Most pets are discharged within a week after amputation, depending on their comfort and ability to walk after surgery.
Your pet will come home with oral pain relievers. Adhesive fentanyl patches are used for some patients as well. Some patients may also receive antibiotics after surgery at home. Your pet may come home with a bandage at the discretion of your surgeon. An Elizabethan Collar is used in the first 10–14 days to prevent licking or chewing of the incision.
Exercise restrictions following surgery are recommended to protect pets from injury while they gain strength and coordination after amputation:
- Your pet should be kept in a comfortable, safe indoor location for 24–48 hours until he/she is very steady on his/her feet. Do not allow free access to stairs or slippery floors.
- Sling support can be helpful to assist your pet to rise and balance, especially on slippery or uneven surfaces. For front leg amputees, a sling is placed under the chest. For back leg amputees, a sling is placed under the belly
- Avoid any rigorous activity for four weeks. Short, leashed walks are fine.
Complications:
- Incisional bruising is common but should improve after several days
- Seroma, or fluid under the skin, may develop near the bottom of the incision for a front leg amputation in the first two weeks
- Infection
- Neuroma formation: Very rarely, nerves that have been cut for amputation will form little masses of nerve tissue that can be painful. This may require additional surgery or pain medication
- Hernia formation (occasionally with hemipelvectomy)
- Hemorrhage (occasionally with hemipelvectomy)
Clients often worry about phantom pain. Pain at an amputation site is not common.
The functional prognosis for dogs treated surgically with amputation is considered very good. The majority of dogs return to a high level of activity and endurance for their age. Following the four-week recovery period, there are no recommended limitations to their lifestyle.
Rear limb amputees tend to return to near normal mobility; forelimb amputees need to adjust their gait more significantly. For the older pet, learning to move after an amputation may take more time.
Ideally, keep your pet on the thin side of normal his/her whole life. Any minor orthopedic condition can progress with arthritis over time with excessive, wear & tear; carrying less body weight will reduce the energy they must use and will relieve some of this stress on the joints of the remaining three limbs.