Our Callie is a 7.5 year old yellow lab/border collie mix who just had her left rear leg amputated due to a soft tissue sarcoma in a bad place for tumour removal, right above the knee. It was a 2x4 to the head moment when an oncologist first told us the best course was amputation, but a surgeon and our vet agreed. She is our sixth dog since the early 1990s, two shelter dogs and four that just showed up, common when you live in a rural area. So we are experienced in end of life, all were euthanized at 10-12 except one who went at 5. One also had a STS that was removed and then required additional surgery but still only lasted a few months. Still regret putting him through the second surgery

We are now post op day 8, her surgery was a week ago yesterday, and things have gone reasonably well, which hides a lot of sleep loss and stress. A few details for those wanting another example of how things can go, good and bad. We now live in a town of 100k but without a vet hospital; we consulted with an oncologist and surgeon about an hour away but finally decided to go with a trusted local vet with experience in the procedure but no facilities for keeping her over night so we brought her home the same day. She was alert and could stand a bit when we picked her up.

The first night was not fun. They said there would be blood but we didn’t realize how much we would have to stay on top of it. But by PostOp Day 1 she was drinking and ate a bit. Even peed late that night. She steadily improved Day 2 and 3; we were able to get her out a few times walking around. However, by Day 4 she stopped peeing regularly and no dumps. At one point she went over 30 hours without urinating. Finally Day 6 she dumped in the morning but no pee, and at 5 did both and again later that night. Fairly regurlar now. But those days were stressful. She’s mostly off pain meds now and doing good; still some mood and appetite changes. Stitches come out in six days.

I wish I had found this site before hand, though my brain probably couldn’t have focused on much in the days before surgery. I am looking for info on the expected things: funiture (can she get on the couch again etc), floors (we have mostly hardwood but some area rugs, more now), two stairs to transit to go out in the yard, physical conditioning, nutrition, etc. I’ve bought the e books but haven’t had time to poke around the site much.

So any tips, pointers to resources etc. would be appreciated. I would also like to know if there is a way through the site to meet other tripawd parents in our area.