Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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I work with several rescue groups to rescue and foster dogs from high-kill shelters. I am currently fostering a mama beagle mix and her puppies. I rescued mama last Friday, and she delivered 7 beautiful puppies Wednesday morning. One of her puppies was born with a bad paw. It looks as if the umbilical cord may have gotten wrapped around the midsection of his leg, cutting off circulation. There's no fur on his leg from the knee down, and four of his toes were black on the tips. I took him to the vet and started him on antibiotics and hydrotherapy, but the necrosis of tissues seems to be spreading. He seems to not be in any pain and mama hasn't rejected him. He's eating and gaining weight, and otherwise is very healthy. My question is, what advice do you have in regards to surgical removal of the leg? Should I wait, assuming he doesn't become ill from an infection? Or should I go ahead and schedule his amputation surgery? The vet he saw doesn't do surgery, but explained that surgery is hard on such a young puppy.
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Hi Foster Mom, thanks for joining us and all the work you do with rescue dogs.
I'm not a vet but I was able to find some posts that might help until one of our current vet experts can get to this question (one of them, Wookie, is a board-certified surgeon!).
Advice on whether to amputate my dog's leg?
4 Month Old Puppy: Amputate or Other Options?
Front Leg Amputation: Broken Growth Plate
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
I usually would not operate on a pup unless it is at least 8 weeks old and for an amputation I would prefer them to be even older. It really would depend on the condition of the skin and if the pup was painful. Puppies typically bounce back pretty quickly but this is a still a major operation!
Pam
http://tripawds.....-days-old/
http://tripawds.....-6-update/
I added Bert's story above. This was a very similar situation to what you are dealing with! Bert's necrotic leg was taken off at 6 days old but part of the bone was already detached, I'm not sure how intact your puppy's leg is, also your puppy is now older. Bert was given some gas anesthesia, but was not completely out, and the vet just cut through the leg with a scalpel and we were ready to cauterize if anything started bleeding badly. The whole process took maybe two minutes. This sounds cruel but it was the only thing we could do for him as he would not have survived an actual amputation. He grew up using the stump the best he could and eventually when he was old enough and strong enough he was able to have a proper mid femur amputation. Let me know if you have any questions! And let us know how things have gone so far.
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