Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi everyone I am new here but wanted to ask peoples opinion on my situation:-
My Fiancee and I have a 3year old border terrier (Lilly), unfortunately 2 months ago she ran out infron of a car and got hit head on at 30mph, luckily she survived and had no damage accept for she has been left with her front right leg paralysed. We believe she has an injury to the brachial plexus being partially avulsed. I say partialy as initially they said she would not regain any feeling in the limb however after a lot of physio and hydro therapy she has regained feeling down to just past her elbow and can activley use her shoulder and some function of the elbow (e.g. give paw when asked).
We now face the dilema that we have been told the chances are she will not regain more feeling or use, we are unsure if she would be eligable for a carpual fusion operation so she could keep the leg or if that will benefit her or wether we should just have the leg amputated. My worry is that leaving her with only one front leg will cause her to devlop arthritus in the good legs joints and she will end up having to be put to sleep early in her life, so ideally i would like to see if her bad leg could be any use to her but maybe i am being over protective? has anyone any information or views on what we should do?
also we wondered if we do have the leg amputated do we have the scapula removed or leave her with a stump? any thoughts welcome?
Many Thanks
JK
What does your vet say? Usually brachial plexus injuries involve the whole leg so even fusing the carpus would not allow her to swing the leg normally or bear a normal amount of weight. If the leg is atrophied at the shoulder now then that would be the case. It is much easier on the dog to amputate than to undergo carpal arthrodesis. There is a chance of bone infection or implant failure, although this is rare in a smaller breed.
My personal preference is to take the scapula because there is no stump left to cause pressure sores, and there is a smoother appearance to the dog. A small breed might do okay if you left the scapula and her hair should hide the atrophy, but she would be more comfortable without it!
Good luck,
Pam and Tazzie
Hi Thanks for your thoughts,
My fiancee is a vet nurse so we have been able to ask quite a few vets but they all seem to have different opinions on what is best, some say we should leave it longer to see if any more feeling / use returns some say we are wasting our time? they also seem to disagree on where they would amputate the leg seems to depend on where they have been taught to do it really? We are going back to see the neurologist next week as it will have been about 2 months since the accident. My gut instinct is to wait another month depending what he advises and then make the deision to amputate or not and my fiancee is leaning towards removing the scapula if we do.
Thing is she does attempt to bring the leg forward when running / walking and i just wondered if she had the carpal arthrodesis if the leg could be used as i worry so much about her good leg having to take the strain as im sure its "clicking" already in the joint, she is on glucosmein and has had cartraphen (probably spelt that wrong shes the vet nurse not me lol) so still unsure what to think.
any other advice or views very welcome
JK
I would see what the neurologist finds on his exam/nerve function tests. If he thinks it is time to amputate then I would do so. If you do have to amputate I would start the drugs gabapentin +/- amantadine to prevent phantom pain and run a morphine drip during surgery.
Pam and Tazzie
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