It'll help, in  a way, that she's had practice not putting weight on that leg already.  Our tripawds often learn how to be three legged, while they still have all four, but are working to avoid the pain of walking on the bad leg.

Gerry has a similar backstory - well as best as the shelter and its vet could guess from the x-rays, cause they had almost no history on him.  They said it looked like he had had some kind of traumatic knee injury in the past (probably from being hit by a car), but it wasn't too recent and it hadn't healed right and was going to continue to hurt, and I think get worse as well.  The shelter that originally had him in Indiana and sent him to a shelter in Madison, WI (presumably because they were too full) hadn't alerted the shelter in Madison that he was injured, so possibly they hadn't even realized it.  He sure could still drag a person along by his leash, even while favoring that leg (the limp wasn't hardly noticeable to a lay person initially).

But enough about my boy...

From what I've experienced, plus read here on the forums, dogs are generally ready for a pretty normal doggy life by the time the stitches/staples come out, which like admin said, is 12-14 days.  Often though, even after the 14 days, they're still be building endurance on the three legs and need the length of their walks and play time to gradually increase.

The only thing Gerry truly can't do his scratch his left ear with his back left leg - cause it's not there.  It's pretty sad when his stub starts going, wanting to scratch that itch - but I've gotten pretty skilled at finding that itch for him!  He runs (really runs), he jumps (though less jumping is best - don't need the extra stress on the remaining legs), he plays, he digs, swims, goes up and down stairs, etc.  Results vary, but with a young, otherwise healthy and uninjured dog, your tripawd should be able to experience all the joys of being a dog.

My experiences (and Gerry's was the second canine amputation I've been through as a dog mom) have been that the side effects of the pain meds were more challenging than keeping the incision safe so it can heal.  But it certainly depends on the dog and luck   That said, regarding the incision, it is absolutely worth every moment of your dog's misery to keep that e-collar (aka "the cone") on her.  If your dog can lick the incision, healing is going to be put off longer and longer and longer.  Gerry's original cone wasn't quite long enough and he was sneaking licks around his cone when I wasn't looking and that meant an extra weeks before his staples could come out and he could get back to normal dog frolicking.  And that was an extra two weeks of wearing a cone (a longer more effective cone).

And FYI, since I alluded to my first tripawd, his name was Yoda and he had osteosarcoma and he still did as awesome as Gerry, just had less time due to the cancer.  Yoda lost his front right leg.  The one thing I wasn't sure he would be able to re-learn (it took him three months) was how to chase his tail again.  I didn't doubt that he'd still manage to catch a rabbit - and he did.  Potentially one of the biggest risks with a new tripawd, is underestimating her abilities, haha!

Lest I sound too positive about what lies ahead - yes it's major surgery to take off a leg and recovery is nearly always very stressful.  But once you get through the recovery and all is well with her, you're in for a great time!

I'll leave it at that and let others jump in with the helpful tips!

Hi and welcome - I have only recently joined this group when our pup broke her leg and it had to be amputated. this forum has given me so much advice and support over the last few weeks and Im sure it will for you too. We were really worried that Kayla wouldn't be a "normal" dog after the amputation too, but now almost 3 weeks later she is worse than she even was with four legs.  🙂 she is back to digging in the vege garden, chasing the cats and getting into typical puppy mischief (she shreaded 5 rolls of toilet paper the other day in quarter of an hour)   It truly is amazing how quickly they adapt and get on with life and it is so much harder on the owner than it is on the dog!

Good luck and I hope the recovery is uneventful.

Hi Rachel and pack! To answer your question, will your dog be able to do all of the things she did before the amputation, check this out! Pawsome! This was at the beach just this past Friday. Cadence had her amputation in late July due to cancer. She was already walking by the day after surgery and galloping and hopping up on the deck by day 3 and doing full blown out running the days after. I know it is scary but these dogs are amazingly resilient. They will be back to there old selves surprising you and everyone else before you know it. It sounds like you are doing all the right things. And like someone said before if you have any questions, call your surgeon. I was always researching online or calling into the surgeon to find out if the amputation site or the behaviors she was doing was part of the healing process. I am surprised the vet said no walks until her stitches are out. I took Cadence a block or two on walks before her staples came out but we didn't go beyond that. I wanted to start strengthening her remaining leg.