jerry said
Hi Amy and family, welcome. What's your dog's name? I'm so sorry you had to join our club. Melanoma as a cause for amputation isn't too common around here.

Since your girl is almost 2 weeks out, I'm guessing that she was probably getting to be pretty active until this downturn. What kinds of activities was she doing during the day? Are there other dogs in the home that she plays with? I ask because the most common setback we see here is when a new Tripawd appears to be doing really well, their people loosen the reigns too quickly and the dog gets too much activity too soon after surgery. In no time at all their body catches up and the pup ends up in a little slump. Usually, getting back to more controlled, shorter activity can help, along with pain control.

Speaking of the pain control. It sounds like she is giving some pain signals . The lack of appetite and not getting up are two common ones, usually related to getting too much activity too soon. When giving pain medications, never hide pills in food. Dogs can smell it and when they associate ills with feeling lousy, they'll refuse even their favorite foods. There are other ways to get pills in. Here are some articles that explain how to give pills:

https://nutriti.....medication

My recommendation is to talk to your vet and get some guidance on where to go from here. But do it soon, because it really does sound like she's in pain based on what you're describing. And let us know how things are going OK? 

  

This post was very helpful to me! Our 8 year old timberwolf/husky hybrid (Nymeria...we're nicknaming her Trimeria now) is 9 days post-op from a rear leg amputation from osteosarcoma that was diagnosed in March/April. We chose not to pursue chemo/radiation to maintain her quality of life and we and assumed we were doing palliative care until we had to say goodbye. We learned two weeks ago that the cancer didn't seem to have spread beyond the leg and were pretty overjoyed to have the opportunity to save her with an amputation. I found this group a few days too late, and it seems I've been doing all the wrong things post-op. I've hidden nasty meds in her food, and since she seemed to have a whole new lease on life within 72 hours of the surgery I pushed her too far/too fast with walking around the yard and up the driveway and reducing her pain meds that made her feel lousy. After day 6 she decided she didn't want to eat again and became slower, it seemed harder to get up than it had seemed before, and she became...not exactly lethargic, but at least lazy. I think I just pushed her too much, and I also made her eat when she didn't want to. After staying up most of the night reading this site and crying my eyes out, I've decided that her body probably knows what it needs, and if what it needs is to be off food for a couple of days (she's still drinking lots of water) and to rest then that's what I should let her do. 

She's scheduled to get her sutures removed tomorrow, and I'll bring up her appetite loss with the vet at that time. Meanwhile, I'll continue to offer dog food at regular meal times but I'll stop trying to add a bunch of stuff to it to coax her, and if she doesn't want to eat within a half hour or so I'll go ahead and take her food up. Besides not forcing the food issue and allowing her to rest while she heals instead of pushing her, I'm trying to be a strong/positive pack leader and not being anxious or sad around her (although TBH I'm struggling with this more than I thought I would). What else should I be doing for her? Or...for me?