It's been around 23 days post-surgery, and she seems weaker than she did in the 2 weeks post-op 🙁 Not sure why, but her back leg is buckling and seems to be struggling to support her weight.

Yesterday she was under heavy sedation for a tooth cleaning, so I'm sure that's affected her strength, but even just before that, she seemed to be getting weaker.

Does anyone have this experience - where the dog started off strong post-op and then became weaker?

I am wondering if it's because she tired herself out in the beginning (she was doing things she wasn't supposed to be doing like climbing and running), even though we were trying to restrict her activity...

@otisandtess, yes when I compare our girl’s story to other post-op stories on the forums, it sounds like she was too active in the first 2 weeks after surgery.

We are not allowing her to climb any house stairs, nor jump on the couch, but we have a hard time controlling her in the garden (even with 2 people supervising her!). She actually dodges us and races around, climbing over concrete garden separators and running. This is probably where the problem lies.

She did not get chest xrays because their xray machine wasn’t working properly. Another vet’s xray machines are broken so we’re kind of stuck not knowing if her cancer has spread or not. Blood tests are normal. We’re not doing chemo because honestly, neither I nor Venus could take that and I don’t think they even offer chemotherapy here. Thanks for the support – I really appreciate it!

@jerry: her leg usually buckles when she gets up after lying down for some time, and while she is running around bends, corners, etc. Also, after she has been standing for a while and tries to poo or pee, she is really struggling with that back leg. This happens on wooden floors, concrete and even grass.

Regarding weight: I am really upset about this. I have cut her food in half, it is less than the recommended feeding for her target weight and I honestly can’t cut anymore because she is so miserable about the reduction. To me it actually looks like she has gained weight, even though my brother (who is also looking after her) doesn’t think so.

Two vets we’ve consulted here don’t offer blood tests for hyperthyroidism, so we can’t even check that. It is extremely frustrating. I forgot to mention that during the teeth cleaning, we also asked the vet to trim her nails. They seemed fine that day, but the next day, one nail on the remaining back leg started bleeding and still hasn’t stopped. We’ve tried cotton, keeping her off cement, etc. and just now I’ve put a plaster on. This is another problem affecting mobility. If it doesn’t stop by tomorrow, we’ll have to take her to the vet again to cauterize it.

@midnighter94: I have also been massaging her body and back (not so much her legs though), but this does sound like it could be soreness so maybe I should pay more attention to that. I call my dobie “Moans and Groans” 🙂

Thank you guys for being so supportive and helpful!

@Jerry, funny thing is, the place where we took her to do the amputation is at the vet school (that’s where the bone specialist works). And they don’t do those kinds of tests.

I absolutely love that article you shared about Wyatt – very inspirational and some great ideas there! And you’re right - hopefully Venus just needs more time.

@midnighter: no styptic powder, but in another thread someone mentioned they used all-purpose flour and that worked? In any case, the nails seems better today (although it is covered by a plaster).

@lyriclemom, We’ve already been to most vets in the city (the rest of country would just be worse, as this is the capital). There is one vet we haven’t tried and apparently that’s where the “diplomats” take their pets, but I had never heard of it before until recently. So we might try that. 

I think I should maybe give it another month at least to see if she loses weight. You seem before the bad leg started, she would lose weight whenever we increased exercise and reduced food. After the bad leg came around, it became really difficult keep her weight down. 

That article you shared is very informative. Symptoms she doesn’t have: 

• Wound healing - (hers is very good in general and her amputation site also healed extremely well).
• Lethargic / reluctant to exercise – it’s the complete opposite with her! It’s hard to keep her still!

Symptoms she does have:

• Weight gain - but this could easily be because of lack of exercise (required for a dobie).
• Skin problems - she sheds quite a bit and has occasional skin sores (but these also come about because she’s a compulsive licker)
• Aversion to cold and seek warmth – she has always been a sun bather (even when it’s hot) – she makes the effort to seek out sunny places to lie.
• Kidney affected – she did have some kidney problems in the past but the vet is almost 100% sure that this is because of what we were feeding her.

We did that too in the beginning, but she refused to relieve herself while on the leash and would just "collapse" / buckle for no good reason, and then as soon as we took her off the leash she was magically steadier