Tripawds Three Legged Dog & Cat Forum Archives
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Good morning. I am a new member to tripawds. What a wonderful community. I just adopted Mac. He is an 8 month boxer who's former owners neglected to bring him back for a follow up with the vet after having surgery on his front paw due to being hit by a car. The paw became infected and then gangrene (the owner wrapped over a very dirty, wet bandage with a new bandage and duct tape). Fortunately for Mac the vet kept calling the owners to bring him in for a follow up which they finally did 3 weeks later (who knows what would have happened to Mac if they were not so diligent in their efforts).
Mac came to his new home last week. He is adapting to his new 3 leggedness really well. My question is how is the good leg effected. Is there stress on the good leg with too much exercise? Is there special care regarding walks and/or exercise that I need to be aware of?
I look forward to hearing comments/suggestions.
Melissa
I know one of the most important things is to monitor their weight. Even with four legged dogs, the amount of stress that weight adds is tremendous.
Once they get acclimated, they can do pretty much everything, but since there are only three left, one needs to protect those by watching slippery surfaces or uneven terrain.
The good leg will start to shift to adapt to center of gravity and balance and may become larger than normal due to the extra muscle build up.
Congrats on adopting Mac! 
Boo to the previous owners! 
"I don't know where I am."
11:25 am
Team Tripawds
Administrators
25 September 2009
Offline
Hi Melissa,
Welcome to Tripawds! What a wonderful human you are for adopting Mac, thank you for giving him a chance. Idiots like those people who had him don't deserve animals in their lives. Grrrrr....
Anyhow, to answer your question...dogs carry 60 pawcent of their weight on their front legs, so there will be additional stress not so much on his remaining leg but on his spine, because of the way in which he will compensate through his hop. We have a couple of great videos about Tripawd exercise tips:
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