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Rear leg problems climbing

We are 16 days post-op with Nico’s rear leg amputation. He was doing so well until he climbed up into our motorhome captain seat. Now it appears his rear leg buckles a lot. We have reverted back to using his harness to help him climb steps or simply carrying him. Any ideas?  Does it get better?

Today marks 8 1/2 weeks after Nico’s amputation and 4 weeks after his torn glute muscle.  The amputation has healed well and we have dropped the tramadol because he tolerates pain well.  On the advice of our vet, we have continued the Meloxidyl everyday.  The vet said it was good for inflamation and all dogs with cancer should take it.  The muscle tear is so unfortunate because he was running and doing so well after surgery.  Because of the tear, he can only walk 50′ before he starts bending at his rear leg (the one with the torn musc

le).  It is slowly healing with a lot of heat treatments and massages, but he still cannot walk far and is so frustrated he can run after cats.  But he is such a good dog and looks to us to find a way to heal him so he can at least get back to the post surgery condition he was adapting to.  I might say that we had just put in new wood flooring and that caused another problem for Nico.  His rear paw was slipping badly.  We tried Paw Friction, which was supposed to help, but he chewed it off and his paw became infected.  So back to the vet and more antibiotics, which he hated even when we disguised them in pill pockets of all kinds of flavors.  So here we are approaching 9 weeks and he is just slowly recovering from the torn muscle.  It helped after placing traction master throw rugs throughout the house.  We got them at Home Depot and they work terrific.  We are hoping after his appointment tomorrow the vet can also tell us why he wakes up most mornings, staggers out to the back lawn and eats grass like a cow, just to throw up this yucky white frothy vile.  After all of this, we are so thankful that we still have Nico.

Our Sweet Nico

Our 12 year old Boxer was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma last week.  The X-rays showed it located around his left rear knee.  The vet suggested amputation, for which I was not for because of his age.  His blood work showed he was otherwise healthy, but even with his meds he is in pain.  My wife do not want him to suffer and I have been told that the amputation will relieve the pain and maybe give him up to another year of life.  He has been a very close to us and our grandchildren.  It is a very hard decision because I have read that the recovery period from post op is longer for older dogs and the rehab process may be difficult.  Has anyone out there faced a similar decision as to amputate or give pain meds until it was time to put your best pal to sleep?

NICO is brought to you by Tripawds.
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