Hello,

I just wanted to add a so far successful recovery of Max, a 100 lb 10 yr old lab mix.

Max had a soft tissue sarcoma in his left hind knee. We tried removing it but unable to get good margins since it was in his knee and it just grew back faster and larger. To complicate this, he had a torn ACL in his right hind leg.  So first we had to repair the "good" leg before we could amputate his cancer leg. To complicate it more, the sarcoma was spreading FAST. There was concern it would go past his leg to his body, so he had TPLO surgery to repair his ACL and two weeks after, he had this amputation.

We have a very good ortho surgeon who I wanted to do both TPLO and amputation. He evaluated Max after TPLO before moving forward and I followed instructions to the T. His amputation leg biopsy came back with clean margins.

The first few days were rough, but expected. I modified a surgical suit I already had to cover up the leg hole, so he could have some time away from his cone and me not worry about him eating his incision. We alternated between the suit and cone. He didn't love either.

I bought some area rugs pre surgery but I needed more. Instead I bought some inexpensive ($5) yoga mats which we strung down the hallway. He was not able to step on the hardwood floors at all. He is better today but I encourage him to not go off the path! After this post I am off to see if there is a post about booties or something that will help him in that area.

Here is a video of Max at 3 weeks post op. He is doing really well!  He got his stitches out today. The vet wants me to be careful on activity until his TPLO is fully healed which is taking some time with the added stress.  We just go out to potty for now.

Max Walking Video

Modified Surgical Suit