Laurie's Blogs.

So, this blog is a synopsis of a paper by GL Cole and D Millis, entitled The effect of limb amputation on standing weight distribution in the remaining three limbs in dogs.  (VCOT 2017; 30(1): 59-61.) And I wanted to review it for this blog because I had just quoted it to one of my 3-legged-dog owners, and when I went back to check what I had told her, I got it wrong!  Curses!  Well never again… I’m doing this to solidify it in my head as much as to provide you guys some great info.  Here goes:

As background, previously documented normal weight bearing in a standing position in a dog is 30% on each forelimb and 20% on each hind limb.  Previous studies have found that dogs with a forelimb amputated bear 49% of their weight on the remaining forelimb and 53% on the hind limbs.  A dog with a hind limb amputated bears 73% of their weight on their forelimbs and 26% on the remaining hind limb.  

This study retrospectively evaluated 10 dogs that had had a forelimb amputation and 10 that had had a hind limb amputation.  Static weight bearing was measured using the Stance Analyzer.

What did they find?  For dogs with a forelimb amputation, they found that the contralateral forelimb bore 47.5% of the weight and each hind limb took 26.2 (or .3)%.  The dogs with a hind limb amputation bore 28% of their weight onto the contralateral hind limb, and in these cases, the contralateral forelimb took 39.6% and the ipsilateral forelimb took 32.4%.

Why do you care?  I think we have all seen and experienced needing to help the contralateral forelimb in the case of a forelimb amputation.  This study sheds light on the weight redistribution in dogs with hind limb amputations, and the need to watch for overuse and breakdown in the contralateral forelimb in these dogs!

So there, you go… now you know!  Happy Helping of the Hopping Hounds!

Cheers,

Laurie