Owners of canine amputees report similar caregiver burden to other dog owners

Talking through limb amputation often raises owner concerns about day-to-day demands as much as the dog’s recovery. A new online survey study suggests that, in this sample, living with a dog that has had a limb amputated was not linked with higher measured caregiver burden than owning a healthy dog — though certain situations were associated with more strain.

The study

Researchers at LMU Munich compared 76 owners of dogs with limb amputation (living with limb loss for >6 months) with 74 owners of healthy control dogs. Owners completed an online questionnaire (March–September 2024) including an adapted Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) and validated measures of stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms and quality of life.

The key findings

• Overall caregiver burden scores were similar between groups (median ZBI 12.0 in the amputation group vs 11.0 in controls).
• Stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms and overall quality of life scores also did not differ significantly between groups.
• Within the amputation group, higher burden scores were linked with: reduced shared activities (e.g. no longer hiking), negative reactions from others, and the use of prostheses or additional assistive aids (especially when prosthesis acceptance was poor).

Limitations

This was a single time-point, self-selected online survey (heavy social media recruitment) with a demographically narrow respondent pool, so results may not generalise to all owner populations or capture changes over time.

The bottom line

In this study, most owners of canine amputees did not report higher caregiver burden than owners of healthy dogs, but practices may want to focus extra support where lifestyle changes, equipment use, or social pressures are adding strain.

Source / full details: Frontiers in Veterinary Science, Pryjmak et al., “Comparing Caregiver Burden in Owners of Healthy Dogs With and Without Limb Amputation: A Cross-Sectional Analysis”