Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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My girlfriend and I are fostering a 5 month old black lab puppy that we have had since he was 5.5 weeks old. We are volunteers at the local animal shelter where he was dropped off with a front leg deformity which prevents full flex of his forearm and he's missing his whole front paw. We had a fundraiser in our small community and raised enough money to cover surgical and care costs. We have tried every option available to see if we could bypass the surgery and seek alternative treatments ,ie. letting him grow, 2 different prosthetic braces custom made to velcro around arm. We think that he will have a better life without the added weight of the forearm and costant lesions from trying to use the leg to run on. We have spoke to a couple different surgeons and both opt for different surgeries. one is for the scapula being removed, the other says scapula socket removed and shaved down to contour the body. Is one better than the other? Does one look better than the other? Would there be a phantom arm if the scapula was left? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You
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What an unfortunate condition your foster puppy has. I'm sure he will do just fine once you figure out what to do. I cannot answer your questions which sound more appropriate for a veterinarian, but you might post under the "Ask a vet" heading, and tazziedog might respond (then again, there is a good chance she will see your post and respond even now)
I believe most of our dogs having bone cancer have had the entire scapula removed (I have not heard of the 2nd option you mention). A few other tripod parents have asked about leaving a 'stump', but my vet and articles I read indicated that a stump might be more susceptible to injury, as you are experiencing now. My vet was also not at all keen to consider prosthetics .
Good luck with this. Your puppy is so fortunate to have such devoted foster parents!
Susan and Tazzie 2
Like Tazzie, we haven't heard of the socket/body contouring surgery. Jack had his amputation almost 3 months ago and we went with the entire scapula removal. Our surgeon said that removing the entire scapula would make it easier for dogs to lay on their side whereas if the scapula is left behind, there could be pain or discomfort if he decides he wants to lay on his amputation side. As for your phantom pain question...Jack had phantom pain despite his scapula being removed. It was about 4 days after surgery and he just started screaming in the middle of the night. A trip to the surgeon the next day and a prescription for gabapentin cured it immediately and he's been good as new ever since! I'm not sure what the body contouring surgery would look like, but with the entire scapula removed, people don't notice Jack has 3 legs until they see him from his amputation side. That side looks fine except you can see his ribs a lot more and because of the long incision he had 2 "udders" where he had some extra skin. One went away completely after healing and the other has mostly shrunk as well. Good luck with your foster puppy and I hope to see a pic soon! Keep us updated 🙂
I too have a dog who had the scapula removed and my vet said it was because of the same reasons PPs mentioned. If left, it would cause more injuries and wouldn't be as comfortable for them. The main reason that my vet said he would remove it was that the muscles connected to the scapula would atrophe because they weren't being used and that would cause the scapula to stick out weirdly. Mac is a golden retriever and he has some areas of sagging skin, but nothing that looks like udders! ha! I don't notice his ribs anymore but I think that is probably because he is pretty hairy and his hair has really grown back in since the surgery-something I was pleasantly surprised about!
I just have to say too that a dog that young will probably do great with the surgery! He's probably going to recover faster than you can imagine. I used to foster dogs and we always had huge interest on dogs with three legs. As long as he's not called Lucky... Good luck with it and let us know what you decide and how it goes.
So Mac's mom - you had a huge interest in 3-leggeds and now you have your own. You are Lucky! And if you use adriamycin for chemo, you might find that some of that hair that is currently growing back will drop out. I will need to find a very warm coat if Tazzie is going to withstand the Winnipeg winter (suggestions are welcome and not patterns for me to sew!). Even the fur that was not shaved is getting very thin - I suppose that means the chemo is doing its job.
On topic - after I wrote, I saw a long discussion of such surgery alternatives and prosthetics on the front tripawd page, and think that is highly relevant to your question
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