Our 5 year old 90 lbs Boxer mix was diagnosed with an Infiltrative Lipoma in his back right leg. The Vet specialist recommends amputation. From the CT scan they believe they can get still get clean margins if we do the amputation soon. I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing? I hate to take his leg off it seems so extreme. He isn’t limping on his leg yet but it has progressively gotten more and more swollen and it looks very uncomfortable. Do we go through with the amputation?

We have a 16 week old lab pup with a broken leg (Accident - broken when he was approx 6 wks). Amputation has been recommended by 2 surgeons due to the extent of the damage. What are the risks with amputation in a young dog that is still growing. The other leg is normal. He is still weight baring on the broken leg and will pick it up when he is sore. I have experience with small breed dogs but not large breed puppies. My concern is that the growth plate in the healthy leg may not be able to stand the stress of all the weight. He is a rescue dog, hence the delay in treatment.

Hello There, Wow what a useful page! My dog had a caudectomy as she had a lump on her tail. We had it removed today, 22 August 2018. We have planned to take our dogs to the beach for the first time in their live and were very excited. We have booked dog friendly accommodation and excursions. But most of all we were so excited to see their reaction when the waves come in and the whole big mass of water and sand to play in. BUT NOW, this happened. According to our surgeon the wound or the tissue will bind within 10 days (1 September 2018 when we arrive at the beach home) and the stitches can be taken out in 15 days(when we leave 5 September 2018). Would we be able to let her run in the water? Would it be harmful if the tail gets wet? Its not as if we will submerge her in water..... We obviously want the best for her....

Hi everyone. My dog Roxie has severe pain in her back right leg. She is overweight and we are now working with her to help her lose weight in attempt to relieve some pain. She still walks on it, and sometimes limps. Her pain started with what we believe was a long walk that strained her too hard but we aren't certain. We took her to the vet and they did x-rays and the x-rays showed that it was her knee. The vet said that it was arthritis and there was nothing we could do, and that even surgery was not going to help. The only medication that we were prescribed was a pain medication that I wasn't sure even worked. Should I get a second opinion or amputate her leg? I know that with amputation her pain will be gone and that is exactly what I want. She wants to run and play but her leg prevents her from doing that. Any advice would be helpul. Thank you.

Our 3 year old Golden Retriever was just diagnosed with osteosarcoma in her right front leg and no visible spread yet. She is having an amputation of the shoulder and leg and will begin chemo shortly after. She is otherwise a healthy, spunky and at times crazy dog. Have you seen any cases of a dog living more than 2 years after this treatment? I am praying hard.

dog tried to hop fence and got stuck every week splint taken off and redone waiting for amputation at low cost, meds make dog uncomfortable and has been going on for about 2 months if someone could help vet cant find surgeny

Hello My dog, Spoon, is an 11 and a half year old, boucheron rescue, 100 pounds. (thought he was a doberman mix until recently, but he isn't. He is a dead ringer for the pure breed pictures) A year and a half ago, he stopped being able to walk on his back left leg. As he started to limp and put less pressure on it, I had thought it was an ACL injury given how the symptoms manifested: my first dog as a grown-up has ACL surgery and they screwed it up, making it a gimpy leg. This led me to be highly skeptical in the surgery and thereby wait to visit vet and thereby not diagnose cancer more quickly. I didn't go to oncologist because it was clear, no matter what, treatment would involve amputation of leg. The tumor wraps around his knee, so could not be removed without it. So I rejected the option So at diagnosis, I didn't think he would live long. I figured the cancer had probably already spread (which even now seems unlikely it has, or if it has, has caused to other problems at all). I wasn't going to do cancer treatment because it was too expensive and, I felt, would cause pain and suffering without any guarantee if it would extend or improve the quality of his life at all. (I've seen other dogs get such treatment, and since they don't understand what's happening, it seemed cruel. People take chemo and suffer the symptoms knowing it might help them. Dogs do not understand that.) It wasn't clear how much life he had anyway, given he was 10 and a 100 pounds, though in the most excellent health, robust, people thought he was a puppy all the time until the leg weakened. I had prescription for gaba pentin, but found that CBDs - a marijuana or hemp derivative that is not psychoactive -- worked better than anything and was happy it was natural with no other side effects. I would walk him 5 miles a day or more before the diagnosis, after some adjustments after the diagnosis, we got up to maybe 3 miles a day . (And he was (is?) a strong swimmer too, would go to river often) Then right at this last New Years, he stopped being able to walk again. I went to doctors again and it really seemed like the end. His pain was SOOO bad. So I had already been giving him 2 buffered aspirin a day (you need to give with food and check carefully, but negative side effects of NSAIDS can be same as rimadyl -- my first dog vomited cups up blood after surgery from ONE rimadyl. In general Rimadyl is no more effective for pain that other NSAIDS, and if they tell you otherwise, they are lying. It may be necessary, but stomach bleeding problems exist for any NSAID) The vets have reluctantly acknowledge the truth of my previous claim. Thankfully Spoon has tolerated the buffered aspirin with no issue at all for a year and a half. Anyway, I was also giving him fish oil and condroitan/glucosamine, and the aspirin, and the CBDs. At the second round of flare up around New Years, I did add back the gaba pentin from the earlier prescription. It wasn't even close enough to manage the pain, so then I added tramadol and that wasn't enough. As of two weeks ago, added codeine. Still unclear if it is enough -- he keeps kind of hurting his leg by jumping around and falling, so pain may not just be from the tumors, but repeated small injuries to the weakened, distressed knee.) I've been thinking about this all as palliative care and only recently considering amputation. I thought, "How could an 11 and a half year old, 100 pound dog recover from hind leg amputation?" It seemed like the other leg would deteriorate with all the weight on the one, but then realized he probably only puts 20 percent of his weight on that leg anyway. It also seems clear some or most of the pain is referred pain, and that his spine may be pretty screwed up from hopping around on one leg, so I figured that pain would stay regardless of leg amputation. Anyway, it's come to my attention Spoon remains extremely robust aside from the leg (and the pain.) When the pain is managed, he is raring to go, alert, attentive, engaged and excited. He always wants to go for walk. Now that they are shorter (after second round of pain, for two weeks, couldn't walk him four blocks. Now it may be a mile or a mile and a half a day). He sometimes can jump on my -- very high -- bed, though I try to keep him from doing this and help him up myself. When getting ready for walks, he still goes nuts and jumps up and down. And when walking and I turn back towards home, he does the passive resistance thing, smelling everything, lagging behind me, making me have to pull him, etc, so even when he is in pain, he WANTS to walk more Even with all the drugs, he is 100% mentally clear. He is never high or stoned or goony from the opiates. Most importantly, he really wants to be here. So it was gut wrenching to almost put him down a number of times because the pain. That's been the weird part of thinking he was dying, given nothing else is wrong at all. Just the pain, even though 'just' her belittles its seriousness. So now I confront the decision. I've been getting him acupuncture in last few weeks (the verdict is still out on that). The vet who does it, who I like (I had to switch from old vet because they are SOOO awful), brought up amputation again without pushing it on me. She said the recovery isn't as bad as I'd expect. I was a little daunted by the price her colleague would do it for -- 1800. Searching online suggested more like 1000. Anyway, I want feedback on giving a 11.5 year old 100 pound dog a rear leg amputation. I am in that stress of uncertainty and indecision. The vet did say -- and she is right -- that he is otherwise super-robust. His musculature -- except the leg -- is insane, super strong, super healthy. People still compliment me, without solicitation, how beautiful he is and are shocked at his age -- even with the limp So should I do it? PS: his health is of course also attributed to excellent food, long walks everyday, loads of affections and lots of mental stimulation. Those things count a lot. Feed them the good stuff! And grain free!