One year post amputation

Today marks a year since Riley lost her leg.  What a year it’s been.  She went to the oncologist yesterday for a checkup, and the vet said that Riley looks great.  Blood work came back all normal except for a very slightly high albumin reading.  Chest x-rays had an anomaly, but the radiologist thinks it’s just a fatty mass (Riley has an “old lady bump” on her chest), so it appears that our dear Riley is still in remission.  Woo hoo!

We caught her digging in the yard last week – a bit clumsily- but she was having a good time.  She will occasionally bring a tennis ball to us, but one throw is generally enough.  Riley’s remaining hind leg is not strong enough to get her up a flight of stairs, so we hoist her up with her Webmaster harness at least once a day.  Currently, Riley is receiving acupuncture every few weeks.  We also just started swim therapy, which is allowing her to get good extension on her legs.  She is taking an array of supplements to keep her as healthy as possible.  We are trying a different harness to see if that has anything different to offer.

She still struggles with mobility.  Her remaining knee clicks audibly, and the therapist says there is also some difficulty with the tendon back there.  Riley has some arthritis in her remaining limbs, so that certainly doesn’t help with getting around.  Perhaps it’s because of her age, but since the surgery she has never gotten back to being able move easily.  She can run a bit, if the spirit moves her, but it is a very ungainly gait.  I see many dogs on this website who are able to get around nearly as well as a four-legged dog, but that isn’t the case with Riley.  All Riley’s vets said that we would be surprised at how well she would do with three legs, but none of them said that she would be noticeably disabled.  That being said, we are still glad to have her in our lives.  Our Riley is now 13 1/2.  We are grateful for every day.