My Marco
My name is Sharla. This is my first blog ever so please, bear with me. I have joined this community because as of tomorrow morning, my Marco will be a tripawd. He is the sweetest 9 month old poodle puppy. He found me just 3 short months ago. He was so scared of everything. He just shook in fear, he wouldn’t walk, play, and he barely ate. I worked with him all the time just snuggling him and reaffirming how much I love him. He went everywhere with me, even to work. In 3 weeks he was a new dog. Protective of me. So loving, and he loved my customers too. One day he was excited to see a customer and he jumped off the couch funny and broke his leg. I have never been so scared in my life. All I wanted was for him to not be in pain anymore!! I got him immediately to the animal hospital where they confirmed that both bones on his lower left leg were green twig fractured. They soft casted him up and for seven weeks we did x-ray after x-ray, 5 casts, and lots of pain for Marco. Last week the pain was unbearable for him. As I raised his leg, an abscess burst. I cleaned him up, medicated it bandaged him and took him to the vet. This time there was a vet that had never seen him before. You could see in her eyes how appalled she was by what she was seeing. All of the other times I had taken him, they worked on him in another room. I never got to see under the cast until that day….. I cried. He had so many resistance injuries under that cast. They were infected and bleeding. The skin was sloughing off at the elbow and beginning to die. After x-rays for the fourth time, it showed that his break was worse than the day I brought him in. This has been 7 weeks, 5 casts, 4 x-rays and $1648.00 . My Marco is worse off than the day he broke his leg. They offered to do surgery to repair his break with metal plates and screws…. They would have to be the size of toothpicks… this would also take 3 days with bone marrow this and bone graphed that then more casting and more crating for 2-3 months more. Then he could possibly reject it, his bone would liquify and it would be all for nothing. oh yeah and that would be another $1600.00. Amputation is another option, that would eliminate the break, the infection and the cost is $600.00. They have stopped charging me for the boarding fees, the doctor offered to knock $1000.00 off the repair, now he wants to come in on his day off to do the procedure. Does it seem as though he’s feeling a little guilty to you? I just can’t run the risk of doing the repair and I know Marco does not want to go through 3 more months of this. He’s been getting around very well with 3 legs and a cast hiked back behind him. So, Marco will be joining the world of tripawds tomorrow morning at 8:00am. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks……. Marco’s Mom
May 31st, 2012 at 6:48 pm
ok marco, time to get rid of that extra leg… three is plenty, you’ll do fine with three. we’re sorry you had to take ‘the long way around the barn’ to become a tripawd, but you will do fine. tell your mom to be brave, not to act too weepy around you – she must be brave like you!!!!! we just know that you will be a tripawd warrior, and you will show your mom how brave boys act!!!! hope we can soon see some pictures of you, as you sound very handsome!!
charon & apirit gayle
May 31st, 2012 at 7:45 pm
Hi Marco and Mom! So sorry to hear about all that Marco has been through. If you haven’t already posted in the forums, you should also introduce yourself there. Many more members check the forums and respond much quicker than to the blogs.
Maybe your vet is feeling guilty. It’s possible that he truly thought the treatment he prescribed would work and even he is disappointed in the outcome. And maybe he has witnessed your dedication to this sweet pup and just wants to help. There’s no way to tell for sure – just make sure that you feel comfortable with future treatments.
Amputation is a MAJOR surgery so be prepared for a couple of weeks of worry. But most dogs do just fine and amaze us after a few weeks! Try to get as much rest as possible while Marco’s in the hospital because you will lose a lot of sleep in the next couple of weeks (mostly b/c of pure paranoia and jumping up every time he moves through the night).
Good luck with the surgery! Let us know how he does.
Lisa
May 31st, 2012 at 8:51 pm
Hi Sharla, I’m so glad you found us and at the same time I’m sorry you are dealing with horrible ordeal with your puppy Marco. Sounds like a lot of mistakes made all the expense of your poor Marco’s recovery of a normal leg. Horrible circumstances but you have to move on to do what is best for him now. I will be thinking about you and Marco and he will do great being young and all. Rest up as it is a rough couple of weeks of recovery, and it sounds like you’ve already been through the ringer of a rough couple weeks all ready. I will send some good mojo your way and pray that all goes as planned. You are such a great Mom to adopt a pup that obviously needed someone to just care and love him. I’m so happy you found each other….it was meant to be. That doc had better be doing this amp pro bono….since he messed all this up in the first place. Good luck and let us know how it all goes. Suzie and Rizzo(my tripawd)
June 1st, 2012 at 8:36 am
Welcome and thank you for sharing Marco’s story. Best wishes for his speedy recovery.
You’ll find lots of recovery and care tips in Jerry’s Required Reading List, and for immediate answers to the most common dog amputation questions download the new Tripawds e-book Three Legs and A Spare.
June 1st, 2012 at 11:15 am
Oh man, I am so, SO sorry to hear this. I don’t know what to think; the infection and pressure injuries, on top of the broken bone…I’ve been through the skin-sloughing with my own boy. It’s horrible to go through and I feel so bad for you and Marco.
You’re making the right decision, absolutely. Even if there was a better chance of recovery, that’s still so much for poor Marco to go through and a lot of cost on your end (even though we all love our dogs so much, unfortunately finances do play a role…I wish it wasn’t so). You can take it from me – I’ve already spent several thousand trying to give Jack a pain-free leg and I do NOT regret amputation. I wish I would have gone with it before…the recovery time is so small compared to everything else and Jack could care less about the missing leg!
Marco is so young; he’ll adapt so quickly and you’ll never know he was born with an extra leg. 😉
I highly recommend getting the Three Legs and A Spare ebook; it helped me out a lot and has direct links to lots of good information.
Good luck! And welcome!
June 1st, 2012 at 11:50 pm
Marco, I’m so sorry to read about your tough journey. Ugh! What terrible vet service! That just stinks. But I’m so glad you’ll be feeling better again soon. We’ll be here to help however we can OK?
Good luck with your surgery, please keep us posted.