dog with implanted prosthetic leg

Came across an interesting piece on Dog Blog about an unusual surgery on a dog that had lost a rear foot. Sally, a saluki,had some of the bone in her leg removed and a titanium implant was attached to the bone. As in a human hip surgery, the idea is that the bone tissue will grow over the implanted metal, leading to a permanent solution to the problem of her missing foot.


The original article about Sally is at The Tribune. It discusses the possibility that this surgery might have implications for improved surgery for humans, but I'm just glad that Sally has benefited from such good care. I hope the long-term results will be good. Generally amputation is the first solution for problems like this one, because dogs can cope well with having only three legs.

When I worked for a year in a local vet hospital a dog came in that had been left to cope with a massive injury to a back leg. Someone rescued her from the abusive owner and the vet operated gratis, removing her rear leg, and found her a loving home. Unfortunately she injured the front leg on the same side and needed an operation. One of the most amazing sights I have ever seen was her walking on two legs across the waiting room when she came for a check-up. If I hadn't seen it myself I wouldn't have believed it.

By the way, she recovered well and gets around on three legs now.

Here's a link to a Youtube clip of another dog that is missing two legs on the same side. It's an upbeat clip of a happy dog, as far as I can see.

There are other clips of dogs with two legs but they made me feel sad.