A problem that I am facing got me here, so here is my problem:

I need an advice, help, or opinion, my dog’s health and even life is at risk.

My dog, 6 year old male rottweiler, has a injured font left leg’s carpal joint; and the odds are not good:

It started approximately 2 months ago, after what i tought was a sprain he started lifting his left leg when coming out from a dog house, then walking,etc...

It looked like it is getting better, but after a week or so after initial injury, he squealed after stepping off a concrete paywement.I immediately put him back to his house.

After that, a swelling of his front left leg’s lower ankle appeared.He started lifting his left leg almost all of the time.

His regular wet checked his leg, said nothing was broken, gave him therapy and said to check his condition in a 3-4 days.

After a second check-up (wich was after a week or so),it was still the same, but the vet still claimed nothing was broken, and that carpal joint was injured (probably sprained).

Therapy continued, am not sure what were the medications.

His left leg still looked the same (big swollen ankle), and vet finally admitted that this should be looked again, this time he did a punction of a swelling, assuming that it is caused by water in a knee area.

Boy was he wrong-the sweling was caused by blood formation.Vet’s conclusion still was that the joint is  injured,and that we should continue therapy in a few days, combined with rest,etc... Things were going nowhere.

Meanwhile, my dog’s leg was still looking the same-swollen ankle,bad movement... so I got in touch with another wet, who is widely recommended in our town.

We scheduled a check-up,and somehow that same day swelling got bigger, even the paw was now swollen.

As soon as a got my dog to the vet, he immediately checked his leg, and under anesthesia, he made a punction,dark red blood came out,after that he made an incision, and in joint area he retracted a large blood-hemathome formation of some sort.At the same time he checked the joint, and concluded that carpal joint seems to be sprained severely,wich then triggered this state of leg.Also he said that joint is mobile (have in mind that swelling was present), so he then cleaned the insicion,etc...fixated the joint with fixation band.

After 3 days dog had a check-up, paw swelling was almost gone, joint was still with fixation band.

Dog seemed to be better, started behaving happier...

After second check-up, fixation band was removed, ankle swelling was smaller than before, paw swelling was gone.

My dog seemed to be better, but swelling remained.After approximately a week, leg started swelling again, swelling got bigger,even the paw got swollen again.

Called the vet, scheduled an check-up,and after that he did an x-ray of the leg.X-ray showed that the carpal joint was actually broken (one row of small bones between a paw and a long bone was wery much shattered).Also the vet and the assistant said something about a possible sarcome,wich i did not understand at the time.

After an x-ray result, incision was made in a joint area, blood was again in that area. Vet then examined the joint, and retracted a broken piece of a bone, then cleaned the joint, said that there is a limited mobility of a joint, said that the only thing that we can try is to fixated the joint with fixation band, and try to let the joint heal, since his opinion is that this is inoperable due to the fact that joint was broken in a way that an operation can’t recreate a part that is missing.

After my insisting on an explanation of possible outcomes, he said that there are these:

-joint bone tissue could heal if dog rested, without putting strain on an injured leg.Since injury is severe, he said that we should give him 2 weeks time and see if it gets better.Even if so, probably will be constant limping since the carpal joint is damaged.

-if the joint doesn’t heal properly, not only it could lead to constant limping, but also could cause new injuries that cause blood to sweal, later possibly gangrene, etc... So the possible solutions of this outcome are amputation or that dog is „put to sleep“, (?)

On top of all that there is a possible sarcome (i’we looked it up, and it’s not good), but the vet is still not sure of this.

Or maybe I want to believe so-not sure.

All this leaves me with 2 weeks of anticipation what will happen. I feel wery bad.

So I ask You if there is any other way to help my dog, or any other way to help him heal, and stay alive even?

I don’t want to lose him, but I am not sure how will his life be without a leg, how will he cope with that.

Before this injury, he was very energetic, although for last 2.5 years his walks are less regular (since i moved out of my parents house,got married, now I live 10 kms from them; but I come to visit at least 4-5 times a week.Since i live in an apartment, dog had to stay at my parent's house (yard).Life is difficult sometimes...)

Since last time at the vet's I am trying to cope with the possible outcomes, searching the internet,going crazy.

Also, Serbia is probably not the best place to treat dogs with cancer (if sarcome part is true).

Please help with any advice, opinion, kind word,...anything will do.

Thank You.

Sincerely,

Nebojsa from Serbia.