Hi everyone

I am a vet, and not an owner of a tripawd.

Recently, I have been assigned as an expert witness. The owners of a dog who was attacked by another dog, and, as a consequence, had to be amputated of a forelimb (the whole limb), had sued the owners of the aggressor.

Rehabilitation or orthopedics are not my fields of expertise, I am a behaviourist.

I have examined the amputee dog and, since the amputation was four months ago, the dog (a Yorkshire Terrier Bieber, 2 YO, entire male) has quite successfully recovered of the surgery. Regarding behavior I found lots of indicators of positive emotional states, such as play, sociability with humans and even with dogs, exploratory behavior, normal feeding behavior, no hypervigilance and so on. And very few indicators of negative emotional states, except for the nighttime sleep: Since the accident, the dog has never slept straight at night again. He wakes up 4 to 20 times every single night, apparently with no signs of anxiety, and just walks or demands attention to his owners, going up and down their bed.

Apart this, what could be pain under the CAMPPAIN (Canine Post Amputation Pain Initiative, Boesch et al, 2021), I can’t find any major damage on the dog quality of life (Well, yes, the dog cannot go anymore downstairs, and must be carried for; or the owners had to put some soft pads around beds and couch, as to facilitate de dog to go down furniture).

Nevertheless, they have visited, one month after the surgery, a vet specialist in rehabilitation and she said that, in her experience, the changes of weight distribution after the amputation can produce, in the future, early and rapidly evolving osteoarthritis in the contralateral forelimb, which would require “from time to time” physical therapy and therapeutic massages for the rest of the dog’s life.

Although I have found some scientific information about amputee dogs, and some advises a careful follow up of the remaining limbs and joints, I can’t manage to find information about outcomes in the long term for amputee dogs, or the physical therapy needed for this animals. Papers I have found only cover first monts or first year, but not the entire life of the amputee dogs.

So, in summary, as an expert witness I can claim for the medical (pharmacological) treatments needed to improve the nighttime resting, which is happening right now, but I don’t know how to argue for this future early damage in joints due to the change in weight distribution, that I don’t know when will happen or even if it will.

Any help, be it your own experience or to pointing me to scientific information I have missed, or any other source will be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Alina

Ps: please excuse my bad English, is not my first language (at all)

Ps’: not sure if this is the right forum, please tell me if I should post this in other section

Reference mentioned:

Boesch JM, Roinestad KE, Lopez DJ et al, 2021. The Canine Postamputation Pain (CAMPPAIN) initiative: a retrospective study

and development of a diagnostic scale, Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia, https://doi.org.....021.07.003