Thanks everyone for your kind words and reassurances. We have a very rough first day and following day. Today is better, and I’m appreciating every little milestone and improvement. I will say that I did a lot of reading and research (including Three Legs and a Spare ) and I was not prepared for how tough the first few days would be, and the difficulty he would have walking.

Mike- thank you for sharing that lovely video of your Callie girl. It’s so wonderful she was walking so well and clearly thrilled to see her family. I’m hoping over the weekend Atticus will be moving along that well! So sorry to hear she has another tumor. 

Atticus’ surgery turned out to be longer and more complex, due to the surgeon finding what he thinks is a sarcoma in the muscle by his hip. He was able to remove to completely remove it, but it required taking out more muscle that usual. I’m trying hard not to dwell on the fact that we might already have metastasis, and what that means long term. We’ll know more when the pathology report comes back. Chest x-rays and an abdominal ultrasound showed nothing before the surgery.

After surgery Atticus was not ambulating well, but was so anxious and upset being hospitalized that the veterinarian thought he would recover better at home. When we picked him up, he really was not walking. His remaining hind leg was collapsing, and butt falling to the ground with every step. Walking with him required pretty much fully bearing the weight of his hind end. Some of that might have been the IV pain meds he had earlier that day, and residual effects from the epidural he got in the surgery. 

The first night was rough. He cried a lot, and I stayed up all night comforting him. He was really frustrated with the cone, so I took it off and stayed up watching him to make sure he left the incision alone. He settled a bit with the cone off. 

Yesterday, the big improvement was that he would stand unassisted on three legs during our potty breaks. Today it seems we turned the corner and he cruised outside with much less assistance, and pooped! We had quite a few steps that were all him, without me supporting any of his weight.

My next concern is pain management . He seems to be doing well with what we have now- codeine, gabapentin and carprofen. I have been following the med schedule religiously, and I get the sense that when the codeine wears off he starts to get uncomfortable. We only have codeine through tomorrow, and I’m worried his pain might spike over the weekend when the vet is closed.

Thanks for the reassurances everyone. It’s helpful to know that others have had the same thoughts during recovery, and ultimately decided they made the right choice. Before the surgery a lot of people told us positive stories about how their dogs bounced back after amputation, but I didn’t hear stories about how much of a struggle this first week would be. 

Atticus has a harness on we got at the vet’s office that we use to get him up. He won’t stand up on his own and go out to potty otherwise (although I did manage to get him up once on his own with some particular tasty chicken). On a normal day before, I’d let him out 5 or 6 times a day, but he never actually asks to go out. We’re taking him out maybe 4 times a day. Getting him up, especially first thing in the morning is painful for him, so we’re continuing on all pain meds. I hate to get him up when it makes him cry out in pain. Other that potty breaks and maybe walking to a bed in the sun outside, he rests all day.

Night is going a little better, and he’s still on the codeine. Last night when he started to whine at 3am we took him out to potty. Afterwards he settled down to sleep. I was able to sleep most of the night, which helps. 

One thing that appears to be going well is that his incision is healing well. The had a ton of swelling at first, but it’s going down, and the bruising is starting to fade. I can only hope that means his pain is getting better.