My girl, Shelby, developed some peculiar habits after her amputation. First she took to isolating herself in the bathroom (odd) but made it sort of her nest, den area. She wouldn't really come out of there for the first month or so. She never lost her appetite but definitely seemed rather aloof. She was also a rear amp and I did notice some twitching (I think). Her vets also didn't think she was having phantom pain . We weaned off tramadol pretty quickly as it made her psychotic (lots of pacing, etc) so we put her on an anti-anxiety med (trazadone) and that did help a bit.

But everyone here just said Shelby was basically nesting in my tiny bathroom as a den to recover. 10 days is still really early in the recovery process so I would suspect that is part of it (I am not a vet though).

It did get better for us about 3 - 4 weeks in and then Shelby was great. She would only retreat to the bathroom then as a passive aggressive thing if I was going out or something.

I hope things get better!

Alison & her Shelby fur-ever in her heart  

Snoops went through his recoup very well, but he was a bit strange before he came off his meds. Once we rounded that bend we improved again. Your still new into recouping, for most a month makes a significant difference. He may have just hit a pothole in the road. I'm sure he'll be back up and moving forward. If your concerned I wouldn't hesitate to contact your vet again.

Good luck,
Esther and her Snoop

My Jake had phantom limb pain, diagnosed by his onco. She even told us in the beginning he might experience it and said it happens because when the nerves are cut they just dead end. They don't know what to do so they keep sending signals like normal (but there's no leg there to receive the signal). She prescribed him Gabapentin and it really helped. We actually weaned him off tramadol and just had Gabapentin as a pain med. It was all around just better for Jake. If you google phantom limb pain, you can read the descriptions about what it feels like to people. I would assume its the same for dogs. Also, this is just a rant but, if humans can experience phantom leg pain why do people think dogs don't? I have never understood that....but I digress. 

This might be something you can try. I wish I would have had one, I've read good things about it. 

http://gear.tri.....-relief/ 

Hi! My 7 year old great dane Bailey had the same thing going on she would go into a spare bedroom and her incision site would be spasm to where you could see it move and she did not want to be bothered.  Our oncologists said increase her pain meds but that only made her throw up and then someone on here said try warm cloths on the area and just pat dry just make sure it's really clean.  My personal vet said it's a muscle that's there... if you notice as time goes on that muscle will move like the leg is still there.  Bailey when she goes to chew a bone laying down you can see that muscle roll like she is bringing her leg there to hold it (yes it hurts the heart but she is very happy.) Bailey had her surgery February 7th and here she is today.  They removed Bailey's shoulder also.

[Image Can Not Be Found]

One other thing if you google Tramadol in canines with cancer symptoms it can cause shaking, drooling, panting, spasm etc.  Bailey couldn't stay on it.  She just doesn't tolerate meds well.  She weighs 127.8.  Goes Thursday for round 4 of chemo - carboplatin.

It gets easier and muscles in front will be sore from using them a different way and shifting weigh.  Hang in there.  We are all in this together.  You did this for her and not to her... praying for full strength and quick healing!

HUGS,

Tracy and Bailey

St. Louis, Missouri