Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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My poor little tripawd Meg, who is about two months post op got into a little fight with our other dog on the weekend, and wound up with a pretty nasty looking eye ulcer.
Yesterday she just had a squinty eye, but this morning woke up with a pussy very swollen eye which she couldn't even open 
. Vet has put her on antibiotics, and anti inflammatory and two types of eye drops and she has two days to show signs of improvement, or her eyelid will have to be sewn shut so the eye can recover. Meg is so miserable and in pain, she wasn't even this bad after the amputation 
.
Advice and kind words would be appreciated, I know its not really about amputations or anything but I know you guys all love your pets more than anything so you get it! Trying not to freak out about the idea of another (minor) surgery and recovery, or worse losing her vision or eye all together.
OK Meg, you don't need to be sooo much like Maggie!
Having pugs I've been through corneal ulcers 4 times (Maggie twice, Obie once, Tani once).
Do you have access to a dog eye doctor? They are up on the current treatments and how to save vision and the eye.
My experience was that we had to do 4 types of eye drops and ointments EVERY HOUR for the first 36 hours after diagnosis. They also cultured the ulceration to make sure we had the right antibiotic. The drops were antibiotics and atropine (less frequent than every hour) and something else I don't remember, maybe an anti-inflammatory. The atropine dilates the pupil and helps relieve some pain. I was told by our eye doc that the oral meds are not that effective for serious eye injuries which is why we had so many types of drops. You should NEVER use anything with a steroid in the eye with an injury as it will affect healing. We went to the vet every other day to check if the ulcer was progressing- if it progressed to far then the cornea could rupture and vision would be lost. I was lucky (sort of) in all occurrences that we were able to save the eye without surgery. Unfortunately Obie's was so bad that although we saved the eye he has significant scaring and his vision is very poor as a result (I adopted him with his other eye already mostly blind).
Stay on top of things and make sure Meg can't rub her eye at all. I know the hard cone is a pain but it is the only way to keep her eye out of harms way. The soft cone or the donut type collar will still allow her to rub her eye on things. It's really important to strictly adhere to the medication schedule- I believe it is why we never had to have surgery.
Hopefully Meg will make a full recovery! But I have also had experience with limited vision in dogs including Tri-pug Maggie. Just like with amputation dogs have an amazing ability to cope with limited vision.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Oh Meg! You silly and feisty little girl!!
A d leave it up to Stubborn Pug Maggie and Pug Pack to having "been tnere...done that"! Really sound first hand advice from Karen! I woukd call the Vet first thing with some of these suggestions...proven suggestions and get Meg on that path.
Keep us posted! As usual, we'll be cheering for Meg!! And no more "arguing" with your buddy! It's hard for the quadpawds sometimes because they feel like the tripawd is getting more attention (and it's usually true!), so they take their frustration out in a little spat!!
Hugs!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
Oh no, poor Meg! Poor you! I don't have experience of this. Meg once scratched her eyeball on a branch while rummaging around in the river bank and had drops for that, but it was really very minor. Karen's advice is (as ever) excellent. I would try and see an eye specialist if you can, and as soon as you can. The one thing I do know where eyes are concerned is that time is of the essence.
Do keep us posted. Sending all positive and healing thoughts.
Meg and Clare (and Elsie Pie) xxx
Ruby, Staffy, born June 2022, became a Tripawd, 23 November 2023, adopted 12 January 2024.
Also Angel Tripawd Meg (aka The Megastar), who died in April 2023, aged 14, after seven glorious years on three, and Angel Staffies Pie and Bille. In the pawprints of giants...
Thanks guys, especially Karen! I had a feeling your pugs would have gone through something like this with their big eyes. Our vet has meg on the dialtion drop once a day and the other eye gel (thicker than liquid but still a drop) three times a day, which helps with inflammation and pain I think. I might call the vet tomorrow and ask if it needs to be more frequent, it seems to be wearing off earlier than the recommended eight hour mark.
Will investigate if we have any specialist eye doctors in the area but they sound a little costly (almost as if meg knew things were tight money wise), so fingers crossed she improves enough that it won't be necessary. After throwing up her morning antibiotics and being a mess all morning she's picked up a bit. A bit happier and less in pain this afternoon and is opening the eye a bit more, it is a lot more cloudly where the ulcer is though 
. Hopefully she keeps her evening antibiotic down. The cone of shame
has been off today while she is next to me and I can physically stop her from reaching up, but it's going on tonight and when we are out tomorrow, far too risky otherwise.
Fingers crossed for her vision and not needing surgery. My last dog was blind for the last three or four years of her life, so a half blind dog can't be too bad, even with three legs, but hopefully we don't go down that road.
Poor baby! I think you need ice cream and lots of cuddles to get over this. I hope to hear good news about you soon!! Deb and Angel Bandit.
I agree with everything that Karen said. The atropine should stop the pain and spasm pretty quickly so make sure that one of her eye drops contains this medication.
Pam
Poor Meg, how did you get into this fight, girl ?
Luckily your Mom is taking care of things and looking after you really well, as always!
So good to have a Mom like yours, hey?
Sending you lots of tummy rubs and wishing you a swift recovery 🐾🐶🐾 and hugs to Mom too 💗💞😘
Eurydice 77kg/170lb Great Dane limping end of April 2016, amputation (right front leg/osteosarcoma) 4 May 2016 6 courses of carboplatin followed by metronomic therapy, lung mets found 30 Nov 2016. 3 courses of doxorubicin, PET scan 26 Jan 2017 showed more mets so stopped chemo. Holistic route April 2017. Lung X-ray 5 May 2017 showed several tennis ball size mets, started cortisone and diuretics. Miss Cow earned her XXL silver wings 12 June 2017, 13 months and 1 week after amputation and 6 1/2 months after lung mets, she was the goofiest dawg ever and is now happily flying from cloud to cloud woof woofing away :-)
Looking for an update on Meg, how is her eye?
Karen
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Back from the vet check up! Meg is getting better and better mood wise and pain/infection wise, but the vet says the ulcer is still there (not bigger or substantially smaller) but to keep doing what we're doing and it should start healing. If it isn't getting smaller by Saturday meg will need surgery, but thankfully not the sewing eye shut surgery by the sounds of it, just scrapping off the dead tissue.
All this over a misunderstanding, Dotti wanted her food, which meg was standing over, and meg wanted to be on the couch, where Dotti was.
Her eye drops are atropine and an anti bacterial one with a few different things in it.
Fingers crossed it starts healing now that we've seemingly got the worsening part under control.
This was yesterday, the second day of treatment, she's looking even better on day 3. Her eyes were already pretty cloudy so not too alarmed at how cloudy her pupil is yet.
Thanks for all the love!!
The fact that it is not worse is good news! Hopefully she will heal without surgery.
When the pug girls were young their play sometimes turned into fights, Maggie was always the alpha but Tani would challenge her. They would get up on their back legs and go at it like mini boxers! It was quite funny until it resulted in Mag's first eye ulcer.
And Tani hated being picked up, but if I picked up Maggie for any reason they would usually fight when I put her down. Who knows what went on in those pug brains!
Keep us posted on her healing.
Karen
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
These two are the same. They never fully sorted out who is alpha, although I think meg is finally coming out on top/dotti has learnt if she doesn't engage a fight won't happen. Whenever one of them is up on a higher level (bed, couch, our arms) the other one will bark and growl, then nip when they're back on equal levels.
Pug fights would be quite cute with those little cute faces, until someone gets hurt! These two on the other hand, not so much, very ugly from the get go!
I am so happy to hear we are on the road to recovery!!! Paw 5 from Angel Bandit!
Another vet update!
The ulcer is getting smaller, but very slowly . Surgery is looking likely at this stage, but we've opted to see if Meg will continue slowly healing on her own. Even the vet said Meg has been through a lot this year, so it is understandable to not want her to go through surgery, even if it is a minor procedure. When we originally took her to the vets, the ulcer was 30% over the eye, and today I would say it is 20-25%.
Fingers crossed our lil girl keeps getting better, and we can avoid a costly and scary surgery
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