Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
Tripawds is your home to learn how to care for a three legged dog or cat, with answers about dog leg amputation, and cat amputation recovery from many years of member experiences.
Join The Tripawds Community
Learn how to help three legged dogs and cats in the forums below. Browse and search as a guest or register for free and get full member benefits:
Instant post approval.
Private messages to members.
Subscribe to favorite topics.
Live Chat and much more!
Register
Log In
Members
Add Topic
Offline
A bit of background for you all!
My border collie Lady had a terrible accident when she was 5 years old where she tore her cranial and caudal cruciate ligaments in one knee when she was jumping into a stream and got caught in a protruding root coming out of the bank. For anyone who's had their dog damage a ligament you'll know that its more common to tear just the cranial - rare to do the caudal and even rarer to do both together!! So it was a complete trauma and she had expensive surgery to repair both ligaments. Sadly she managed to undo the work on the cranial which meant a second surgery to add some tougher band to stablise the joint again. So a lot of scar tissue in that knee.
After both tears and two surgeries you can imagine what a mess her leg has been. We've done hydrotherapy to get her muscle strength up but she will always favour that leg. She 'bunny hops' up every set of stairs we climb and when she trots/runs, again its with the hops. She's on meds every day, twice a day - pain relief (tramadol and Gabopentin) plus metacam every day and joint supplements.
About a year or so after all this trauma she has become very afraid of certain noises outside (first fireworks, then gunshot then loud car exhausts) so getting her to walk at all can be a struggle. I know she is still in pain and I wonder when she tightens her body from fright at these noises if it makes things worse for her and she feels that pain intensified. I joke about the fact that I have a border collie who doesn't want to exercise. Its insane.
Anyway, sometimes when she's resting I see her curling her foot of the bad leg and when bad weather comes she is more limpy (she has severe arthritis from all the surgery), essentially her bad leg appears only to be useful when she is walking, otherwise when she is standing still it is never FULLY on the ground.
I have to have a 6 month check up with my vet and speaking to him yesterday he mentioned that we have room for upping the medication dosage if we need to as she's on a medium dosage of one and a lower dosage of the other.
It was then me who said "What about amputation?". My vet was a bit shocked that it was me bringing it up and said he honestly didn't give it a thought before with Lady (I'm sure for him most amputations are done on pets with bone cancer and of course it is a last resort) but the more he thought about it the more he thought it was a GOOD idea. She's 8 now, not getting any younger, her good leg has a decent amount of muscle already as she's been using that already to carry herself.
My vet said that usually the worry with amputation is what happens if the good leg is damaged but he thought that it would have happened by now if the ligament was going to go in the good leg - and as mentioned the bad one was caused by a nasty accident so there should be no major risk with Lady of doing the second leg. He admitted that even with all 4 legs as they are, she would be in a tricky situation with the good leg being damaged so why not remove the problem now?
I loathe giving her meds everyday, she hates it, its not fun for either of us and I don't like the idea of her being 'out of it' all day long on tramadol.
Her bad leg will ONLY get worse and I don't honestly think she's ever had a pain free day since her accident happened but please people from experience - am I jumping the gun here? My vet said he would be happy to do the operation on her and he would tell me if he thought it wasn't necessary and despite me being the one to bring the subject up I still have that bit of doubt in my mind about it.
Would I be better sticking to meds so she can keep all 4 legs or by removing the bad leg I'm hoping she can return more to the happy dog she was before the accident. That may not happen I know but I just can't bear her being in pain. I want her to enjoy her last few years and currently she is not.
Please anyone been in a similar situation? Should I wait? Should I do it now? I am desperate for an outside opinion from people who have been there before. You guys know what we're going through. It just feels more complicated because pain management seems to be the go to solution for her problem but it doesn't appear to be working but removing her leg is so FINAL. There is no going back from that decision..
I am so sorry for the rambling!
Thank you for reading x
Hi Lady and Family, welcome. Your future posts won't need to wait for approval so post away.
You are facing a tough dilemma for sure! It's so hard to know the best path to take when there is no 'urgent' need to move forward, as opposed to facing this when cancer is involved. But when you look at the long-term repercussions of her situation, you know it's best to decide soon. So, at least you have a bit of time on your side to look at the pros and cons.
First, if you haven't already, seek a consultation with an orthopedic surgeon. They are the best qualified person to let you know how amputation might affect her mobility. That alone may give you the confidence to move forward if you choose to.
Next, keep in mind what a great ortho vet told us once: amputation solves one problem now, but it creates more later on. For instance, a dog on three legs will be more prone to osteoarthritis later on in life. So just because you amputate Lady's limb, doesn't mean she won't still need ongoing pain management as she ages. In fact, many Tripawds do require some type of long term pain control. See our posts about senior dogs for some examples.
Also, Lady's reluctance to use that limb could be a problem easily resolved with canine rehab therapy. Has she seen one yet? If not, now is the time, to see if you can give her more mobility now and avoid amputation altogether.
Should you decide to amputate, you want to see if she can qualify for a prosthesis. Pet prosthetics can give animals an excellent quality of life and if you can leave a lot of residual limb, she would probably be a good candidate. Again, an ortho surgeon experienced with prosthetics can guide you in that area.
I hope this helps! Stay tuned for feedback from others and keep us posted.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Lady sounds like a real trooper! She's very lucky to have you as an advocate.
Yes, definitely a consultation with an Orthopedic Surgeon! I noted she's doing hydrotherapy, so does that mean this is at the advice of a Rehabilitation Specialist? Be sure and mention the paw knuckles as that "could" be a sign of disc issues.
Another thing we''ve learned here, Tramadol has sort of fallen out of favor as an effective pain med. It can also cause some wackiness in dogs. Just wondering of that's why loud noises are messing with her. Anyway, The Gabapentin is a very good choice. Also, you may check into Amantadine. It seems to help some dogs with arthritis.
I will say this about amputation. It's one surgery and done! The recovery period is about two weeks and generally no pain meds are needed after recovery. Some do stay on low doses a bit longer. And as Jerry said, arthritis can show up as a dog ages (actually with or without amputation) and antiinflmmatory meds help with that.
You are doing a good job of checking out options and doing research. FWIW, bringing up amputation does seem like a pawsitive way to put all this behind you and have your pup living a pain free life. The Orthopedic Surgeon can advise if Lady is a good candidate and take you through the process if that the best path forward.
Keep is posted.
Hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!And no, you were not rambling! You provided a lot of good background that was very helpful
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
1 Guest(s)
