Our beloved 18 month GSP has recently broken both bones in his right forelimb (lower). Unfortunately, despite fantastic care from our vets, a bone infection has set in. Has anyone had any experience of how this breed copes with limb amputation. Hopefully, it will not come to this, but we would like to explore all avenues before we are faced with any difficult decisions.

So sorry to hear about your dog, but not all's lost :-) They can cope very well on three legs.
You do have to keep their weight down and obviously wear and tear on other limbs is increased, but they do adapt. Feel free to email me, if you would like to talk some more.
Fingers crossed that it doesn't come to that :-)

Guest, I feel "qualified"to answer this one since it is something I have been through. My all time absolute favourite hound ever, developed bone cancer at 6, and when he got to 6 and a half the decision had to be made, do we put him down or not. Until that point I had been against amputation, but when the crunch time came & I took him in to see the vet again, he pointed out that he had been on 3 legs for 5 months & so by amputating, we would be reducing the weight burden & it was worth a try. So I went ahead....it was the one & only op I couldn't stay with my dogs for...even my vet admitted it would be a blood bath. I rang the next morning to see how he was & they said "outside having a pee". !!!!!
I collected him after 2 days but NOTHING could have prepared me for the shock. He was shaven,all his torso, from front to back, and to keep the weight minimal, absolutely the whole foreleg and shoulder had been removed. no bones cut off, just totally removed. He had 60 staples and 3 drains & to be honest it was like something out of a horror film & I am certainly not the squeamish sort. I cried for a week, convinced I had done a barbaric thing to my beautiful hound, I made myself ill & was ashamed to even tell anyone. Then I had to take him back for his check up and not only did he JUMP UP into the landrover, but he PULLED me into the vets & put his 1 remaining paw up on the reception counter to say hi to the nurses!
I cried again! After that it all got better & I started walking him out a bit....in the end he had 11 months of really good quality life on 3 legs before the cancer spread again & the inevitable moment came. After all the agonising and self torture, I KNOW I did the right thing for him & he truly enjoyed his extra 11 months, going around the farm, to the beach and amazingly he still hunted and did a working trial. OK enough rambling....its a major thing in a big breed but it is possible. If you want to email me privately I will happily give you more advice.

Hi sam, God what a shock that must have been seeing your dog looking like that to start with, but obviously worth it. If the need ever arose I would def. have the op on the lurchers, butIdont think I would on the Wolfhounds, because of their great weight, and general heart problems.

Have to admit Phillipa I wouldn't do it to another hound....This one just had an enormous zest for life, but I do not think any of my others would cope.

I'd always thought it was much more debilitating to have a front leg removed than a hind leg, since there is generally a lot more weight at the front of the dog for the legs to support. However,there is a Lurcher who attends the lure coursing meetings I go to, who had to have a front leg amputated after an accident. He is a big boy, Greyhound/ Beardie cross I think, but he still runs- he does a course almost as quickly as the Whippets! It is certainly not a hindrance to him.
Good luck anyway, hope it doesn't come to amputation, but remember, dogs don't think like us- if we had a limb removed, we'd have the emotional trauma to cope with as well. Dogs just get on with life!
Liz

Sam I went through exactly the same as you with my Border Collie. We were told the cancer had not spread to her lymph nodes and amputation was the only option but a very good one. It was her front leg too. I have attended amputations before so knew what to expect by my other half didn't and he was as shocked as you, probably worse because he is squeamish. Anyway Jet coped tremendously, running upstairs, going for walks, jumping for her ball. However we only had her for another 4 months before being told the cancer had indeed spread and she was eventually PTS. :-(

I still feel hurendous waves of guilt and have never forgiven myself for having her leg amputated, I know she recovered without any problems and I was amazed at her mobility and she was so happy because the leg had obviously been causing her some pain but to be honest if I had known she would only be with us for a few short months afterwards I would never had done it. We were told after numerous tests the cancer had not spread. If I was faced with the option of having to amputate again, depending on the breed and if it was due to cancer I would NEVER amputate. If it was possibly because of broken bones etc. then maybe just maybe I would consider it, especially if it was a relatively young dog.