Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

Hey there, my name is Bianca and I am new around here, so go easy on me .

I recently lost my right rear leg to chondrosarcoma.

But lets start at the beginning....

I'm not sure where I first lived because I am not too good at reading maps, but I was told by my current humans that I was found on the streets of Alexandria, VA by a very kind human after I had been hit by a car. I didn't have anybody back then and I was very lucky that the human that found me took me in, paid for my medical bills and nursed me back to health. At some point the lady couldn't take care of me anymore and some how I ended up at the humane society in Front Royal, VA. This is where I adopted my current humans. They were browsing the selection of dogs at the shelter. All my pals were jumping and barking, trying to get their attention, not me, I played it cool, leaned against the chain link and batted my long eyelashes
at them. Sold, they wanted the layed back, cool hound dog. I went home with them the next day to a nice spread in the Blue Ridge Mountains. That was 4 years ago, I think I am almost 7 years old now.

Ok, back to the story....

I already had moderate to severe hip dyspasia, and my humans were planning to get me a new hip this summer. I was outside playing one day and all of a sudden had extreme pain in my back leg....turns out my femur just up and broke. My humans called Virginia Tech Veterinary Teaching hospital right away and scheduled the hip replacement appointment they had been planning for me, as they feared the hip had just up and failed. They then took me to my local doctor and had some x-rays taken, that is the first time we heard that possibly the femural head had fractured. The x-rays were Fed-Ex'd to VA Tech but they thought they were inconclusive for a break and asked for another set to be taken, this time from a different view. On this one it was plain as day that there was a break. The nice humans at VA Tech made an emergency appointment for me right away.

When we got to VA Tech and the pre-op appointment, we were all thinking I was going in for a hip replacement, that is when the bomb was dropped. You see bones just don't break for no reason, and degenerative hip disease was not a valid reason. They told us that is was probably cancer. It could be a fungal or bacterial infection, but I could tell they had seen this before many times and that when they said they believed it was a cancerous tumor, they were probably right. My humans got real quiet and seemed upset, so I knew this was bad. We were told that what they could do for me today was a Femural Head Oscectomy, and that they would have the removed piece of bone tested for cancer.

So I had to stay with the doctors while my humans left. The next morning I was stuck with a needle and then went for a nice nap. When I woke up I wasn't feeling good overall, but the pain of the broken leg was gone because there was no more bone to bone contact. I stayed at VA Tech for 3 more days then was sent home with my humans. I could then do something I hadn't been able to do for a while, actually put pressure on the leg, heck I could almost use it pretty good after a few days. While I recovered my humans waited for the results of the tests done on the removed part of the bone.

10 days later the results came in, I had bone cancer. As it turns out it wasn't the type they were suspecting I had, it was a type that was less aggressive and could possibly be localized to the leg. The doctors recommended amputating my leg, they told my humans that it could possibly be a life saver, that I could live possibly 4 - 5 more years if the operation was done. If the operations wasn't done, they would not give a prognosis but let us know it could be considerably less, and that bone cancer is a very painfull thing to live with. My humans got all upset again and gave me lots more hugs. They were strong, but I could tell they were sad too.

Another emergency appointment was made for me at VA Tech, and my humans packed up the car for another week in Blacksburg.

I'm told some more x-rays and an ultrasound were done to make sure the cancer was not in other places in my body. Nothing is 100%, but from what they could see the only tumor was in my leg so they proceded with the amputation surgery.

The human doctors and students at VA Tech were really good to me, heck they were great. Very nice caring people, and smart too! If any of you other dogs out there have the missfortune I had, and need to have a serious surgery like the ones I had, tell your humans you deserve the best and you want to go to VA Tech to be taken care of! I've had a few seizures before, so I was kept in ICU under 24 hour surveilance the whole time. I had a whole team of humans taking care of my every need and making sure everything went well. I really appreciate them and gave them big kisses every chance I could.

I was kept another 3 or 4 days this time before I could go home, this time 5 pounds lighter because I lost a leg. The way I figure it, I wasn't using the leg much anyway, sort of just for balance or like a human would use a cane. Heck, actually there was a 2 week span where I didn't use it at all when it was broken, and I got by then, so I think I can do this.

As well as the doctors and students taking good care of me, I really appreciated my humans coming to visit me in the hospital and spending time with me sitting out in the grass. Even though I wasn't going home yet, it really helped my spirit and healing to have them come and see me every chance they had. I guess I will stick around.

It has been 2 weeks since the surgery, and about 2 days since I quit taking the pain medication. I'm starting to feel a bit like my old self. I hope my humans will continue to use me as their bear alarm, take me to the river for a swim, and for car rides, I'm still the same dog I was before, I might just need a little extra help and TLC every now and then to feel special. I will in turn make sure my humans know I appreciate them by watching out for them too.

Thanks for listening - woof.

-Bianca