2 legs missing on same side

[Debbie-Spain]

I know we have seen some cases of this but can't find any. We have about 6 hours to try and provide something convincing to get them to hand this young female galgo (Spanish greyhound) over to us rather than euthanize her. They seem to be set on putting her to sleep.

Any ideas? Are prostheses a possibility in such a case? Galgos have such terribly thin legs, we have seen cases where the bones just fracture when you try to do anything with them. Apparently she tries to lean on her injured legs and it causes her pain according to the people who rescued her. I don't know the reason for her injuries but presume it was a hunting trap, when galgos run their front and back legs kind of come together as they hit the ground and I imagine they did that on an illegal trap. We see injuries from these all the time but generally they affect one leg or two legs on different sides (two front or two back). Is there any kind of cart that could help? (It is quite difficult for some galgos to adapt to carts).

If anyone can find any other cases that were resolved successfully I would be grateful for the help...

Debbie-Spain

[GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily]

Debbie, I have nothing to offer, aside from a 4 wheeler, which would be a trial and error. I just wanted you to know that this girl's beautiful heartbroken face touches me to the core.

[critters]

I've seen such a pupper on TV; he got caught/run over by farm machinery. He got around totally on his own, more or less hopping.

A no-pod http://ww.smashits.com/index.cfm?Page=V ... &BBID=1964
bipod surgery http://ww.smashits.com/index.cfm?Page=V ... &BBID=1964
http://www.handicappedpets.com/links/amputee.htm
bipod (opposite) http://www.handicapable.net/photos.html
http://www.handicappedpets.com/pandalinks.htm

We also have lots of bipod kitty links, if you want them.

[Debbie-Spain]

Thanks Karen, I know, sometimes there is just something in their face that you know you have to give it a try...

If we lived in the US we would surely be able to get them to give her to us because I'm sure she could get help, but here in Spain nobody makes prostheses for animals and most making them for humans would probably just laugh if you even approached them. I did meet some people once who had made a prosthesis for their own dog and were going to make one for another dog but they turned out not be very reliable...

The annoying thing is I remember posting myself here a long time ago in reply to someone about double amputation on the same side and I think I found a couple of cases (may have been cats, I don't remember) but I just can't find the message...

Debbie

[Debbie-Spain]

Thanks Critters, I had checked through the links too. I just found the old message I was looking for, but it was about double diagonal amputees, can't find any double same-side amputees... but I still think that she would have a chance either with one or two prostheses or with some kind of an adapted cart... the pain worries me but I don't know yet if she always has pain or if it is only when she tries to put her paws down. Some galgos are quite energetic and never stop moving, so that could make things more difficult...

Ok, will give it our best shot anyway. Pls can we leave this message here in urgent until we get an answer, just in case anyone has any cases/photos that would help us fight...

Thanks

Debbie

[critters]

The surgery link didn't work, but I think it was a bilateral, and a kitty for sure. I'll look it up again if you're interested; the surgery part was putting a pin into the limbs to attach prostheses to.

[Debbie-Spain]

Yes, I'd be interested if it's not a major chore for you to find it!

I just tried writing to the guy mentioned in the article linked below, he's in the UK, to see whether he can give me any pointers and whether he thinks it would be possible to try with prosthetics.

http://www.heymanchester.com/mancubist/ ... ed-friends


Not sure whether he will see it in time but we can only try...

Thanks for the help!

Debbie

[Debbie-Spain]

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/25120/dog_with_two_legs/

[Debbie-Spain]

The expert in the UK, Dr. Heath, kindly wrote straight back and is very interested in helping her (we can't take her to the UK because of the 6 month waiting period but he will advise us and is going to look into them making the prostheses for her if once a vet has seen her it seems to be a possible route - that would be definitely one for the back leg and possibly one for the front leg, depending on how she adapts.)

So, with the video of the dog with no legs I posted above and the offer from the UK, they agreed to give her a chance and not PTS, as long as we agreed to PTS if we felt her pain would not be treatable and she had little chance of good quality of life. She is going straight to a very experienced foster home in Madrid tomorrow, so I won't see her directly (grrr! I was right there last week but it's an 8 hour drive) but the carer has an excellent traumatologist so I'm confident we should get a good evaluation of her soon.

I hope we can ease her pain and offer her a good quality of life.

Thanks for all your help

Debbie

PS: No longer an emergency, post can be moved to amputation?

[CarolC]

Hi Debbie,

Glad it is working out. Here is an article and picture of a cat missing both right legs.

http://www.handicappedpets.com/cgi-bin/ ... read=12561