The month of March has two holidays for math lovers. Many readers may already know about Pi Day, or 3/14, which celebrates the first three digits of the mathematical constant Pi. Those of us that love animals may be more familiar with Triday, 3/3, a day dedicated to the resilient pets that have undergone a limb amputation and thrived as “tripawds.” Limb amputations in pets are performed to correct injuries and treat bone infections and cancer. In today’s blogpost, I’ll discuss the medical situations that may necessitate amputation and some of the emotional considerations of this surgery.
Helping Tripawds Get Adopted
For Triday 2022, I wrote about some of the pets whose care was funded by the AMC to the Rescue fund. This community fund supports specialty care for rescue pets. Because these pets don’t have a family to provide medical care, their injuries often go untreated and, in some cases, limb amputation alleviates pain from intractable, and unfixable, injuries. This blogpost highlights the stories of Ezekiel, Bunny Bear and Etienne, all of whom found forever homes after their limb amputation at AMC.
Limb Amputation for Cancer
Ezekiel, Bunny Bear and Etienne each had a limb amputated because they had injuries that could not be corrected or an infection was resistant to antibiotic treatment. Another reason veterinarians at AMC recommend amputation is for bone cancer. Amputation of a limb with bone cancer has two benefits. First, amputation removes the source of pain. Second, it also removes cancer, which improves chances of survival. Treatment with chemotherapy following amputation improves the outcome even more. Making a decision to amputate your pet’s leg is an emotional one, especially when cancer is the reason.
Emotional Amputation Decisions
Veterinarians do not make a recommendation for amputation lightly. We only recommend amputation when it will alleviate pain or control cancer or when there is no other treatment option, such as the AMC to the Rescue cases mentioned above. The amputation recommendation is emotional for owners and veterinarians alike. Fortunately, there are resources to help pet families with emotional decisions like these. In addition to your pet’s veterinarian, Tripawds.com provides a wide range of resources on amputation.
Many veterinary hospitals, including the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center, employ licensed social workers. I find a conversation with the social worker helpful to many of my patient’s families when faced with a difficult decision, such as amputation.
One final word on amputation from families of pets who have made the decision to amputate a pet’s limb: in multiple surveys, over 90% of dog owners and cat owners ranked their pet’s quality of life after amputation excellent or good, a strong recommendation from people in the know. It’s also another example of our pets’ incredible resiliency and indefatigable spirit, which is one of the reasons we love them so much.
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amc to the rescue, amputation, bone cancer, licensed clinical social worker, osteosarcoma, social worker, Surgery, triday, tripawds, veterinary social work,
