Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hello all. We're in the Seattle area and 14 days post op on a rear leg amputation. Kess is 7 years old and started having swelling in her ankle joint at 5. A mass was removed by surgery 1.5 years ago and came back as negative for cancer. Over the past 18 months the swelling returned and increased dramatically. Mass was tested 3 more times and always came back negative. Finally decided to have the leg amputated and a sample with bone was sent in. So after 3 vets, 2 surgeries, 3 cell biopsies, and 2 tissue biopsies, I got the call yesterday that it was synovial cell sarcoma. Looking around online it sounds pretty horrible, but for now she's cancer free and no one told her she's going to die, and I don't plan on treating her that way.
Kess is an accomplished athlete and plays flyball, herding, agility, and disc. I've always owned border collies and Kess is by far the most brutish, athletic, and hyper BC I've ever encountered. The hardest thing right now is getting her to slow down and take it easy. She's always stuck on go and moves through life like a bull in a china shop. We have pergo floors in half the house and she's slipping out a lot when she gets excited or tries to move too fast. I thought at first to let her figure out that she needs to SLOW DOWN, but that just might not be in her personality. Do you recommend a boot for her back leg to help with traction ?
Kess shares her life with a border/beagle, 2 cats, and 2 toddlers. So it's busy around here. If anyone else has experience specific to synovial cell sarcmoa I'd love to hear from you. She doesn't have any in her lungs or lymphnodes, which is some good news. By what I've read online she already beaten the odds somewhat.
I'd also love to hear some timelines for recovery. She's been on leash walks only for almost 2 years due to the first surgery and swelling in her joint. We are lucky enough to have an indoor dog pool about 10min away so I planned on starting her out with swimming, but wasn't sure at what pace I should advance the activity. She's pretty happy now that she's pain free and I just don't want her to over do it before the rest of her body catches up to her enthusiasm.
Hello and welcome to Tripawds.
We always say that it too bad that you HAD to find us, but you have found a great place for information and support.
You should bookmark what we call Jerry's Required Reading List. Lots of info there on amputation, recovery, and cancer treatments.
There is also a ebook that you can download called Three Legs & a Spare, an interactive PDF eBook for immediate answers to most common dog amputation questions.
You are already at the end of the two week healing period after amputation that most of us found to be difficult. And it sounds like Kess is healed up and ready to go!!
You can also check out the Tripawds Gear Blog for ideas on traction for Kess.
My pug Maggie was a rear amp, and I had pergo floors when she had her amp. I got rid of the pergo and put in tile 
(actually it was planned before her amp). There is no way Mag would wear booties or socks. I went the throw rug route- one sure way to tell a tripawd lives here is to see the mish mash of rugs on hard surfaces! The other thing I found helpful was to keep the fur around her toes and between her pads trimmed short, and I used Musher's Secret on her pads to keep them supple. There is info on Musher's Secret in the gear blog link above.
Check out Maggie The Agile Cow Dog's blog (the 'other' Maggie). That Maggie is an agility dog and also a rear amp. I'm sure you'll hear from her mom Tracy.
If you hunt around the Gear blog you will see lots of links to training and exercising for Tripawds.
but for now she's cancer free and no one told her she's going to die, and I don't plan on treating her that way.
OK- I've said enough- but you sure are starting with the right attitude!
I'm looking forward to hearing more about Kess.
Karen and the pugapalooza
p.s. since you registered as a member all of your posts will show up without waiting for moderation from now on as long as you remember to log in each time (just the very first member post has to be moderated).
Congrats on getting through what we call the "two weeks of hell" (post amp)!!!
I too have a dog who had a similar type of cancer (soft tissue sarcoma), but hers was spindle cell sarcoma. From what I've heard, these are rare types of cancer and sometimes hard to diagnose. We just got lucky that our vet diagnosed it with the first aspirate and biopsy. Anyway, she's always had a flair for running, chasing, and being an active dog in general. It was sooo hard to keep her mobility to a minimum during the critical weeks of recovery.
As for advice for how much, it really depends on your dog's personality and what you observe in Kess. Since CHloe still had loads of energy even after surgery, I knew I could do a little more than some of the other recovering tripawds especially since she is technically cancer free (yay for no chemo!). For Chloe, I gradually increased the lengths of her walks until she could do 1.3 miles (with a big hill) no problem. Then my "physical therapy" was to take her to the beach every day (still do!) so she could build up strength in the back leg by walking on the sand. Sounds like your access to a pool would be great for Kess's physical therapy! Chloe is not a water girl (unless it is the hose), so we had to find alternatives…
Here she is running on the sand playing with other dogs! We just celebrated her 3 month ampuversary! (she is the one in the red harness)
And if you are interested, you can offer some support to a min pin named Lyndon who was recently diagnosed with synovial sarcoma. Click here to visit Lyndon's blog! He goes in for amputation soon and his pawrents are worried about the outcome. Sounds like Kess has a great prognosis and I am sure your great recovery story would help lessen some of their worry!
-Chloe's mom
P.S. and as for "timelines" this is what Chloe was doing:
2 weeks – running and chasing squeakers
1 month – walk 1.3 miles with big hill regularly (paved walkway)
2 months – 2 mile walks on the beach (every day!), able to go up/down flight of 30 stairs, and "rock climb" (see blog post)
3 months – can do a 3.3 mi walk (we don't do this much all the time) and she continues to run on the beach to play with other doggies!
Chloe became a rear amp tripawd on 7-29-10. Another tumor was removed on front leg 2-20-14. Found 3rd tumor on neck 2-2015, but she's still kicking cancer's butt at age 14. Chloe's blog
Welcome and thanks for joining! We're sorry to hear about Kess but glad you found us. As a healthy Border Collie she should recover quickly and completely. Most dogs are back to their good ol' selves within a couple weeks. Drastic improvement usually ocurrs once off the pain meds.
Karen provided some great great tips in those links. For the fastest answers, consider downloading the new Tripawds e-book. For indoor traction , and to see if Kess tolerates things on her feet, we suggest the Power Paws traction socks for dogs. But the best all purpose, all terrain boots we found for Wyatt are the Ruff Wear Bark'n Boots. Just be sure to measure carefully, though you may find she nothing nothing more than carpet runners throughout the house if you have slippery floors.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Welcome Kess, the BC! As has been said, not really the place you want to be but if you have to, this is the BESTEST place to be for our Tripawd journey's.
It sounds like the "two week recovery from hell" hasn't been too bad at all for kess! Good for Kess! My dog, Maggie, is also a rear amp. I use the PAWZ rubber booties on her when in places where the footing isn't good. Here's my thoughts...I THINK that a rear amp might have a tougher time with slipping than a front amp, especially if they have any length and/or angle to their rear leg. My dog is part GSD, very tall and leggy...alot of angle although not as much as a pure GSD like Wyatt. With a front amp the leg is more like a table leg - straight up and down and less movement back and forth ilke a rear leg pushing off on the hindend. Make sense at all? 😉 My house, too, is covered in a mish-mash of rubber back throw rugs to cover up any slippery hardwood flooring or linoleum as well.
With your dog being a BC and true to form it sounds, you may have to regulate her movements from time to time so she doesn't over do it. I know I do with my dog at times but she is NOT like a BC in overdrive like they can be.
My dog was an agility dog as well before this but those days are done now except we play a little bit with hoops and maybe a short straight tunnel...she is very tall, taller than a tunnel, so I don't like her to squat to go thru them and going at speed as well.
We compete in Rally Obedience now and the new Wag It Games competition that is just coming out(similar to rally and downscaled agility obstacles).
For my dog, it has been a slow recovery really....she can do now 1-1.5 miles of walking with no issues....but it was a long haul to get her built up to that. I really saw a huge difference in her by August this summer...and she was amputated Oct '09. And I have done lots of PT work with her to get her built back up... now, she moves often like she is NOT even missing that leg 🙂 Happy days for my dog this summer...gradually building and building back up. BUT that said, your dog is a much more active dog than mine so it may not take as long to get back into 'gear'!
It sure seems common that test results fail to give the correct diagnosis! My dog had soft tissue sarcoma on her left knee but which TYPE of STS, we could never figure that out even with many special stains done. I gave up after a while trying to get a definite type nailed down.
Good luck to you and Kess!
Tracy, Maggie's Mom
Maggie was amputated for soft tissue sarcoma 10-20-09
Maggie lost her battle with kidney disease on 8-24-13
Kess, I'm going to be that with your energy, nothing's gonna stop you! I was part border-collie too, and even after I lost my leg, nothing stopped me from playing frisbee or running around!
All cancer sounds so scary when you first start doing the research. But remember, statistics are really just guesses and many times, dogs will beat the odds. Many, many Tripawds here have. There are no guarantees, but as you'll see with stories like MollyDog, who lived over a year past amputation with Synovial Cell Sarcoma, these successes DO happen!
Whatever we can do to help, let us know. Sounds like you have a very good idea of how to handle recovery and not overdoing it. My best advice is, be mindful of how much activity she gets and don't let her overdo it, but always find it in you to just let her be a dog and enjoy life.
P.S. While we don't get a lot of synovial cell sarcoma cases here, if you PM MollyDog's people, I'm sure they would be happy to share their experience with you.
Thanks for joining us here.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
thanks everyone. Kess went in for her check-up had her staples removed and dragged the poor Dr. down the hall. I was able to speak with the surgeon who did a full autopsy on the leg and she felt that since the tumor had not spread to the next joint or lymphnodes that there's a very good chance that this is the last we'll see of the cancer. Yay for some good news FINALLY!
Kess did have a back injury 2 years back, and initially they thought she had ruptured a disc, but as it healed on it's own, they now think that maybe it was just injured/bulging?? At any rate she mentioned that we should keep a close eye as she might devolp some curvature in her spine from hopping. She mentioned that there's specific pt to help with this, has anyone encountered this problem?
Kess has been on limited activity for almost 2 years while all of this got sorted out so we'll need to take things slow. She slipping a lot less, and I did trim up her fur on her feet early on. I already did this as it's muddy in the NW and less fur on the feet = less mud in the house. I've got some spry we used to use in flyball to help the dogs have traction . It's basically tree sap in a spray bottle. Just makes their foot a little sticky. I'm hoping to avoid the booties, but she will tollerate them. I saw ruff wear sells singles for replacements and I will probably pick up a skyliner and keep it in the car, just in case the need arrises while we're out and about.
She's down to pain meds 1 per day, and is back to harrassing the cats, kids, and me! Plan to start with just some light circle work in the yard for the first couple weeks and maybe some swimming. In 6 weeks I plan to put her in the agility foundations class with my instructor. They do mostly body awareness the first 6 weeks, and I think think it would be an excellent way for Kess to get a new sense for her body. We hope to compete in jumpers since we can get a double drop in nadac, which would make her jump height 12". Since she can take that in stride I think it would be fine. Any thoughts?
We are lucky to know an amazing tripawd and her owner in the NW. Maty is the first ever tripawd to compete at the skyhoundz disc dog world championship and came in 7th, a huge accomplishment for anyone. http://www.face.....0?filter=3
thanks again for all of the kind words and information. I've got a lot of reading to do.
Welcome Kess and Family,
I apologize for missing this!
It sounds like you are on the right track! AND YAY for good news about the cancer not spreading!
Comet who hops on three legs because she has a deformed front leg is about border collie size and did very well her whole life. She's now 12+, so she's not mobile like when she was young. She's never done booties. We have carpet runners down on the tile in our house and that's the best solution. I've always been a little leary of putting something on the pads for traction because the remaining leg can have too much traction and can be like brakes. (if you know what I mean) I sometimes put this gooey oinment in a small jar that is for human cracked heels on her pads to soften them.
Best of luck to you guys and welcome aboard!
Comet's mom
Comet - 1999 to 2011
She departed us unexpectedly January 23, 2011 at the age of 12 1/2.
She was born with a deformed front leg and a tripawd all of her life.
She is doing great. I don't think Trouble got around that well before surgery.;(
Shanna & Spirit Trouble ~ Trouble gained her wings 3/16/2011, a 27 1/2 month cancer survivor, tail wagging. RIP sweetheart, you are my heart and soul. Run free at Rainbow Bridge.
The November Five - Spirits Max, Cherry, Tika, Trouble & Nova. 11/2008 - 3/2013 An era ends as Queen Nova crossed the Bridge.
Way to go Kess!!! She looks great running circles in the yard! Also great news about no spread, we got the same news and its wonderful knowing they are cancer free!!!
I am sure Kess will keep on surprising you. I know Chloe has! For example: she climbed over the couch, jumped out a window (1' off the ground, 1st floor), is still a faster runner than most humans and still likes to be a goofball. We look forward to hearing about Kess's agility work in the future!!!
-Chloe's mom
Chloe became a rear amp tripawd on 7-29-10. Another tumor was removed on front leg 2-20-14. Found 3rd tumor on neck 2-2015, but she's still kicking cancer's butt at age 14. Chloe's blog
great job Kess and people!
Sammy and I used to do agility at the Seattle Agility Center. He went through all the classes just about twice because I was the only one interested in it. He did it for me. We did make it through advanced handling together, but I finally stopped dragging him to it because it was obvious to everyone that even though his tail was wagging he was not interested. I couldn't teach him a work ethic, he was too busy talking to the crowds!
Now, many years and thousands of dollars later, he knows how to sit. I am fine with that
I love the thought of working with dogs like Kess, the intensity, the drive. I would love to get in front of a crowd and compete to show our connection with each other and the speed, wow the speed!
I think watching a person and a dog being a team is really amazing. Keep it up, she looks great
Elizabeth and Sammy
Diagnosed with osteosarcoma in the right front leg 8/23/10,
leg fractured 8/27/10,
leg amputated 8/30/10
http://sammyand.....pawds.com/
I couldn't begin to say how special Sammy is to us. Living and laughing with and loving this wonderful boy is priceless.
Don't fee bad Elizabeth. I easlily spent thousands on herding lessons, heck $500 just for one clinic, and then decided well duh I live in the city.
My other dog is a border/jack or maybe a border/beagle and she's as lazy as they come. I've got to try and train both extremes. Always trying to get Kess to slow down and think and always trying to get Suki to pick it up a little.
Dogs that are alwasy on go represent a whole new bunch of training challenges. Kess has had more injuries from running in to stationary objects than I care to count and she'd just as soon go through me as around to get to her goal. I'll take the thoughtful dog any day. Suki doesn't have much fun at agility yet, but it's a confidence issue for her. We go out to Michael Bruce in Woodinville. Amazingly nice guy and he really focuses on the bond. Heck we're two years in on lessons and still have some equipment we haven't tried. I was Suki's 4th owner and she was kept crated and not socialized so she's had some hurdles. The first of which being to learn how to run at 14 months. I swore up and down I was going to get a big happy dumb dog when my last BC got old and instead I opted for rescues w/baggage (and a cute face). Wouldn't change a thing, it's wonderful to watch them come out of their shells and finds themselves.
If I didn't know she was missing a leg I'd swear she wasn't. I mean look at her GO! Very cool, and so nice to see!
I just noticed that you said you know Maty. We've heard all about that special pup and would love to meet him someday. Forgot that he was in the PacNW, we were just there. Doh!
Meanwhile, if you ever feel like playing movie director, we'd love to see some of the work you do during agility. As for jumping, I think as long as you keep it within reason and ensure that she isn't too sore, she should be OK. I would also consult with a rehab therapist to make sure. You're so fortunate to live in such a dog-friendly place with so many resources.
Kess, you rock! Keep it up!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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