He will get his leg amputated this morning. I know that over-all this is the best solution for him- but I am putting him in incredible short-term pain by deciding to do this. he is still dragging his now useless leg behind him. As I think I stated before, the vet left a sharp point of bone that is digging into Cooper’s muscle and making it hard for him to want to walk on that leg. The vet said he could smooth out the bone but he couldn’t guarantee that Coop would ever walk right again, which means that if it didn’t work, Coop would have to have yet another operation to remove the leg. I didn’t think that was quite fair.
Since this was a vet mistake, they are only charging us for the anesthesia. I just hope that Cooper will forgive me in the coming days for deciding to do this rotten thing to him.
Cooper will adjust to having three legs very quickly, I’m certain. It’ll be awkward for him at first, but he’ll get the idea. As long as you are with him in his life, it will be a happy one, three legs or four.
I honestly was wondering why it wasn’t amputated after the horrific accident. Volunteering at a local shelter, I’ve seen so many cats and dogs come in having to have a leg amputated and they recover and adjust quickly, especially if they were in pain before the amputation. He will be grateful to be out of pain and will learn quickly to move on three legs.
The call just came in. Cooper was on the table for 2.5 hours. It all went well but a lot of the muscle had to be cut for the segments of bone causing him trouble to be completely removed. He is on a morphine drip and I will get a call tomorrow advising me if they are going to continue to keep him one more day or if he can come home. The leg was amputated well above the femur -but “cosmetically” I was told, he looks okay.