Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

I was just 11 weeks old when my front right leg was amputated after it was shattered in a fall in my first home.  July 1 I will be seven months old and the losing the leg hasn't slowed me down one bit!

My new paretns picked me up at the surgeon's office three days after surgery and were very surprised that I came bounding out of the treatment room on the end of a lead.  They thought I would have to be carried very gently. 

I do everything that normal puppies do - run, jump, play and wrestle.  I've even started learning how to swim! 

The tagline for tripawds.com - It's better to hop on three legs than limp on four! - certainly is true.  I may not have four legs, but I also don't have the pain of the bad leg either.  So, in my case, amputation was the best thing!  If you make the decision to have the pup's leg amputated, I hope that he has similar results.  In the three months since the amputation, I've met a few other tripawds and had several people tell me stories of tripawds they've loved in the past.  The one thing that all of these dogs (and in one case a cat) had in common was that the amputation gave them a better quality of life and eased their pain.

Gidget

Well, my puppy, though not born three legged, had her amputated at 3 months of age.  She was brought into the vet I work at with a swollen front right leg, with the explination that the owners daugher had fallen on her. The previous owner had never had a dog before (HER name was Baxter, and "he" was covered in fleas). He was unprepared for the cost of fixing a broken front leg, and even more unprepared when we informed him that in order to attempt to save her leg, she would need to go to a specialist since her growth plate was broken in about 4 or 5 places.  Her previous owner asked us if we would euthanize, and after informing him that we would not even consider the option, we offered to take care of her relieving him of the cost for treatment. Thankfully he agreed.

None of the doctors at my work are specialist when it comes to the type of surgery she needed, so the descision was made to completely amputate her front right leg, shoulder blade and all.  After the first few weeks my fiance and I decided that she was about the happiest, cutest puppy we'd seen and decided to take her home. Since then she has been great, it took her a few months to learn how to balance herself properly and to build up muscle in her front left leg, but now it's been about a year since her surgery and she has never, not even once, had a problem related to her missing leg. She runs, jumps, plays and generally lives life to the fullest every day. Out neighbors love her, and she is well know at work.      Missing one leg has not bothered her and she doesn't even know she's missing one. She probably has no memory of ever having a forth leg anyways.  Occasionally we have some people who see her and feel sorry for her, thinking somehow that the missing leg has impaired her life, but trust me, she has thrived. She loves all the attention she gets.   I guess the point of this tread, is never underestimate your dog.  They handle things so much better than any of us ever would, give them the chance, and they'll go far beyond your expectations.  The only caution I would give, is make sure they grow up at a healthy weight.  Keeping Trillian at a healthy weight now is vitally important now that she's over a year old. I want to prevent any arthritis as much as possible.   Not sure if this post helped, but I was happy to share.  

I'd love to post some pictures... where do I do that at?  lol