Despite losing Havanna six months after her amputation I wanted to convey to anyone reading this that I would do it all over again. I am not sure if the chemo did anything for us. The radiation probably helped and i’m sure the Codine, Rimadyl and Tramadol helped. But what gave Jack her life back for what she had of it was that amputation. Two weeks to heal and the pain from her primary site was gone and she was playing like a puppy again and did so for about four more months. Unfortunately it later spread to the hip and rib and ultimately it was a mass that was on a soft tissue area that took her. But during her good months following the amputation she had a blast. We took the best walks, she chased the squirrels and birds and she played again with her toys and my two other huskies. Here’s a video shot two days after getting her sutures out. So like day 16 after the amputation. See for your self if it was the right decision.
Jack had been quite depressed in the week and a half after her leg amuputation. She ate slowly not showing much interest. Slept alot and kept looking sadly at where her leg used to be. I had heard that dog depression after an amputation was normal but it was still very sad to see her in that state. Wednesday we had her staples removed and Thursday she seemed to be in better spirits. I think she really perked up when she could use stairs and visit the kitchen, greet us at the door and we were all very happy to sleep in our own bed. Jack appreciated not wearing her cone at night and we all got the first full night sleep in about two weeks. Today I was pleasantly surprised when Jack grabbed one of my other dog’s stuffed balls and raced outside. She ran around teasing the other dog just like she used to. She stars chemotherapy next week. I’m hoping she doesn’t go back into her depressed state. I really like seeing her runnign an playing on her three legs.
I didn’t write about the entire story because I wanted to wait for the histopathology of the amputated leg from my dog so i’d have a confirmed diagnosis. So today we found out that yes as expected she does have Osteosarcoma which is a form of Bone Cancer that is very painful, hence the removal of the leg. We’ll begin chemotherapy as soon as we can in an effort to give her as much life as possible. From what i’ve been reading however even with chemo she has maybe 6-18 months left. Sad as she’s only 5 years old. Our hope now is to get her healed from the amputation and then have the most fun wtih her as possible. She’s healed well from the amputation and is getting around great so I think for awhile we’ll be able to have lots of fun together. For more information on Osteosarcoma in Dogs I found this site to be helpful.
We were having trouble getting Jack to sleep through the night, we’d put her white colored cone on and within 15-30 min she’d be up walking around banging it on stuff, us or our other dogs. She seemed to be a bit freaked out by it because she could not see anywhere but straight forward. Because of this she would not relax and sleep. So we ended up with her sleeping all day and us getting no sleep because she was so restless. When my wife took one of our other dogs to the vet he suggested using a see through clear version of the cone and we tried that with great results. Jack can see left and right now and is much more relaxed giving us at least a few hours more sleep each night. So if you are buying supplies to prepare for dog surgury or amputation be choosy and find a see through cone.
Jack’s incision looks really good today. We didn’t get alot of sleep last night because Jack kept getting up and wanting to go outside. She slept almost the entire day so we thought she woke up when we went to bed. We now think that she figured out that if we put the cone on her head we were taking it off to let her out. So she simply bugs us to go out over and over. Overall she’s doing well but her energetic self is coming back making her a bit of a handful if she gets excited. Our routine when myself or my wife comes home is to immediately go to the living room and sit down with her until she calms down. Then go change or do whatever. Both times we tried to do our usual routine of getting changed etc she jumped around at the gate etc getting all worked up and ended up twisting funny receiving a painful experience as her staples must have been pulled etc. So the key is to be old news as soon as fast as possible to keep her calm.
Jack slept most of the night just waking on her usual schedule to go out and demand breakfast at 7:00am. It’s nice to see her returning to old habits and routine. Her wound has really reduced the redness and has a nice healthy pink color. She’s loving the airbed in the family room and will likley spend her usual day napping away on the airbed. Lucky for us we have the ability to work from home for the next two weeks, hope she doesn’t get spoiled by the time her staples are removed. No pain is evident so far and we’ve given no previcox. If she stays free of discomfort we’ll hold off on any more pain medication. She’s just getting two cephalexin caplets in the morning and in two in the evening to prevent infection.
Here’s a picture of my family room setup for our next two weeks of keeping Jack quiet and healing. We have a queen air bed surrounded by dog beds with sheets on top. We thought we’d be sleeping on the air mattress with Jack on the dog beds but turns out she took over the air bed. As I write this she’s sprawled out taking up the entire bed. Last night she insisted on sleeping between us.
Good news, all dripping has completely stopped. Actually it had stopped just a few hours after we had her home. Despite her walking around to go potty etc it never restarted. Today no leakage despite much more activity so I think we’re past that. We put a queen size air mattress in our living room so we could all sleep together. Jack kept still all night except when we wanted to sleep. She kept walking around after sitting for an hour making for some rough sleep. Then the managed to get on the air bed and lay down between us. Despite it being uncomfortable I heard her let out a deep breath and she was out for the rest of the night. We managed to get another three hours of sleep after that. We originally tried to get her in the kennel with her cone but it just was not working. We’ll want to try and make that work so that we don’t have to have someone in the room at all times. Her wound looks much better than yesterday, no increase in color yet but all the flaming redness has turned a nice pink. Her personality is back as well, lots of tail wagging and kisses. No apparent pain bothering her until about 10:00am when she got restless walking around nervously and trying to lick at her wound. She got another 1/2 Previcox around noon which seemed to help. We’re also using a cold pack which seems to give her comfort. We didn’t even use the Tramadol. She has started to try and get at her let and sometimes I catch her just staring at it. I can’t tell if that’s because she wants to lick or if she’s wondering why she has no leg.
If you are preparing to have an amputation of a leg on your dog there are some useful supplies you can have ready for day 1. This is based on our experience today. Your dog will need to say on one level, preferrably the level that goes to the back yard so be prepared to cover the carpet. We had new carpet so we dragged ALL the dog beds to that level. We laid out dog beds, any old towels and cheap sheets that I bought that morning. Best however was the doggy pee pads we received at the hospital. I went out and bought three packages of large size doggy pee pads. These soak up any blood or fluid well and can be tossed getting nothing on your towels, capet or dog beds. We also kept a small dog water bowl handy and cooked up some plain chicken to keep her interested when she got restless. We bought an E-collar to keep her from messing with the sutures. We also bought a Procollar at Petco as an alternative to the e-collar but ours was too large so back to the store it goes. We’re finding a gel cold pack is working well to relieve any discomfort without giving her more drugs. Cold packs do wonders with most injuries and this seems to work for her in this case.
