I’m still having a hard time believing what’s happening. All of a sudden, my dog has only three legs. I know that we’ll get through it together and he’ll hopefully be with me for a good long time.
About a week or so ago, Toby started limping. Nothing major. Just a little gingerly stepping every so often. It seemed to worsen after a couple of days so we took a trip to one of his favorite places (seriously): the veterinarian’s office. His initial diagnosis was a torn CCL that would require surgery and about 8 weeks to recover. Apparently very involved and drastic surgery.
while waiting for surgery, his limp continued used to worsen and eventually he just kept off of it entirely. In the meantime, he was given several medications to help him through. Of course they made him a little loopy and he slept a lot. He got my attention though when he stopped eating. This is a fog that can woof down anything in seconds and never gives any food a chance to settle! So I called the vet and asked to be seen. She agreed that he wasn’t acting right and gave him another exam and X-ray. That’s when the lesion on his leg showed up. It was apparently the cause of the CCL injury but I’m not a vet so I’ll take her word for it. We X-rayed his lungs and they came back clear so she sent Toby and I home to discuss options with the family.
Surprisingly, we were met by unanimous, no questions asked agreement that amputation was the way to go. If it kept him around a little longer, then let’s go for it. Personally, I was scared to death that I wouldn’t be able to take care of him after this but the decision was made and he reported for surgery the next morning at 7am.
What a long day. A couple of texts to update us and finally around 3pm a call from the vet with good news. Success! He needed to spend the night because he was having a lot of drainage but other than that everything went well.
He finally got to come home the next day (today) in the afternoon with a bag full of pills and pages of directions to follow.
I guess I should mention that somewhere in here is where I googled dog limb amputation and stumbled upon Tripawds.com. Wow! Talk about giving me comfort and helping me understand what was going on! I’ve devoured everything I can find on the site and read half of the ebook.
So Toby is home with his people. That tail gives us a wag every once in a while and and a snore here and there. He’s surpassed all of the expectations and is doing so much better than we thought he would. We have a long road, but this is one tough guy!
Here are a few pictures of Toby at various stages. Thanks for reading.
