Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi My name is Tina and we just had to have our 10 year old springer spaniel Lucy's back right leg amputated. It was a hard decision as all of you must know. She was diagnosed last November with a mass cell tumor on her back right knee. We removed the tumor and the doctor said that there would be a 15% chance that it would come back. In June there were 4 mass cell tumors on her back right leg. We did an ultrasound and it had not spread. We had her on four different types of Chemo even one from England called Masivet and none of them worked. About a week ago, her tumor blew up on her leg the size of a softball. We were trying for radiation at that point but our radiologist said that our only option was to remove her leg. She had the surgery this past Wednesday and she is doing great!! We had another ultrasound before the surgery and it had not spread to her organs. We had the leg tested after surgery to have her lymph nodes checked but haven't received those results yet. My question to all of you is will she be able to walk up and down carpeted stairs? Also, would love any other health advice that you have for me. What is the best food for her to be on going forward. We have her on ultra nutro max but are thinking of switching her to Acana food. Thank you soooo much and happy to have found this site.
Hello and welcome, your future posts will not have to wait for approval.
It's good to hear Lucy is doing well after surgery.
My pug Maggie lost her left rear leg to a MCT. After surgery the lymph node removed with her leg tested positive for cancerous mast cells. Her prognosis was 6 to 9 months, she lived almost 4 years and did not pass from the mast cell cancer. You can read her story and about her amp and chemo in her blog, the links are in my signature below.
As far as stairs, once she is healed up I would think she would do stairs just fine. Maggie was little and could only go up 2 or 3 stairs at at time after surgery, she could go down just about anything. However I now have a little pug mix who is also missing a back leg, Elly is smaller than Maggie and she files up and down the stairs! In general rear amps have more of a challenge going up stairs, front amps have more challenges going down.
As far a food goes, there are lots of options out there. We have information on diets and supplements in our Nutrition Blog .
You might also want to look through the Reading List for information on amputation and recovery.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Hi Karen,
Thank you soooo much for your reply. I really appreciate it. It will be interesting to see what she does with stairs. At this point, it has been hard keeping her down because she really wants to be active. It was also great to hear your report of the lymph nodes and that Maggie survived 4 more years. That is soooo amazing!! I will look up the nutrition blog and also the reading list. Thanks again for your help. Have a great weekend!! Also, did you treat your dog with chemo after you saw that it was in the lymph nodes? Also how old was your dog when she had the cancer. Thanks Karen
LUCY!!! WELCOME TO THE FAMILY KIDDO!! 🙂 Sounds like you are quite a spunky...er...."mature" gal!! And that works in your favor!
Tina, we know this has been an incredibly stressful time leading up to the surgery. And recocery certainly is no picnic for a couple of weeks! Slow and easy....just rest and short potty breaks and more rest. Lucy may have a bit of a "crash" now that all the hospital pain meds are out of her system. This doesn't always happen, just letting you know it might.
There are soooo many good choices of food out there now! In addition to the links Karen gave you, you can check out Whole Dog Journal and also The Dog Advisor. They both hzve done a good job of ranking dog food and identifying the ones that are high quality...And the ones that aren't. I know Acana is an off shoot of Orijen and think they rank fairly high. There are some human grade foods like Honest Kitchen that are good quality too.
My Happy Hannah was a somewhat "fluffy" rear leg Bull Mastiff (125 lbs). In her case, she never did master going up stairs but handles going down just fine. The reverse is sometimes true for front leggers. Based in the way you've described Lucy, she'll probably do just fine handling stairs. Not yet though!! No stairs, no jumping, etc.
And yeah, statistics don't mean much around here, and certainly don't mean squat to Lucy! What does matter to Lucy is being bynyiur side pain free, getting treats and lapping up loving and spoiling non-stop! 🙂 Days in a calendar don't mean anything to Lucy...but making the most out of each moment is all Lucy thinks about! Staying in the moment and enjoying the bliss of living in the now is what Lucy does.....we call that BEING MORE DOG!!! 🙂 🙂
Stay connected and let us know how things are going. We'd love to see pictures of this sweet gal!
Hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
Hi Tina,
Yes, we did do chemo- see my signature below for a link. I was told that WITH chemo she would have 6 to 9 months- so she really beat her prognosis!
Maggie was about 7.5 years old when she had her amputation, she was just under 7 when she had the first tumor on her side removed.
I forgot to say that for Maggie, and her little sis Tani who also had recurring MCTs, the diet was grain free . It wasn't because of the cancer at first- Tani had IBD. When I found this site (Maggie's amp was before Tripwads existed) I discovered that grain free was a good way to go. My current pups eat Honest Kitchen as the primary food, I use some kibble for treats and canned food to mix things up.
Karen
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Hi Karen,
I read your both your story's on Maggie and they were phenomenal!! I so greatly appreciate all of your help. I am so glad that I have found this site to connect to people. One question, were you giving grain free food to your dogs after you found out about the cancer? We are planning on giving both Lucy and our 8 month old puppy grain free food now. Would love to hear your thoughts. We are also going to look up Honest Kitchen too which sounds great!! Have a great rest of your weekend and so grateful for your help.
Tina
I have fed grain free for years now, since Tani was diagnosed with IBD. My two pups now also eat grain free , its a more natural diet for dogs whether or not they have cancer.
I went to Honest Kitchen (HK) at first because I wanted to get the dogs off kibble as their main source of food. I use a high quality kibble but event the high quality kibble is processed to some extent and has more calories per serving than something like HK.
Sally gave you a couple great suggestions above as well- look up Dog Food Advisor or Whole Dog Journal.
I'm glad Maggie's story was helpful 
I hope Lucy's recovery continues to go well.
Karen
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
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