jerry said
Hello and welcome, we are so glad you posted and hope that we can be of help in finding a good path to take for Parker.

You've done an excellent job at doing your homework and getting opinions and facts. When you have a little time on your side, it's so much better to investigate all paths. FWIW, here are my thoughts on your discoveries:

1) Yep, primary care vets will likely say that amputation is the easiest path to take. It's a relatively quick and easy process when cancer isn't involved, and it gets the patient "fixed" and back to a better state of health. But what these vets don't see until much later, are the long-term effects of amputation on a dog or cat. So essentially amputation, when there are other options that might work, is like trading one set of problems for another (see Spree's story). We have to carefully weigh the pros and cons of each.

2) And yep, a surgeon will say that surgery is better than amputation. They hate it! In fact one of the world's most famous vet ortho surgeons introduced himself to me by saying "Amputation is my enemy!" He was half joking of course, but still meant it. Ortho vets want to fix the ortho problem, because it's what they do best, day in and day out. And they love a good challenge case like Parker's. The vet you picked sounds excellent. May I ask what specialty center you are working with? A great ortho surgeon can and often does save legs from amputation. And in the long run if you can do that, you are guaranteeing a higher quality of life for the animal than amputation can. As much as we say it's better to hop on three than limp on four, the fact is that a dog with four legs will move and age better than a dog with three. 

3) You are correct that many people have joined us after failed attempts at saving a leg. There are many reasons why surgeries fail, from the skill of the practitioner to the way in which the parent handles the recuperation and rehab period. It really varies and in our community we don't always know exactly why limb salvage surgeries lead to amputation in the long run. Suffice to say that when surgeries do fail there is usually a lot of money spent beforehand. What I am hearing from you is that a serious, committed orthopedic recovery phase would be tricky and yep, difficult with a high energy packmate like your Aussie. What is your gut feeling about your family's ability to commit to the vet's requirements for healing?

One of the big questions I have now is, did the orthopedic vet say if a prosthetic limb is an option? If not, why not? Is the vet not experienced with prosthetics ? If not, please find one who is. We can help locate one if you'd like. If the ortho vet you saw didn't address it, then I think this is the one element that hasn't been introduced into the conversation and it really should.

Because for as much money and time commitment as prosthetics take, you still wouldn't be looking at nearly as much money or time as a lengthy recovery period from the limb extension surgery. Yes, a commitment to a prosthetic limb for a pet is a life-long thing; you need to train her to use it and she will need to have it serviced and replaced every so often and that's not cheap. But if there is a chance that at least two joints on that bad leg can be left behind so that she can wear a prosthetic, she can have an excellent quality of life on three that is higher than amputation alone can offer.

I hope this helps you consider all the options. Please let us know what you decide.

  

Thanks for the reply! We are trying to figure out the best thing to do and I'm nothing if not committed to researching the best course of action. 

Our vet did not talk to us about a prosthetic and I didn't even think to mention it. That might be something we need to look into, how do we go about finding a vet that would know of these things? 

We are working with an orthopedic specialist who splits her time between the small local office near us and a larger hospital. She did state that in order for us to do the surgery procedure we would need (she would prefer that facility but said she could find others as well if we didn't want to go there) go to OSU, Ohio State University as that is where she went to school and she said they have a great orthopedic surgery center with the equipment needed if we want to do the procedure. We are located closer to Youngstown Ohio near the Pittsburgh PA line so we are directly between Pittsburgh and Cleveland and can go to either large city for second opinions on any of this in the future as well. 

The vet did say for now she is fine on that leg and does use it, so if we chose not to do the leg extender surgery we could work with Parker to ensure she can keep that leg as long as possible unless we get told otherwise from a different vet. Our gut is telling us that the recovery from the leg surgery would be really hard for us, and I don't know that I would be able to ensure that 5months, or even a year out or more from the surgery that she won't hurt it again because of the type of play and activities involving the Aussie. If she were in a one dog home for sure, but recovery is really what makes us pause and not jump on option 1.