A Degenerative Disorder Has Damaged Hoppy's Leg Beyond Repair | The Vet Life

Hello, hello. How's it going? Hi. Dr. Ross. Joanna. And this is Hoppy? This is Hoppy. And I'm looking over the record, and I see that Hoppy's here for a consult about his limb. Yes, sir. It does seem to cause him some pain, and that's the reason I wanted you to look at him. I rescued Hoppy from the shelter. He was set to be euthanized. OK. His leg was deformed like this. You want to come over here? So we don't know a lot about him before that. He's a very sweet boy. While looking at Hoppy's limb, a list of differentials do come out to me. The first thing I think about is an angular limb deformity, and that's something that's congenital. Good boy. That's a good baby. Hold on, hold on. That limb, he could have been born with it. Another thing that comes to me is, are you familiar with rickets? I've heard about it. Rickets. Ricket is a disease that they get when they have a vitamin D deficiency. OK. But most times we see injuries like this, it's trauma. Hit by a car, fell off the bed, broke the limb at a young age, and it starts to develop and heal abnormally if it didn't get the special attention that it needs. We're going to start off with doing some x-rays, but the x-rays will let us know in totality what's going on with that limb. Sadly, a lot of shelter dogs have been abandoned and abused. So my gut's telling me that trauma could be the reason why Hoppy's leg is the way it is. But we're going to look at these x-rays and figure out what's going on with Hoppy. You ready to come with me? Can I take you? Come on, bubba. I have to give Joanna a lot of credit. A lot of people would not rescue a disabled dog. Hopefully I can bring some comfort to the both of them with my findings. One, two, three, roll. Just like that. All right. Perfect. So if you could just hold Hoppy, I'm going to pull up these x-rays. This is the bad limb. Dr. Ross, what do you think it might be? Looks like it has a congenital defect. Born with it, this is what I'm worried about. We have a lot of osteoarthritis, a lot of bone fragments. That's not normal. That lets me know that the body's eating away at the bone. And unfortunately, there's no way to treat that. It has to be amputated. This limb definitely needs to come off. So looking at these limbs side by side, you can see the texture of this particular bone here is not as dense as this bone. It almost looks translucent, meaning that you can see through it. You have all these lesions on a bone that is making that bone very brittle. OK. And it's going to just make it weak, weak, weak to the point where one day it could just pop apart, basically. So it's just eating away at itself. Yes. Unfortunately, this is a degenerative disorder, so it worsens with time. If we don't take care of this, the bone could crumble and cause severe pain. Looking at these x-rays, I recommend going ahead and removing that limb. OK. No owner wants to hear the news that their baby's going to have to lose a limb. But there's actually happy three-legged dogs. And I'm positive that Hoppy will be no exception. It's OK. Mama loves you. I know. I love you. You're going to be OK. Yeah. I know it's a hard pill to swallow. It's a very hard decision to remove his leg because I feel like this should have never happened to him. I just feel bad that he's two years old and he's got to lose his leg, you know, that he couldn't have had just a normal life and not have to go through anything. He has a long life ahead of him. The thing we don't want is for him to be uncomfortable for the next three to eight years of his life. And that's not a decision that you have to make now. You can sleep on it. You can call me. And we can talk about it farther in depth. But I want you to be comfortable with making the decision. Well, I mean, I trust your opinion. So I want to do what's best for him. You know, I want him to understand that I'm not doing this to hurt him, that I'm doing this because I love him. If I don't have his leg removed, he's going to have trouble in the future that's going to cause him to be more uncomfortable. So it's a decision that I feel like I have to make while he's young enough to be able to cope with having three legs. I love you. Hey, come on, buddy. I am so excited to be here to pick Hoppy up. He's going to have a few things he needs to get used to. But I'm just happy to be taking him home. There's my baby. Yes, he said yes. Did you miss me? He did. He missed you a lot. You probably shouldn't be doing this. He did great. Is he OK to be doing this? Well, he's a little, he misses you. Don't let him overdo it. OK. Like a lot of jumping, a lot of running. Yes, wait. The surgery went great. He's a great patient. He handled the anesthesia long. It was a two-hour surgery. That's a lot. Yes. But the good thing is he recovered from surgery very well. OK. And he's getting around really well on it. I think Hoppy looks great today. I was scared I was going to be carrying him home. But obviously, he's going to be walking, hopping home is what he's going to be doing. So once his stitches come out and everything, I don't have to really limit his activity then. No, that is. Like, he can play with the other dogs. He can do whatever he did before. Whatever his heart desires. Hoppy is adjusting perfectly. Incredibly, animals adjust much faster with missing limbs than humans. So I'm not worried about him at all. He's going to do just fine. And like, again, I want to thank you for rescuing him. It takes a special person to rescue. Well, more people need to rescue dogs with disabilities and issues because they turn out to be some of the best ones. And they deserve a chance as much as any other. They all deserve a chance. But they deserve a chance, too. Yes, ma'am. We're good to go. And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to give us a call. Oh, I won't. Give him some treats because he deserves it. I will. He'll get plenty of treats. Say thank you. Oh, you're my buddy now. I think Hoppy is going to have a great life now. I mean, coming from the street to the shelter, coming off of death row. And now, look at him. I mean, he's doing great. He's happy. And he's going to live a full life. He's doing great on three legs.