We have received another foster dog in our lives and she has been keeping us surprisingly busy. We had agreed to take on a foster dog with a broken leg. The vet from the rural town she’s from put her in a splint and our rescue agreed to take her.

When we got her, we realized she was in a livestock splint, totally inappropriate for a dog. So the owner of the rescue immediately called our vet to get her seen first thing monday morning for a proper splint.

Later that evening (it was a saturday) I touched base with the rescue owner to let her know that I felt that this foster was in far more pain than she should be. I had hoped that this was because she was in a livestock splint. But I worried that there was more going on with her than we anticipated. The rescue owner got us some pain killers to put her on while waiting for her Monday vet appointment. She also indicated that the rural vet did not send any xrays. This was a red flag.

On Monday my daughter dropped her off at the rescue vet and I waited to hear from the rescue what was going on. The news was not good.

The vet took an xray and the rescue owner, outside the door, could hear the exclamation of alarm from the vet. You can see that her bone is not in a nice clean break, it’s a mangled mess. (She was hit by a car.) Furthermore, the livestock splint was making the entire thing more painful as it was not holding anything in place, and working around it was actively moving her break. This was why I was seeing such high signs of pain in her. I was reading it correctly.

The only solution is an amputation, which was set up for today. In the meantime, the vet removed the livestock splint and put her in a wrap to keep her as comfortable as possible. Plus more good drugs for her.

She was, without a doubt, more comfortable out of the livestock splint and on heavier drugs. I then spent the week prepping for her surgery. The rug in that photo is not mine, it’s borrowed from another foster home. My hope is that it’ll help her not slip on our hardwood floors as she recovers. Throughout all of this, despite what must have been extreme pain, this little dog has been so so sweet! Even though this project is a much larger project than I ever anticipated, I am very glad she was rescued, she’s worth it. And I am glad we were able to get an answer as fast as possible, showing us her best path forward. She’s our second leg amputee foster and the first one was such a fantastic firecracker of a dog! I know this one will do wonderfully as well once her healing is complete.