As stated on previous posts, Sarge had been improving by the hour post amputation, then suddenly started favoring his back leg and was refusing to get up to walk, eat or anything that he had been doing before. Today was the first day the surgeon could take a look at him. Our worst fears were confirmed, he has torn his ACL. The best we can hope for at this point is that is is not a serious tear and he will heal. So we are now rehabilitating from amputation AND an ACL tear. I am going to look online for a rear leg brace (my vet says she has very little experience with them), but I’ll start my search. ACL surgery is not an option since he is a tripawd. :o( He was doing so well this just breaks my heart.
Author: c1nicolei
Sarge has been the the love of my life since we rescued him in 2007. He was thought to be a carcass on the side of the road in our community park. As I walked over to look at the pitiful dead dog, I soon realized he was still breathing, barely. We rushed him to the vet and although severely malnourished and in a terrible state, with TLC he miraculously pulled through. Snap shot ahead to 6/2014, we decide to go outside to play fetch, he was so excited and full of energy, doing his typical bouncy boxer pelvic shuffle. He took a nasty tumble and the sounds that followed was nothing short of heart piercing. My heart stopped, because I knew it was bad, very bad. I am a PA, not a veterinarian, but I knew instantly the leg was broken badly. I splinted him and rushed him to the vet. What initially was going to be an orthopedic surgery to repair a broken radius and ulna, quickly turned into, "Your dog sustained a pathological cancer, we think he has osteosarcoma". I could not even hear what I was being told. How could this seemingly happy, healthy, FULL of life dog have CANCER?? The BX confirmed my worst fears. This whole process took over a week. In that time I researched every aspect of canine osteosarcoma I could find and I had already made up my mind, we were going to fight this, not for me, but I knew he was not done living!!! Making the decision to amputate was not one taken lightly. We ensured there were no macro mets and that his blood work looked stable. I also decided if we amputated we would also do chemo. Sarge had his leg amputated 2 days ago and I am amazed at his hour by hour improvement. We start chemo in 2 weeks. I will keep everyone updated and love reading stories on here that give me hope that he will be able to be a happy, pain free normal Sarge!!! This is when we joined TRIPAWDS! What a wonderful, reassuring supportive community! I love you TRIPAWDS!
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I’m so sorry to hear of your set back! Keeping you all in my prayers for recovery and health!
Angela and Cody
Thanks. We were so proud and amazed by his progress. This makes it so sad!
Darn!! So sorry to hear this!, This seems to be happening a lot recently!
Okay now, there ARE a lot of good recovery successes here on the site! I am a zero brain when it comes to referring you to links here…or pasting…or whatever it’s called.
May I make a suggestion? Would you start a thread on Sarge’s new challenge in tne forums? Maybe under “Ask A Vet”? These blogs go up and down soooooo fast and there are so many who, if they see this, can share their experiences and great advice.
I kmow so e dogs HAVE go e through surgery on their remainkng leg and recovered beautifully!, So it IS doable if it comes to that. Murohy, a tripawd due to an accident, had a hip replacement surgery on his leg. Daisy, another dog here, had a successful surgery on her remaining leg. They all will tell you it wasn’t easy but all dogs are doing great now that recovery has taken place.
There is a dog who is going through the “take it easy” process right now and all i volved are hopeful this will work. He is on anti-inflammatories, doing acupuncture, cold laser therapy and some pain meds.
I DO know that recovery without surgery is ABSOLUTELY POSSIBLE!! Hopefully if you post this in the forums you will be given the specifics of those who were able to recover without surgery.
Since Sarge should be taken it easy anyway this early in recovery, he’ll get the rest he should! That crazy biy! It’s ginna be hard making take it easy!
This is absolutely rotten and unfair and just plain stinks!, But Sarge is a strong determined boy and he will get through this with flying colors!! Sarge has what it takes and he has incredibly strong humans as his advocate!!
We are here for yiu and you come and vent and scream…..and then know….KNOW…that Sarge will get through this new hurdle and will kick all his “challenges” to the the curb! NOTHING WILL STOP SARGE!!!
Oh, and you’ll find a whole lot of info. about braces too…AND a huge diversity, prices!!!
Get better Sarge! We are all cheering for you!! And mom…load up on chocolate and eat it by handfuls…it will help!!!
Sending love and healing energy!
Sally and Happy Hannah
Thank you Sally & HH! I am doing my best to do research. Will try to post something in ask a vet now. Just worked a 14 hours day. Could NOT do this without my husbands help!
Sending Sarge prayers that he can overcome this set back. It really sucks when our fur babies come so far to be given another obstacle to manage.
Thank you Leland, I know you have been there and had to many more struggles with your baby :o(
I am so sorry to hear about Sarge and hope he is doing well. Our baby Butters, is going through a similar situation. She had been fighting a cancerous mass in her back leg for almost 2 years. One of our original vets had told us that she had spots in her chest and gave her 6 months, which is why we weren’t given the option to amputate at first. She was still enjoying life, loved to take walks, and was on a mission to visit all of the state parks in our state before her time was up. We have been taking her to a holistic vet for the past year and a half, just keeping her comfortable and happy as long as we could. The mass was growing larger, however, and we finally got to a point where she wasn’t wanting to get up and walk around as much. By this time, our vet felt that if it had spread to her chest, she would have symptoms by now, so we decided we needed to take the chance and opt for amputation. She had her surgery, removing her rear left leg at the hip joint on July 27th, 2014! She recovered quickly and was up and walking around in no time. She did well for the first 3 weeks, then she started having intermittent periods where she would just try to scoot her butt around instead of trying to stand on her rear leg. At first, I had assumed she had just overexerted herself. However, it seemed to get worse to the point she stopped trying to stand altogether and our vet told us it was an ACL tear. We had her fitted for a stifle brace. It was extremely difficult at first, we had to pick her up and carry her around, and out to potty, and had to lift her butt up like a wheelbarrow so she could walk around to potty. We got her a sling, which she finally became accustomed to using a few weeks later. It makes things a little bit easier, but we both had back strains initially. Although I am very happy this injury is not life threatening, as the fibrosarcoma in her leg may have been, it can still be very difficult. I feel at times it is my fault she injured her good leg and I should have realized something else was wrong sooner. She does not try to attempt to put any weight on that leg at all, and even when we lift her up with the sling, she just drags her foot. It has been hard trying to figure out how to get her to use that leg with the brace on. I’m just afraid that the ligament is completely torn and won’t heal, but can’t afford the testing that would confirm. Just hope and pray it is not a complete tear and will heal. We decided to go ahead and order her a wheelchair so that she can take walks and hopefully regain some strength. I hope you have found some good options and things are going well for you and your loved ones.
So sorry to hear you are going through this and that Butters has had setbacks. We live in Oklahoma and we have a rear wheelchair. If you have not accessed one already please let us know. You are welcome to use it. Kudos to you for fighting for her and making her life as good as it can be. Feel free to contact me via email. C1nicolei@yahoo.com.