One friend’s experience with Surgery
Our pets can often surprise us with their resilience and bravery, whether they’re protecting owners from danger, or bouncing back after a big operation.
Case in point: Charlie the miniature dachshund.
When SASH first saw Charlie, they suspected a bone tumour was the reason behind the soreness on his front right leg. Sure enough, a biopsy of the tumour during his CT scan at SASH showed it was malignant and his leg needed to be amputated.
While bone tumours are quite common with bigger dogs like Rottweilers and Great Danes, they’re not often seen in our smaller four-legged friends. And with Charlie sporting the typical ‘sausage dog’ physique (long and close to the ground), his owners were worried he might not be able to walk without his front leg.
But Charlie surprised everyone.
Just one day after his amputation surgery, Charlie was up and running! It just goes to show that dogs really are born with “3 legs and a spare”.
Charlie also needed a course of chemotherapy, because his tumour was a cartilage producing Osteosarcoma (bone cancer), and he successfully completed that after his surgery with only a few hiccups.
The team at SASH saw Charlie recently for his 1 year check-up, to find him loving life at home – and although he has one leg less than his Labrador mate, it doesn’t slow him down in the slightest. Even better, repeat chest radiographs show no evidence of cancer spreading to Charlie’s lungs.
If your dog requires a limb amputation, it can be a tough decision to make and understandably many owners are concerned about how their pet will cope.
But if Charlie proves anything, it’s that if a mini sausage dog can do it, than most dogs can too!
