Duke the Mastador

Hello to all the fellow Tripawds family! I thought I would post a little update on Duke. It’s been a little over a month since his amputation and I can honestly say it is amazing at how fast animals can adapt and overcome. I will say, his recovery was not 100% easy. I would be lying if I told you all that I have not had any melt downs over any little thing that goes wrong. Sometimes Duke’s balance can be a little wobbly and when he goes outside for his bathroom time he still thinks he can move like he used to. There have been some face plants here and there, but he shakes himself off and gets back up. He had his stitches out at the beginning of the month and the vet gave us the green light to remove the cone of shame. That freedom was short lived though and he started to lick a spot on his healing incision area. It opened up a little so I called the vet back and they told me to monitor the area as well as put some antibiotic ointment, however, he must go back to wearing the cone. Oh the look on his face was priceless! I have started to let him gain some freedom back and will take the cone off so he can go outside and as long as my boyfriend or myself can watch him inside, we will let him go without. I must say through this whole process, finding this community has been the best thing that could have happened.

Good afternoon to anyone who is reading this blog. My name is Jenn and my 11 year old Black Lab Mastiff mix has just underwent a right hind leg amputation. I guess it all began around my birthday last year when I noticed a little lump during a camping trip with my boyfriend. We thought nothing of it at the time because he has numerous fatty benign spots around his body and then little by little, it started to increase in size. Still thinking nothing of it, we took him to our regular vet to get it aspirated and the outcome of that was uneventful. They could not find anything serious enough so we just forgot about it. Fast-forward to my birthday in September of this year when it had reached the size of a softball I knew that this was not something I could let stay and not get to the bottom of. My boyfriend and I took him back to the vet where they once again aspirated it to find spindle cells. Then the vet suggested to make an appointment with the Oncologist at a local vet specialty and I was on the fence because at the time, it was not bothering him so I held off. Around Thanksgiving time, he had licked the hair completely off the area to the point where it was starting to open up so I went ahead and finally scheduled that oncology appointment because for all intent purposes, Duke may be a senior dog, but you would never know by watching him run around on the daily. During his consultation, I heard the words I was dreading, “Aputation.” My boyfriend and I scheduled a CT scan to make sure the cancer had not spread into his lungs, or lymph nodes and once those results were in that it was just localized to his leg I thought the choice would be easy. It was far from it. I cried daily thinking of how much Duke would hate me for taking his leg from him and constantly asked my family and friends if I was making the right decision. I felt like I was betraying my dog and that he would never forgive me. It was honestly the toughest decision I have ever made in my life. I knew in my heart that he deserved better than to be stuck wearing a cone of shame forever, or to possibly have the open wound abscesses. So, four days ago he had his amputation surgery. The first 48 hours were rough for all of us. My boyfriend had a dog growing up with a lame leg so he was somewhat familiar with how Duke would be. I was and still am clueless on what to expect but I can tell you all that Duke is just about back to his normal fun-loving self. We can barely keep up with him on his potty breaks outside because it hasn’t fazed him that he is down a limb. My happy boy is here and we just have to make sure that we can give him the best years of his life while we have him.

Read this for important information!

Welcome to Tripawds. Please read on for important tips. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging. Don’t miss our helpful WordPress tutorial videos if you need help getting started with your new Tripawds blog.

Visit your blog dashboard to change or remove the site header, cusomize your sidebar widgets, change the blog theme, and much more!

PLEASE NOTE:

Tripawds Blogs shall NOT be used for commercial OR fundraising purposes.

The free Tripawds Blogs platform shall not be used by an commercial entity. Any blog created by a veterinary clinic, product manufacturer or any other commercial endeavor will be deleted and all users removed without warning. Please contact Tripawds regarding guest article submission opportunities.

Direct appeals for financial assistance to help cover care expenses will be deleted without notice. Everypawdy in the Tripawds community faces their own share of high expenses related to surgery, recovery and care. Veterinary financial aid resources can be found in the Tripawds News blog. Please see the Tripawds Fundraising Appeals Policy for more information. Thank you for your understanding.

Do not reply to this post!

Please publish a new post (or edit this one) to share your story. The Tripawds community is only notified of new blog posts in the Recent Posts widgets found throughout the News blog and discussion forum pages. Members will not be notified of any comments made on this default first post. You can also choose to edit or delete your sample page.

• See the Help videos in your blog dashboard or post in the Tech Support forum with any questions!

Publish a blog post or your site may be deleted!

Please be sure to publish at least one blog post to let us know you that you may use your blog. NOTE: Failure to do so may result in your site being deleted. If you upload photos to your Media Library, but fail to publish a post, we’ll never know they are there and they may be gone forever!

Another way to ensure your site does not get deleted, is to upgrade it with a Tripawds Supporter subscription.

By default your site will be indexed so Tripawds members will be notified of your update in the Recent Posts lists throughout this community. If you change your Privacy settings to discourage search engines, your posts will not be indexed! 

To limit the amount of spam you receive, any first comment a reader makes on your blog will require moderation. Be sure to “Spam” any inappropriate comments, and approve those from your readers so their future comments appear immediately. You can change your comment options from the Settings -> Discussion tab in your dashboard.

Thank you for sharing your story, and happy blogging!