Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

My Saint Bernard, Lady Jayne (we call her Lady), became a tripod on May 8, 2019. I first noticed a lump on her right front leg about 2 weeks ago. When I saw it, I was immediately terrified. We had a dog about 20 years ago that had osteosarcoma and my mind immediately raced to this diagnosis, though I really hoped and prayed I was wrong. We brought her to our vet the next day and based on the feel of it and the xrays of the bone, our vet didn’t initially think it was osteosarcoma. She aspirated some fluid, and it showed some inflammatory cells along with some atypical cells. A punch biopsy was done a few days later, and that gave us my most feared diagnosis. Lady DID have osteosarcoma.

Lady is 11 1/2 years old and additional tests showed she has hip dysplasia in her rear hips and arthritis in her rear feet, which is not unusual for her breed and age. However her blood test results were more consistent with a much younger dog. Xrays also showed her lungs to be clear and our vet said it didn’t look like the cancer had spread. In fact she staged it as a Stage 1, which meant that along with chemotherapy, Lady should be able to do well as a tripod. I tried to do as much research online as I could and was very encouraged by You Tube videos that showed dogs doing amazingly well after amputation. Nevertheless, this was one of the most difficult decisions my husband and I ever had to make as pet parents. We adopted Lady just 8 months ago and have fallen in love with her! She is the sweetest and best behaved dog we’ve ever had. We felt like we were between a rock and a hard place. Do we do nothing and have Lady die in a few months? Or do we amputate her right front leg and possibly ruin the quality of her life? We opted for the surgery and the possibility of extending her life and her time with us.

Lady came through the surgery well and after a two-night stay in the hospital, she came home. It has taken us several days to figure out how best to help our Lady. Initially we had mattresses set up in the family room for her, since that is where we spend the most time. But the slick wood floors and the distance to the front door made it difficult to get Lady out the front door to the yard to go potty. So we moved her mattresses to the dining room, which is close to the front door and carpeted, which gave her much better traction . We used towels to support her and then switched to two fleece lined slings to help lift her. The slings are good but they slip. So then we decided to use the sling to support her back half and a harness with a handle to support her front half. This works pretty well but because she is so long, we really need a larger and longer harness. Thankfully, I found your Tripawd site online and have ordered a Web Master Plus Harness with brush guard. I think this may be just what we need to give Lady the proper support for walking and other daily activities. I can hardly wait for it to arrive in the mail.

Lady has truly amazed me at how hard she is trying to adapt to being a tripod. She is able to get herself up and walk a few steps on her own before getting tired. Mostly we try to give her support when she walks. She has been great about giving us signals and getting outside in time to pee or poop. We did have one bad poop accident, but it was our fault for not reacting quickly enough. We hope that with time and practice, we will all adapt to this new life. This Wednesday she will get her stitches removed and will have her first chemotherapy session. It is another hurdle that we aren’t looking forward to, but the sooner it’s all done, the sooner we can all hopefully get on with being optimistic about Lady’s future.

We are working at improving her appetite. Right now dog food doesn’t interest her as much as people food. She loves little wieners and cheese wrapped up in ham or turkey. At this point, I’m  just glad to have found something she will eat. Lady does seem to sleep a lot. I know she needs to rest to recuperate. I also know that she is not in pain because she sleeps so well. But I wonder if she is depressed about the change in her life and is that why she is sleeping so much? We do get her up and outside at least 4 times a day, and sometimes 5 or 6 times a day. 

I am so very glad to have found the Tripawd website!! You provide a wealth of information and I am so grateful to you!