Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
Tripawds is your home to learn how to care for a three legged dog or cat, with answers about dog leg amputation, and cat amputation recovery from many years of member experiences.
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Just catching up here....wow, what a crazy few days for you! Our Dobe, Nitro, was also a front amp due to OSA, and we also used the Ruffwear by Webmaster. For the first month or so of recovery, he wore it all the time, except to sleep at night. This was also before it came with the brushguard. He rocked life on 3 legs for over 3 years, old age took him from us in the end. By then, he needed his harness again, and we added the brushguard; worked very well, well worth the investment. It does tend to slip a bit with a front amp, but still is a great harness. Good luck, sounds like you are 3-legged specialists!
Paula and Warrior Angel Nitro
Nitro 11 1/2 yr old Doberman; right front amp June 2014. Had 6 doses carboplatin, followed by metronomic therapy. Rocked it on 3 legs for over 3 years! My Warrior beat cancer, but couldn't beat old age. He crossed the Bridge peacefully on July 25, 2017, with dignity and on his terms. Follow his blog entitled "Doberman's journey"
"Be good, mama loves you".....run free my beautiful Warrior
Hey Bev - I was just wondering how your babies are doing? Is the toe-up boot helping Nila any? I know it's too soon for improvement, but hopefully it fits!
donna
Donna, Glenn & Murphy
Murphy had his right front leg amputated due to histiocytic sarcoma at 7 years old. He survived 4 years, 2 months & 1 week, only to be taken by hemangiosarcoma at 11 1/2 years 6/12/17
Read about Murphy's Life on Three Legs
dobemom said
Just catching up here....wow, what a crazy few days for you! Our Dobe, Nitro, was also a front amp due to OSA, and we also used the Ruffwear by Webmaster. For the first month or so of recovery, he wore it all the time, except to sleep at night. This was also before it came with the brushguard. He rocked life on 3 legs for over 3 years, old age took him from us in the end. By then, he needed his harness again, and we added the brushguard; worked very well, well worth the investment. It does tend to slip a bit with a front amp, but still is a great harness. Good luck, sounds like you are 3-legged specialists!Paula and Warrior Angel Nitro
Hi Paula and Warrior Angel Nitro!
Yes, it was a crazy week! So glad that Nitro did so well for over 3 years, although it's never long enough. We ordered a Help 'Em Up harness that should be here tomorrow. Hopefully it will work well for Bear. Well, with 3 tripawds there's never a dull moment! I wouldn't say we're specialists, but we're holding our own!
Thanks,
Nila, Bear and Bev
midnighter94 said
Hey Bev - I was just wondering how your babies are doing? Is the toe-up boot helping Nila any? I know it's too soon for improvement, but hopefully it fits!donna
Hi Donna!
Nila is doing well. The Toe-Up is a smidge big, but it works. She did well when we put it on her Sunday. So, we're going to keep short training sessions with it. Thanks so much! I think we're also going to order a Bootie Splint which can be left on for longer times. We just want to give her the best shot to correct this. Other than that, she's doing really well!
Bear is progressing well too! He was having a difficult time trying to figure out how to potty as a pripawd, but is starting to get the hang of it. Yesterday when I took him out to potty we then went to the backyard because he likes to drink out of that bowl. Well, I turned my head for 1 second and there he goes, running down 3 stairs to the backyard to be typical Bear! I told him he's not ready for that yet! I know he's bored, but sheesh! We did get the histopath results and it is OSA. So, just looking into what supplements might help him. We've started to decrease his pain meds. His appetite has been a bit off, but not too terrible.
Still a long road ahead of us, but we're taking it 1 step at a time and day by day. Thanks so much everyone for all of your help and support!
Thanks,
Nila, Bear and Bev
Glad to hear that they're doing well.
I think Murphy was on his pain meds for about 2 weeks, and we started weaning down near the end of the 2nd week. They don't really tell you too well how to do that, do they? ugh I used to laugh at Murphy ... he normally squatted when he peed, or just stood, but when we would go for walks he would want to lift. Of course, it depended on which leg he tried to lift whether or not that worked out for him! If he tried to lift his right rear leg, he'd have both left legs to balance on, so that was ok, but ... if he tried to lift that left leg, which happened a few times, he seemed confused, and we would laugh, and try to get him to change directions lol They do figure it out in time.
Donna
Donna, Glenn & Murphy
Murphy had his right front leg amputated due to histiocytic sarcoma at 7 years old. He survived 4 years, 2 months & 1 week, only to be taken by hemangiosarcoma at 11 1/2 years 6/12/17
Read about Murphy's Life on Three Legs
I am so glad to hear everybody is doing well!! I know you have your hands full and you must be exhausted. Thanks for checking in, several of us have been hoping everything is ok.
Hugs,
Jackie and Huck
Hugs,
Jackie, Bo, Andy, Oscar, Phoebe, and the coolest feral tripawd kitty Huckleberry 
midnighter94 said
Glad to hear that they're doing well.I think Murphy was on his pain meds for about 2 weeks, and we started weaning down near the end of the 2nd week. They don't really tell you too well how to do that, do they? ugh I used to laugh at Murphy ... he normally squatted when he peed, or just stood, but when we would go for walks he would want to lift. Of course, it depended on which leg he tried to lift whether or not that worked out for him! If he tried to lift his right rear leg, he'd have both left legs to balance on, so that was ok, but ... if he tried to lift that left leg, which happened a few times, he seemed confused, and we would laugh, and try to get him to change directions lol They do figure it out in time.
Donna
Hi Donna!
Yes, they're both doing well!
We just decreased both of their pain meds this week and will decrease again next week. What a silly boy Murphy was...and adorable too! Bear's getting it pretty well now. Did you have Murphy on any supplements?
Thanks,
Nila, Bear and Bev
paws120 said
I am so glad to hear everybody is doing well!! I know you have your hands full and you must be exhausted. Thanks for checking in, several of us have been hoping everything is ok.Hugs,
Jackie and Huck
Thanks Jackie and Huck!
We're getting there! Yes, our hands are full, but we'll get through it. Add in a 14 1/2 year old dog with dementia (plus the other furkids) and sleep is at a premiuim recently! If you have any suggestions for supplements for Bear and OSA, I'd love to hear them.
Thanks again,
Nila, Bear and Bev
Here is a link for different articles on nutrition and supplements: Tripawds Nutrition
Here is a link to an amazing tripawd blog in case you have not read it: Nothing But Love In Her Heart Fallon is a greyhound that is kicking butt on three!
Jerry's Required Reading is also a wonderful place to check out all aspects. Procedures, exercise, diet, supplements, etc.. wealth of knowledge
I hope some of this helps!
Hugs,
Jackie, Bo, Andy, Oscar, Phoebe, and the coolest feral tripawd kitty Huckleberry
paws120 said
Here is a link for different articles on nutrition and supplements: Tripawds NutritionHere is a link to an amazing tripawd blog in case you have not read it: Nothing But Love In Her Heart Fallon is a greyhound that is kicking butt on three!
Jerry's Required Reading is also a wonderful place to check out all aspects. Procedures, exercise, diet, supplements, etc.. wealth of knowledge
I hope some of this helps!
Thanks so much Jackie! Trying to do some research in between taking care of the kids. I'll check out those links! You are all PAWSOME!
I tell ua' wat, you are the ROCK STAR CAREGIVER r of all time!!! You take multi-tasking to a whole new level! Mlae sure you are doing some of that "caregiving"for yourself okay??
Jackie gave you some good links.
Some of the various nasic "supplement-ish" type things I gave Happy Hannah off and on:
K9 Immjnity Plus
Fish oil (sometimes in the form of sardines, sometimes capsules, sometimes Salmon with skin)
Bone calcium
Sometimes I would do some vitamins (which I cantw really remember the specific ones...maybe E and C??
There was soooo much information out there, it's been recommended here to try and chunk things down to a manageable number.
Yiu might also check out Artemisinin (sort of a "natural alternative" to chemo and Yunnan Bayio (sp?)
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!
Honestly, we didn't do any supplements. We changed him to a grain-free diet, and that was really about it! Sometimes I feel like we cheated because we didn't do all of the supplements like so many people do. But who knows what the real magic cocktail is?
Donna
Donna, Glenn & Murphy
Murphy had his right front leg amputated due to histiocytic sarcoma at 7 years old. He survived 4 years, 2 months & 1 week, only to be taken by hemangiosarcoma at 11 1/2 years 6/12/17
Read about Murphy's Life on Three Legs
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