First thanks everyone for your considerate replies -- I so appreciate them. Second, let me apologize for not replying sooner. I'm new to this forum and I thought there would be an email notification or something if anyone replied. I was waiting for that, and I kept thinking no one saw my post. I've been too busy to spend much time browsing the net lately, but finally decided to come have a look round here (should have done that earlier, I know!) to see if I could find anything. Anyway ...

Boo's cancer was a huge fibrosarcoma tumor on her upper right leg. The doctor originally hoped to save her leg, but after getting in there, she decided that to ensure she got all the cancer, the leg would have to be sacrificed.

Unfortunately, Boo was already a bit overweight because she had been resisting exercise as the tumor got larger and larger -- apparently it caused some pain, but it was also just so massive it created balance issues when walking. Then after the surgery, she gained more weight because she was sore and simply would not get up to do anything. We had to assist her even to go out to potty or get a drink. Now she is healed, and capable of getting up and going out on her own, but still won't get up unless we insist upon it. I think we are partly to blame for catering to her instead of waiting her out, but when we know she has not pottied or gotten a drink for several hours and she still shows no signs of moving, we cave in and make her get up rather than wait for her to volunteer. I think she has only once or twice gotten up on her own and a couple of times she wet her bed. (Thank goodness I anticipated that and had a rubber sheet beneath her blankets.) Of course, the longer she insists upon being a couch potato, the more weight she gains -- despite my cutting her food down to where she eats no more than our 20 lb. beagle.

One good sign, that ironically occurred just as I sat down to write this, is that a few minutes ago, she got out of her bed and hobbled about 2 feet over to an armchair and jumped up into it!!! It was always her preferred snoozing spot until she had surgery, but this was the very first time she acted as though she wanted to be anywhere else but her bed. I take that as a very encouraging sign that she may finally be getting bored enough to do something about being bedridden.

By the way, the "runs like the wind" reference was after surgery. We have found that when we walk her out to potty, she is fine with doing it on her own as long as we go with her, but she will only urinate and head back in. To get her to do her other business, we have to get the support sling under her and force her to walk to the bottom of the yard. We remove it so she can chose her spot (then stand guard so she doesn't immediately make a beeline for the house). She completely resists the idea of defecating for some reason, so when she sees the sling, she turns and hops as fast as she can to get away from us. Then after going potty, as soon as she feels the support of the sling again, her legs go into overdrive and she literally runs at top speed in whichever direction she's facing. It is very hard to keep up with her at those times. It's like she's saying "OK I'm done, let's get outta here!"

The question is, since she obviously can get along on those 3 legs if she wants to, why doesn't she want to? Is it pain, depression or just old age?

On pain -- she doesn't seem to have any acute pain, at least, because she doesn't whimper, lick her scar area or do anything remotely like a dog having pain issues. She does tuck her tail under her when she is forced to do more than a casual potty, and that concerns me that longterm walking may be uncomfortable for her, but otherwise she seems relatively relaxed and happy. Sometimes when it is nice out, I get her out into the garden so she can sun herself while I work. She will sit there looking around and smiling as if she truly enjoys herself -- not at all like a dog who is suffering. Sometimes she even gets up and sniffs around in a limited space before sitting back down.

All of the potential therapies (especially hydro) I have looked into are either too expensive for our limited means or, more importantly, too far away or just plain non-existent. We live in a remote area with the nearest three towns not even having a vet. All of those towns are over a half hour drive from us and those of any size (as in more than 5,000 people) are over 45 minutes to an hour away.The vet we took her to for surgery is an hour and a half away -- and that is the closest we could find who could do this sort of surgery. I'm thinking we are going to try to build a pool for her this summer, but that will be awhile off.

I would love to try her with games, but we simply have no easy way to do that. We have 9 dogs -- all of whom we love dearly -- living in the house with us; divided into 3 groups to prevent fighting. (4 are rescued pitbull mixes -- all brothers who get along in pairs, but not all together.) Boo lives in her group of 5 others -- all but one are elderly -- so one-on-one activities are difficult if not impossible. They get along perfectly, but the young one of the group is very active and food oriented and would never let her have a chance. I may have to isolate her for an hour every day for activities like that, but as I already switch/rotate groups through the house about 6 times a day, I have so little time for anything else it seems impossible to find a spare 5 minutes!

I do think I will try the green bean diet. I already cook all my dogs food, so that is not difficult. I just hope she will enjoy eating green beans and not feel as though she is being mistreated when she sees the others eating. Of course, I offer lean chicken, grains and other healthy fruits and vegetables as well. I think motivating her to exercise may be the biggest challenge.

Anyway, time to go walk a couple of bored pups before the next rotation. Thanks again for your help! I will keep you posted if she starts perking up a bit.

PS

One last thing I almost forgot to mention. She doesn't mind the shoe since I never leave it on her except to go out, so that isn't a problem.