completely healed from surgery and can resume all activities and can be reintroduced to our 3 other dogs.

We do have pain meds to use if needed but overall she is doing so good. She is running and jumping like a normal, hyper 6 month old. She does get frustrated at times when she tries to scratch with her left leg and falls but she is adjusting.

We are so happy with her progress and glad to be over the hard parts. Recovery is rough. We questioned if this was the right thing to do and if it was worth it. Some sleepless nights and days but in the end we know we made the right choice.

So my advice is to be prepared. Do all the research first. If you do decide to amputate just remember that it does get better. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Now our puppy can live her best life and chase all the things without pain and that was what we wanted.