I chose to amputate the front leg of a 12 yr old dog!! You think she didn't have quality of life? The only change I made for her was put in a ramp, but she had always had trouble with stairs to begin with.
Her amputation was a OSU in Oct.
In January a few months later, while I had her littermate at OSU, I took Diamond for a walk outside without a leash. Yeah, I can catch a 12 yr old tripod. NOT! She took off after deer running through the woods. Luckily she did have good recall and she came back. But, you can't tell me she wasn't a happy, energetic, active girl. Her amp did not slow her down one bit. Only when the dreaded OS showed up in one of the remaining legs did I lose her. She had a TERRIFIC 6 months. She missed her front leg.....or I should say, adjusted to the loss of her front leg in less than 2 days. Actual recovery was about 2 weeks.
Good luck. I know how hard this decision is. I stressed over it, lost weight over it, and when Diamond was taken off pain meds after 2 weeks and the staples came out, I looked in her eyes and she was happy. I then knew, from the bottom of my heart, I made the right decision for her.