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.
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Hi Kona and family
Welcome. Sorry you had to find this site but glad you took the trouble to do so.
Many others have covered options such as Care credit or payment arrangements with a vet. It is horrible that finances play a role, but they do for many of us.
As for a 9 yr old dog. I consider that kind of young. My dog was diagnosed with OSA at 8.5 yrs and died one day after his 9th birthday. Physically and mentally, he was very young, as I would say is true for most dogs on this website. 8-9 yrs old seems to be the most common age of OSA diagnosis. We usually don't consider them senior until they are 11, 12, 13 or 14, but I know that depends on the dog.
If Kona is a bit overweight, no worries. She can lose weight quickly enough once she has surgery. Trouble was overweight but is a nice trim active dog now (and older than yours I believe).
From what I have seen, Spindle cell tumors are not as aggressive as the OSA that most of our dogs face. You must be thinking that Kona has lots of life in her left if you came to this site. On the other hand, at least with OSA, we never know how long they will get. Four more months was definitely worth the cost and trauma of amputation in our case, although I probably would not have said that when Tazzie was first diagnosed. Believe me, if you go through with this, Kona will probably have the best time of her (or his, sorry not sure which) life once she recovers, whether that is for one month or for four months or for four years.
Best wishes in making these difficult decisions.
I'm so sorry to hear about your dog and the difficult decision you face. Others have already said it so well... you have found a very supportive community here, who will support you whatever your decision is. I found it helpful to keep a list of questions so that when I met with our vet and oncologist I was prepared and didn't forget anything. I also took notes so I could remember everything later when I was trying to evaluate it all. It might be worth checking on costs with other vets in your area. I'm not sure where you live, but it might be worth checking to see if there's a University nearby with a Vet school - sometimes I think they have clinics that might not be as costly - ?? but I'm not sure about that.
Good luck with all of this - we'll keep you and Kona in our hearts.
Holly and Holly's mom
Holly joined the world of tripawds on 12/29/2009. She has a big little sister, Zuzu, who idolizes Holly and tries to make all of her toys into tripawds in Holly's honor. And she's enjoying life one hop at a time!
http://anyemery.....ipawds.com
Once again, thank you all for your support and advice. I have spoken with my brother who is willing to help financially, so that helps. '
I do have another question.......how does it work with a rear leg ampuation? I just keep thinking, how will she go potty (can you tell I have a toddler in the house)?
She doesn't seem to be in any pain at all except for the annoyance of this huge melon size tumor between her hip and leg (hanging off the side). It's getting a little difficult for her to lay down and stand up, but other then that, she seems fine. That's why I am having such a hard time with this.
I really appreciate everyone's feedback. It is helping me more then you know. My husband isn't being very helpful because I had Kona years before he came into the picture. He also wasn't raised to value a pet the way I was.
THANKS AGAIAN!!!!
LadyJ,
First, it sure does help if all family members are of the same thinking with helping the dog. I am ever so thankful that my husband loves my dogs as much as I do! It will make life easier for you and your dog. At least for me, amputation was a very stressful time - it's not easy! And it was made harder by my dog going off her food for 2 weeks after surgery. But most seem to recover just fine!!!
My dog is a rear leg amputee and she's quite big - GSD mix at ~ 65 lbs. I don't allow her to do stairs on her own...if we have to do stairs I help her and she wears a Ruffwear harness . It seems alot of dogs on here have really no issues with stairs but I just wanted to post that I'm not sure my dog could handle a whole flight of stairs without help from even to this day almost four months after surgery... I have a ramp for her coming in and out of my house as the 5-6 stairs I do have are quite steep. Maybe she could handle them but I'm really hesitant to allow her to race up and down them unattended.
As far as going and doing her business as a rear leg amputee. She has no problems there. She squats to pee a whole lot closer to the ground now and right after surgery it was tough to keep her balance...I helped her with a sling until she regained some strength to hold herself into position.
I may have missed it but do they know yet if her tumor has spread? I just ask cause my dogs soft tissue sarcoma was on her knee and she was amputated up to her hip...to be sure they got all the nasty cancer tissue gone. But your dog's is up by the hip?
I'm glad for your pup, she doesn't appear to be in pain from her tumor. That's one bonus. My dog was in an incredible amount of pain and I couldn't wait to relieve her from that!!
Just wanted to give you my 2 cents FWIW - each dog is so different.
Tracy, Maggie's Mom
Maggie was amputated for soft tissue sarcoma 10-20-09
Maggie lost her battle with kidney disease on 8-24-13
Tracy,
Thanks for your story. She doesn't seem to be in pain at all. It is almost on her side. From what I can tell, they think it is attached to her hip/upper leg. We haven't done x-rays yet due to finances but it looks like I may have to. They don't think it has spread but can't say for sure. She isn't having any other issues. I am really worried about the stairs. We live in a 2nd floor apartment and the stairs that lead from the apt into the garage are quite steep and there are a lot of them. That is a major concern for me. She is almost 60 lbs and I'm not sure if I will be able to handle her (and my other big dog and toddler). That's why I am looking for experiences with rear amputations.
Thanks again.
The stuff I had done prior to surgery was ultrasound of her internal organs and x-rays...to see if there was spread of the cancer. If it had spread, I would not have done amputation.
Has the vet told you the approximate cost of the amputation? Just as another FYI - my dog's surgery, biopsies, ultrasound, x-rays and 2 day hospital stay cost me $3,800.
Maggie's whole ordeal from start to finish - cost me +$5,000...because it took quite a bit of time to figure out what was wrong with her - having had two misdiagnosis' of an ACL injury.
I got Care Credit, interest free, for 12 months to pay this off.
Tracy, Maggie's Mom
Maggie was amputated for soft tissue sarcoma 10-20-09
Maggie lost her battle with kidney disease on 8-24-13
Hi Kona and ladyJ
It definitely helps to have like-minded people around. It was frustrating to meet people who would not bother doing an amputation when I could see that Tazzier was happier than ever. Usually it was just ignorance - none of us would have considered removing a dog's leg if we hadn't ended up in this situation.
There are lots of rear leg amps around here. Check out Gerry's videos (Gerry has a blog and he is a new tripawd). Wyatt, Codie Rae, gosh probably about 1/3 (a wild guess) of the tripawds are rear amputees. They usually get back on their feet more quickly, because the front legs carry more weight. Nikki (see her blog that gives day to day details) is a big Rottie who just had a rear amputation 2 weeks ago. She adjusted amazingly well including a short set of stairs to her yard.
The dogs have to experiment with the best peeing and pooing posture, but they work it out within a week. My dog peed on his hind feet a bit for the first week (he was a front amputee so shifted the hinds forward), but eventually did mostly 2 legged pees like any respectable male dog - they adjust.
A melon? That sounds familiar except in our case Tazzie's melon (same spot as you describe) was a secondary from his front leg bone cancer. So even if it looked similar, it was for a very different reason. Tazzie pretty much ignored it until it got to the small watermelon size, at which point it started to cause pain from the size and also inflammation. It was doubling in size each week (from lemon to watermelon in about 6 weeks). In any case, if Kona's lump is that large, you probably have to act soon, don't you.
It is preferable to avoid stairs at the beginning, especially when you have so many stairs and steep ones. A harness and sling will help, but I can see you have your hands full. Maybe it is worth starting a new forum thread in which you mention "Steep Stairs and New Tripawd". I know someone else recently spoke about 2 flights of steep stairs, but can't remember who.
tai09 said:
Perhaps someone in the community might have a harness that you can borrow???
Exactly why we created the Tripawds Angel Exchange.
As far as the potty thing goes, you'll be surprised how quickly dogs will adapt. Some take a bit longer to get it down, but as Jerry's vet told us, "When they gotta go, they'll go."
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
I just want to thank everyone for all of your support!!
I saw a surgeon this week and Kona did not need to have her leg amputated. Yesterday they were able to remove the large tumor and only needed to take out connective and fatty tissue with it. They thought they would have to remove muscle, but didn't.
She is now part of a study where they implanted "chemo beads" to help fight the rest of the cancer. I hope it works and she will make a full recovery.
Thank you again. I wouldn't have made it through the prior weeks without all fo you!
Ah yes, those "chemo beads" - my mom had those a couple of months ago for her liver cancer. She ended up getter a liver transplant and is doing different chemo now, but I have to admit, I never expected my mom AND my dog to be undergoing cancer treatments at the same time!! 
Best of luck with everything!
Mari (Mika's mom)
ladyj71196 said:
She is now part of a study where they implanted "chemo beads" to help fight the rest of the cancer...
Thanks for the update! Be sure to check out Jerry's blog post about Gretta, who was also saved from amputation using biodegradable Cisplatin beads:
Cisplatin biodegradeable beads save Gretta from amputation
Saturday, February 21st
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
I'm glad to hear Kona is doing well. Certainly treating the cancer and saving the leg is the first choice. Given the opportunity I think we would all take that option. Keep us informed. Hugs to Kona.
Debra & Angel Emily
Debra & Emily, a five year old doberman mix, who was diagnosed with an osteosaecoma. She had a right rear leg amputation on May 19, 2009. On November 10, 2009 she earned her wings and regained her fourth leg.
I might be repeating something that was already said, but our Tika was a rear amp and in many ways I think they do better, dogs carry more weight in the front of their bodies than the rear.
She was a 95 lb Alaskan malamute at the time she was diagnosed. They also worried that she was show hip dysplasia in both hips, but that turned out to be a bad reading on the Xray.
The thing I can suggest with the stairs, is let your pup show you what she is capable of. We were over protective of Tika and she took it upon herself one day to say, check this out, give me my space and a bit of time and yes, I can get up these stairs. You human are so goofy. Harnesses help, I had a scarf modified to help her.
Even thought Tika was also a girl, she had this habit of lifting her leg like a boy. So, for the first two months post amp, we had situations of doggie lifting the remaining leg and either falling over or peeing on herself or both. The whole time she was just, like, huh, check that out. We spent our time horrified, sad, laughing our butts off or a combo of all.
So, how's the dog going to cope has been covered by everybody. The money issue, most vets are very understanding, our vet was after our beloved Tika passed on and our other dog got sick, he just said, pay when you can. There are several sources out there like CareCredit, PetCare (?) and if you look locally there might be funds available through animal support groups.
I can say, it wasn't easy financially or emotionally at times, but we have NO regrets, and in the process Tika taught us amazing life lessons.
Good luck, I wish the best for you!
--Kim and Spirit Tika
Kim and Spirit Tika http://www.tika.....ogspot.com
So the first night at home was a bit scary. I had to carry Kona up and down the stairs to go potty. She whinned a good part of the night but this morning is going well. She even made it down the stairs by herself. Thank goodness. She's too heavy to carry. She's eating and drinking good.
Thanks for checking in with Kona's progress.
ladyj71196 said:
So the first night at home was a bit scary.
Welcome home Kona! Thanks for the update. Remember to get lots of rest and take things one day at a time.
Forgive me for forgetting, but if Kona is a front leg amputee, you can use a canvas shopping bag slit down the sides as a handy sling for helping him downstairs if needed until his stitches hear. Then, check out the selection of helpful support harnesses for dogs in the Tripawds Gear blog .
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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