Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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I have a tough decision to make soon regarding my 13 week old Norwegian Elkhound, Beauregard. He has a congenital defect that has caused his wrist bone to simply not grow on one front leg. (If you look closely at my avatar picture you can see the "lump" on his leg where the bones are out of alignment.) The specialist has never seen a case like his, and has consulted with several other specialists on what would be best for him. He originally thought Beau could wait until he was fully grown, and then they would fuse his wrist and elbow. However, Beau’s wrist has gotten worse much faster than anticipated. The specialist has therefore given me 3 options.
Option 1: do nothing until he is fully grown, while trying to minimize injury, and hopefully the original fusion plan will work.
Option 2: we attempt a low probability of success surgery to shorten his radius and align all of his bones.
Or, option 3: amputation.
I am truly having a difficult time making a decision! I know that he will have a full life as a tripod, but it is still a hard decision. I told you Beau’s story, because I wonder what suggestions you have for his case.
One of the fears I have is that I will put him through option 2, the low probability surgery, only to have to put him through yet another major surgery. My other great fear is that he will be in chronic pain from the surgery if it is “successful.” The specialist has, of course, left the decision up to me, but seems to be quite unsure about his future prospects for pain. Also, the other problem with the surgery is the high probability of Beau developing arthritis on the repaired bones. I feel llike the specialist smoothed over the long term issues that a tripod may have because of the additional stress on the remaining limbs. Which further causes me to question whether arthritis in one limb may not be better than in three. I would like to know your opinions on the matter! Thank you to all who reply!
Welcome Beauregard!
He is just beautiful. And so many decisions to choose from. Just know that whatever you decide will be the right one for both of you.
As far as stress on the remaining joints for a tripawd, yes there is, but with planiing and awareness you can minimize the effects. Since he would be a front amp you would not want tohave him jumping off high spots (we built stairs for the bed and doggie door). Also, I think a large majority feed a joint supplement of some type plus with dogs that do develop arthritis you can always do Adequan injections that work great. On top of that there are exercises and therapies that keep everything strong in a low impact way plus other holistic therapies including massage and acupuncture.
Possibly your vet could refer you to someone that had the fusion surgery done on a dog so you could get an outside opinion.
Keep us updated and take care-
Luanne and Spirit Shooter
Spirit Shooter was a Miniature Australian Shepherd who was diagnosed with a MCT and had a LF amp 1/28/13 at 13-1/2 years old.
Shooter crossed the Bridge on 8/28/13, his 7 month ampuversary and two weeks from his 14th birthday.
I am a four year old lab mix, weighing in at a lean, mean 80 lbs and about 30" at my shoulder. I lost my front leg at about 14 mos. My dad had the option of a risky surgery involving lots of pins and possible additional surgeries which would require me to be a "house" dog, whatever that means, or amputation. I am so glad that he chose amputation because I can still run in the fields and herd the cows with my mom and aunt. I easily cover a mile or two in a day. Dad drives me in his truck as well. I am much faster than either of the other two dogs in our family, probably because of my long three legs, but I can even catch up with them after I take a rest, which I do once in a while. I swim in the pool about once weekly if the weather is nice enough for my dad. He likes to be close when I swim to make sure my face doesn't get stuck in the water because it is hard to keep my head up with only one front paw.
I love my life, I play rough and tumble with my family and friends. I do get tired and I love it when my grandma massages my shoulders. I do take glucosamine daily and eat a good lean diet. I don't know what my future holds but I run and play like the puppy I am and I sleep very soundly every night and nap well throughout the day.
Good luck with whatever your owner decides but I thought you should hear my story.
I wonder if you could do nothing? I say that because my Otis was just diagnosed with cancer. Two years ago he broke his right leg, almost at the shoulder. We could have amputated or pins. We chose pins, they had to do a plate also because of location. Now he has cancer because of this break. Vet says because it is normal for them to carry in their bones, when it broke it seeped into his body. Now I am lost, devastated, but only option is to amputate. They insisted last time around that I should not amputate. If I had would he still have the bone cancer? I don't know, no one does, but I wish I had been warned.
Dogs really do great on three legs, especially when they are young. Ultimately the decision is up to you, but sometimes as hard as it is to imagine, amputation is easier than multiple surgeries and recoveries. Hopefully you'll find your answers soon.
Heather & Barret
Barret was diagnosed with Hemangiopericytoma May 16, 2013. Front left leg/scapula/pectoral muscle was amputated on June 11, 2013 and we've never looked back. Follow our story on http://barret.t.....pawds.com/ and read my column on That Pet Blog
Typically these deformities are handled pretty well with option number 2. You remove part of one bone to allow the other to catch up. I do not know if the xrays are showing an unusual presentation but most of the time that surgery is pretty minimal and does not require fusing bones or any hardware. You just remove a piece of bone (usually distal ulna) and wait.
I see that you have consulted a specialist already but perhaps another opinion is warranted. If you do indeed need to amputate at some point your dog should handle that well.
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