Hello Tripawds!

Hello pawparents!  My name is Suki.  I am a 95 pound, 13 year old Australian Shepherd, Akita, St Bernard mix.  My mom affectionately calls me her “sweet little girl”.  This is my first day as a TriPawd.  My loving humans have been doing everything they can to save my limb.  After several setbacks they made the difficult decision to have my leg amputated so I can regain my quality of life.  My parents have been on a wild emotional roller coaster for the past 22 weeks.

My journey began when I slipped my back left paw while jumping into my Dad’s Jeep, fell, and landed on my left leg which fractured from the impact.  From there I am having my fifth surgery in as many months.  My poor loving humans did the best they could to salvage my leg.  Unfortunately, they are back to square one and feeling heartbroken everything they have done in my best interest has come to this.  My back left leg went from a break (surgery #1) to a compound fracture a week later after the plate inserted bent from the pressure put on it (surgery #2).  Guess I was stronger than the vet realized!  While additional hardware was added the second time as well as a titanium plate, I developed sores on my paw.  Casts are not fun!  With the hope of reducing friction my parents consented to having my dew claw removed (surgery #3).  Fortunately I don’t take tight turns so I didn’t need it!  While the healing progress began the vet noticed a section of my leg had not grown back.  Guess it was happy being as is!  To encourage healing a regenerative bone graph (surgery #4) was performed.

Weeks ago my humans we celebrating and thought we had finally saw progress when it appeared there were no fractures in my leg!  To restore muscle mass in my leg the vet began physical therapy.  After a couple sessions my muscle mass decreased.  Unfortunately, this was due to an implant infection.  A week into my antibiotics treatment my humans noticed an odd slope in my leg.  Due to the infection the implant had separated my leg resulting in another fracture.  Consulting with a surgeon my parents made the heart wrenching decision to have the leg removed.  Their only other option was complex reconstruction surgery and a perpetual loop of what our family has dealt with the last 22 weeks.  My humans couldn’t see me suffer any longer and gave me a new leash on life.

Within five hours of my surgery ending I’ve been up a couple of times and am feeling much better!  I am looking forward to being mobile and back to chasing squirrels!