Tripawds Three Legged Dog & Cat Forum Archives
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Hi All,
Quick intro we are Ellen and Dave with Danny the black Great Dane and Finn the 10.5 months young deerhound.
Finn has been neglected in the first 6 months of his life and soon after he came to us he started to hobble on his left back leg. First was thought HD but later after referral to the specialist and turned out his femur was deformed and his tibia was twisted. We went though the surgery and recovery and the plate on the tibia was rejected by Finn and an infection set in. After the 6 week post op ,x rays were taken and the bones seemed strong enough and the plate removed , This was on Tuesday just gone and on Thursday morning he broke it again. It was decided today that he would lose the leg and we just had a call from the vet saying all went well and he might be coming home on Monday.
So we are really new to this and I was wondering what advise you have for us as I am trying to get through everything on this site .
Take care Ellen
10:14 am
Team Tripawds
Administrators
25 September 2009
Offline
Hi Ellen, welcome. Saw you pop into the chat room but you didn't say anything. I'm still there for a few minutes, hop on over and scroll down, you'll see the chat box load.
Sorry to hear about Finn, you've all been through so much! I put your post here in "Beyond Cancer" since this where lots of dogs like Finn share their stories, since not all Tripawds lose a leg to cancer. Our own Wyatt Ray lost his leg at 8 months old in a similar manner. I'll tell you though, these doggies don't let their previous situation hold them back, they get right on living with life!
Have you checked out Jerry's Required Reading List and the Tripawds e-books ? These resources will help you so much. For now, here are my top suggestions:
- Put down throw rugs and carpet runners if you have slippery floors. A Tripawd needs reasssurance that they won't slip, this helps their confidence tremendously in the early days.
- Raised feeder bowls really make a difference too, especially for a big dog like a Deerhound (love those pups!).
- When you bring him home make sure he has adequate pain medication (at the very least Tramadol and Metacam, ideally stronger ones like Fentanyl and Gabapentin).
- As a young dog it may be hard to keep him calm while he recuperates but doing to is to his benefit.
I know others will chime in, so stay tuned and welcome! We can't wait to hear all about your pack.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Good luck. We're in the same situation today, anxiously waiting the call from the vets to say everything's gone OK with Rudi's amputation. If it has he should be coming home tonight. Fortunately we don't think cancer is involved. Rudi had an old RTA when we adopted him from Romania and after constantly reoccuring pain and a number of ops we've decided amputation is the best thing for him. Best wishes to Finn and we'll let you know how Rudi does over the weekend.
Take care
Rachel
10:56 am
Team Tripawds
Administrators
25 September 2009
Offline
Hi Rachel, welcome to you and Rudi! Your future posts won't require approval.
Good luck with his homecoming, please let us know how we can help. Be sure to start a new topic about him so that we can get to know you both. I would also like to hear about how the adoption process from Romaina went, as I hear there are a lot of adoptable dogs coming from there.
Thanks again, we send all our love for a speedy recovery!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Good morning all
Hope both Finn and Rudy are recuperating well from their respective surgeries.
As well as all of the great advice from Jerry, I suggest coming into the chat room or posting in the forums when you have questions, are stressed or just need to "relax" with others who are on this journey.
Linda and Tucker
