Amputation: pets can manage without four legs

Press, 20 December 1986, Page 16

Amputation: pets can manage without four legs

wtw Pet

Ross Blanks

Podge is an amputee, one of a very rare fraternity in the veterinary world, for he is a cat with only two legs.

In my student days. I encountered a fox terrier double amputee. To my amazement, although both his functional limbs were

on the same side of his body, he could out-run me with ease on all terrains.

Needless to say, he sat down when he stopped. I tell this story for people apprehensive of amputation as a solution to an untreatable injury or tumour involving a limb of an animal. With advancing techniques in veterinary orthopaedics, the need to amputate a limb occurs infrequently now.

However, if it arises you can be sure that any pain, discomfort, or disability associated with a single limb amputation will be shortlived. The stoicism of animals is unbounded and with care, pain relief, and modern techniques, small animals adjust to a three-legged gait almost immediately. The only problem likely to be encountered is the

need for you to scratch behind one ear if a hindleg has gone, or to forget the whole concept of shaking hands in the case of a forelimb.

Getting back to Podge’s story, soul searching and much deliberating was necessary before surgery was elected. By the time I saw him for the first time, due to a protracted set of circumstances, he had already adapted to having two useless twisted and ulcerated hind limbs. The double amputation has removed those ulcerated bleeding areas, reduced the useless weight that he was hoisting around, and the discomfort factor.

Podge has his own powerful character. The strength in his front end is huge. He walks carrying his whole weight clear of the ground on his front legs and takes time out to take a swat at anyone who threatens his stability. He has adapted well. He looks after himself, moves around, and does his limited thing. He is hard to catch when he doesn’t want to be, and consistently behaves like your standard model of contented and occasionally feisty feline.