Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi Everyone,
I have an 8 year old American Akita who was diagnosed in October last year with an osteosarcoma in his left ulna. We tried limb sparing surgery but the implant failed, his chemotherapy is ongoing. Ultimately, to cut a very long story short, the cancer spread to his radius, which resulted in it fracturing.
We took him to the emergency orthopaedic vet (all other treatments have been with this vet) and discussed amputation, my biggest worry being if an amputation would be in my dogs best interest. We opted for him to have a full body CT scan to see if the cancer had spread anywhere else and to access if there were any reasons why he wouldn't adapt to having 3 legs.
The CT scan showed that there is no evidence of the cancer spreading and apart form age related arthritis in his back left knee, he is perfectly fine.
I am now 2.5 weeks post surgery, the wound is healing well, his staples were removed yesterday, and he is due to continue with his chemotherapy on Thursday this week. He is still a little uncoordinated when he walks but I expected this, and he gets out of breath a lot easier.
I am waiting for his wound to fully heal and I will then take him to Hydrotherapy sessions to help him with his coordination and also to build up the muscles in his remaining 3 legs in a way that doesn't impact so much on his joints.
Yesterday I started to notice that he was a little more unsteady on his back left leg so I spoke to my local vet about the amputation possibly having worsened the arthritis in his back left knee, I made an appointment for Wednesday this week to take him to discuss this further.
I thought that ahead of this appointment it would be worth me contacting the specialist orthopaedic vet to ask them to share their images of his most recent CT scan with them, so that I don't have to have to put my dog through more scans (he hates sedation). The responded by saying that they will happily share the images, but "the changes in the left knee most likely indicate a problem with the cranial cruciate ligament, which may have been weak at the time the scan was done, and has likely ruptured now to cause the lameness".
Am I within my rights to be angry? Why was this "weakness" in the CCL not detected in the CT scans that he had pre-op? The only think that was mentioned to me was age related arthritis, which we would have been able to manage. They are now suggesting an appointment to see if it is cranial cruciate disease and to discuss TPLO surgery.
I am not sure that I want to put my dog through anymore surgery especially with his amputation only being 2 weeks ago, plus, it's his back left leg and he has no front left leg, will he even cope?!!!!
Any advise would be appreciated.
Thanks, Debs 
Hi Debs!
Welcome to the club nopawdy wants to join. And thank you from the bottom of my heart for becoming a Tripawds supporter and helping the community out! We are so grateful 
It sounds like you've been working with a fantastic vet team, and you go above and beyond for your pup. What a lucky dog! What's his name by the way?
Angry? Of course you are! But, try to take a step back and take a deep breath .... here's why.
I really wish the vet team wouldn't have jumped to a potential diagnosis without actually seeing your dog. In fairness to them, vets typically give clients the worst case scenario to prepare them IF things go that route. Hopefully, in your dog's case, it will not. Also keep in mind that even IF this is a cruciate issue, it would be wise to get another opinion from a physio, who will likely see things from a different point of view if there is a partial tear (which can sometimes be rehabbed without surgery). Surgeons cut, physios wait to do surgery as a last resort. Nothing can be decided until a diagnosis is made, however. And even if surgery is needed, it's not impossible for a dog to recover from it, as our remaining leg surgery posts explain.
So let's not go there yet. I know it's hard not to, but it doesn't do any good to panic before there is an actual diagnosis. But you knew that, right? 😉
Odds are, your dog is experiencing some unsteadiness from just getting used to being on three legs. This would not be unusual, we've seen it before. A physio can help to correct his gait and show you ways to help him get strong. Does he already have one lined up? Remember the Tripawds Foundation can pay for your first rehab visit if you haven't seen one yet.
I hope this helps. Please keep us posted!
Geez, you and uour sweet Akita have been through so much already.
Regardless of what the oitcome os woth Wednesday's appt, I absolutely would ask the Specialist Vet why they have come to that conclusion AND why it wasn't mentioned before!!!
For now though, hold onto every word Jerry has said. There are so many other reasonsthos could be happening
And it certainly may just be that the arthritis is a bit more visible this early on in recovery, or even just a muscle tweak. We see both scenarios quite often. It requires a slower recovery period sometimes and mayve aome antiinflmmatory, but certainly doable.
We'll look forward ro your update tomorrow. Whatever the outcome, we can help with any path forward, okay?
(((((((((Hugs)))))))))
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
Hey guys,
Thanks for your replies. I am not jumping to 'worse case scenario' just yet, but now that the seed has been planted in my mind I can't seem to shift it - I am hoping that it is just a case of him needing to get used to being tripawd.
The vet hospital that I am taking Winston to on Thursday for his chemotherapy have said that they will ask one of their orthopaedic surgeons to look at his left knee. I will let you know what they say.
Thanks, Debs
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