Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
Tripawds is your home to learn how to care for a three legged dog or cat, with answers about dog leg amputation, and cat amputation recovery from many years of member experiences.
Join The Tripawds Community
Learn how to help three legged dogs and cats in the forums below. Browse and search as a guest or register for free and get full member benefits:
Instant post approval.
Private messages to members.
Subscribe to favorite topics.
Live Chat and much more!
Register
Log In
Members
Add Topic
Offline
Elainema - Dear DOG, $1100 dollars PER Carboplatin treatment? That seems kind of outrageous, but maybe that's just Virginia. Did it go by weight of dog?
Cadence's Mom
Cadence Faye: Born 10/30/04, stepped into our hearts 12/23/2004. Rear leg tumor found 7/24/11 by mom and dad, Xray on 7/25/11, Osteosarcoma suspected 7/26/11, amputation 7/29/11, Carboplatin started 8/23. Met free so far!
Thanks for the info Elainema.
CadencesMom, while the treatments do seem high, the price will depend on factors such as; geographic location, the size of the dog, and whether or not it's done at a specialty center by a board-certified oncologist, or a general practitioner's office.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
It does seem like the average is somewhere around $600.00 per treatment. But I must say I was surprised to see $1100.00.
Cadence Faye: Born 10/30/04, stepped into our hearts 12/23/2004. Rear leg tumor found 7/24/11 by mom and dad, Xray on 7/25/11, Osteosarcoma suspected 7/26/11, amputation 7/29/11, Carboplatin started 8/23. Met free so far!
Amputation Costs
- What city/state/country/date did your Tripawd have the amputation? Waukesha, WI, US - 5/30/2012
- Total cost of surgery? $2400
- Private practice or teaching hospital? Private 24 hr. vet hospital
Chemotherapy Costs
- What size is your dog? 74.5 lbs.
- Type of chemo given? Carboplatin; 1st treatment coming on 6/13/2012
- # of sessions? 4-5
- Total cost of treatments? $350 - $400 per treatment
- Private practice or teaching hospital? Private 24 hr. vet hospital
*We have VPI pet insurance and hope to get help with 33% to 50% of the total money spent for our dog*
Read about our Hunter at http://superdog.....pawds.com/
7/27/2003 ~ 7/24/2013
Our Super Dog Hunter crossed over the Rainbow Bridge on a beautiful summer day in July, just 3 days shy of his 10th Birthday. He gave us everything since he was 8 weeks old. Hunter was a 14 month warrior of OS. We LOVE and MISS him every day.
Pawesome, thanks for taking the time to fill this out.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Amputation Costs
- What city/state/country/date did your Tripawd have the amputation? Sydney, Australia, 5th Sep 2011
- Total cost of surgery? $4990 (Ouch. Looks expensive compared to others, but it was a very impressive, internal stitches only finish. I was happy with it and it healed really well. Magnum was also in hospital for a total of 5 nights - 1 before surgery and 4 after surgery)
- Private practice or teaching hospital? Private 24 hr. vet hospital
Chemotherapy Costs
- What size is your dog? 35kg.
- Type of chemo given? Carboplatin; 6 treatments, nominally 3 weeks apart (although a couple towards the end were pushed out a week due to low WBC)
- Total cost of treatments? $660 to 760 per treatment
- Private practice or teaching hospital? Private 24 hr. vet hospital (with oncology)
*Note: the above costs don't include the intitial consultation and xrays and ultrasounds.
We had RSPCA pet insurance that paid 80% of the bills, although there is a cap for chronic illnesses that we hit after completing the chemotherapy.
Magnum: 30th May 2002 to 5th May 2012. Lost her back left leg to osteosarcoma on 5th Sep 2011. Lung mets found on 20th Mar 2012 but it was bone mets in the hip that ended her brave battle. Magnum's motto - "Dream as if you'll live for ever, live as if you'll die today" (James Dean). Loyal, loving, courageous and spirited to the end. My beloved heart dog, see her memoirs from Rainbow Bridge ...... http://princess.....pawds.com/
Pixie's experience (so far)
Amputation Costs
- What city/state/country/date did your Tripawd have the amputation? Southern New Jersey
- Total cost of surgery? $1200 + approx. $300 for pre-op bloodwork and xrays
- Private practice or teaching hospital? Private practice
Chemotherapy Costs
- What size is your dog? 43 lbs.
- Type of chemo given? Chinese Herbal
- # of sessions? Ongoing
- Total cost of treatments? Approx. $1000 to date, I'm still on it.
- Private practice or teaching hospital? Private practice
UCD Jake CD CGC - aka Jake D Dawg, gone over the Rainbow Bridge on 5/10/09 at age 16 1/2. There will never be another Jake. <3
UCD Dawnee's Brooklyn Treasure CD CGC - aka Brookie my right hand girl, developed Hemangiosarcoma and went over the Rainbow Bridge on 1/2/11 at age 14 1/2. Always in my heart <3
Resqdogs Justa Lil Pixie - My sweet Pixie, diagnosed with Osteosarcoma 4/10/12, tripawd since 10/25/12 <3
Thanks for chiming in Pixie!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Amputation Costs
What city/state/country/date did your Tripawd have the amputation? Brunswsick, OH (30 miles south of Cleveland)
Total cost of surgery? $970
Private practice or teaching hospital? Private practice
Amputation Costs
- What city/state/country/date did your Tripawd have the amputation? Gent, Belgium, November 5th, 2012
- Total cost of surgery? Surgery €940 ($1,194) including 1 night stay pre-op and 2 night stay post op
- Bloodworks - RX-lungs - lymphatic research €300 ($381)
- X-ray leg+ 1 bottle 100ml Metacam €157 ($199)
- Private practice or teaching hospital? X-ray leg in private practice // the rest in University Gent - Veterinary Studies
Chemotherapy Costs
- What size is your dog? 59 kg / 130 lbs
- Type of chemo given? we will decide in 2 weeks
- # of sessions?
- Total cost of treatments?
- Private practice or teaching hospital?
Thanks so much for taking time to fill this information out, it's so interesting to find out what others are paying in different spots around the world.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Our K didn't have amputation because we had the option of stereotactic radiation - an intense form of radiation that kills the primary osteosarcoma tumor. It was more expensive than amputation, but in K's particular case, we felt that it was worth it. It worked in killing the primary tumor with very little post-procedure pain. It's only available a few places in the country, at vet schools, like CSU.
She did have chemotherapy.
- What size is your dog? 52 lbs
- Type of chemo given? carboplatin/then doxyrubicon (spelling?)/metronomic/palladia
- # of sessions? 3 carbo/1 doxyrubicon (spelling?), 3 months metronomics /palladia
- Total cost of treatments? (carbo/doxy; 4 sessions at $300 per session with a state employee discount)/sorry, I didn't keep the info on the costs of the metronomics
pills or palladia pills
- Date of treatments: carbo/doxy 1/3/12 – 3/16/12; metronomics /palladia 4/20/12 – 7/15/12
- Private practice or teaching hospital? CSU Vet Teaching Hospital
We could have had the carbo/doxy infusions at our regular vet, who is located very close to our home, as opposed to CSU that is hours from our home. But, the infusions would have been much more expensive at our regular vet because they don't buy the chemotherapy drugs in bulk, like CSU does. Also, they don't have as much experience with osteosarcoma... so I wanted the CSU vets to see and evaluate K at each session.
A final note - We had Pets Best Insurance. They were really great in promptly reimbursing us 80% of the costs. We have a $75 deductible for each "incident". K's osteosarcoma was considered to be one long incident so the deductible applied only once. For some bizarre reason, euthanasia due to OSA was not considered to be part of the same "incident" but I was in no mood to fight that decision.
K, an 8 year old chocolate lab, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the radius and ulna on 12/23/11. She had stereotactic radiation to kill the bone tumors, and 3 rounds of carboplatin. On 3/16/12, lung mets were found. We tried several different kinds of chemotherapy to slow the lung mets but none worked. Finally, mets appeared at other sites, including her spine. She earned her angel wings on July 15, 2012. K changed my life, and I'll never forget her. Our/my journey is chronicled at romp-roll-rockies.blogspot.com.
K Bear thanks. Can we be nosy and ask you what stereotactic radiation cost? I should've named this topic "Costs of amputation and treatments since not everyone does chemo. Duh! Oh, and good to hear about Pet's Best; we also have it for our Wyatt Ray .
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Amputation Costs
- What city/state/country/date did your Tripawd have the amputation? Ft Collins Co CSU vet hospital
- Total cost of surgery? $1700
- Private practice or teaching hospital? teaching hospital
Chemotherapy Costs not yet sure if we will go this route yet or natural supplements
- What size is your dog? 85lbs
- Type of chemo given? Carboplatin; $420 per treatment
- Total cost of treatments? 4-6 treatments recommended
- Private practice or teaching hospital? teaching
Hank's experience for amputation
He had it is Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada
With the leg sent to the lab and 2 days boarding it came to $2123 CND
It was a private practice
I will update when we have the chemo done
Dogs: Friends for life, faithful and true.
Courage is being scared to death... but saddling up anyways.- John Wayne
bikeintime.wordpress.com (will soon have Hank story)
2 Guest(s)
