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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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Introducing Krishna-holistic choices
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Member Since:
21 November 2008
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12 January 2009 - 2:43 pm
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Aloha from the Big Island of Hawaii.

In late October our rambunctious 7-year old poi dog (greyhound-staffordshire-retriever mix, 70 lbs of pure muscle) started limping as we returned from our daily run and mongoose-hunting.  When it kept getting worse, after a week we went to the vet and xrays confirmed her suspicions of osteosarcoma in the left front leg.  Our vet has a holistic practice and she immediately put Krishna on a homemade food diet of what in Chinese medicine are characterized as "cooling" foods, with herbal supplements for immune bolstering and pain management .  She also had us speak with an excellent surgeon about amputation, which after reading on this forum and elsewhere we decided was the quickest way to end the pain and give him a good shot at quality of life (this is a dog that loves to run and swim and do agility). My husband had a particularly hard time given all the stats on metastisis and length of life, but we kept remembering that when translated into human terms, if a treatment for a loved one could give them even another 3 or 7 years of quality life, wouldn't we say yes without hesitation?

The surgeon showed us some studies indicating that survival times with and without chemo might not be that different, which helped us embrace going with the Chinese medicine equivalent of strong herbs post-surgery.

Krishna was otherwise in terrific shape, which I think helped with the recovery, although it made it difficult to keep him quiet and he had big seromas and eventually a lot of drainage (boxes of Kotex and all my old tshirts helped).

Six weeks past amputation, we were ready for his first swim as a tripawd, with the help of the float vest recommended on this site.  I have to figure out how to upload or link the video--unless you look closely, you'd never believe the dog leaping into the water and racing his human "dad" for the ring could possibly be missing a leg! 

The hardest part for us is not to worry about every little thing.  The nice change is he's become calmer and cuddlier and the perfect patient which endears him to his vets (he used to be more than a bit hyper, although he's really smart and gentle).  But we read so much into tiny changes in his behavior:  not finishing his breakfast (although he still eats every morsel fo dinner); less stamina; a bit of wheezing sometimes when he lays still are the latest worries).  We didn't start on the herbal "chemo" until our vet felt his pulses were strong enough post-surgery and we just doubled up to full dosage, so I keep reminding myself that it isn't "just" herbs, but something possibly as challenging to his system as standard chemo.

Would love to hear experiences anyone else has had with the holistic options.  He's taking Bone Stasis Formula and Stasis Breaker.  We are about to start with an algae supplement called BioPrep.

And mahalo to everyone on this site who shares their experiences, photos, and encouragement.  Although I've been a lurker for the past couple of months, I've appreciated it immensely and felt it was important to give back by sharing a bit of our experience too.

Krishna's "mom" -Beth

Edmonton
Member Since:
16 February 2008
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12 January 2009 - 3:29 pm
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Hi Beth, 

Good to know that Krishna is doing well. There are usually some hiccups every once in a while over the course of recovery.  Take one baby step at a time, and enjoy being together with him.

It is so cool that the holistic vet got him on chinese herbal medicine.  I have heard Wei Qi Booster is another powerful one.

Genie didn't get any of these.  She got San Ren Tang to clear damp-heat initially, then ongoing Hoxey Formula with Bone Set.  What kind of “cooling” meat & veggies are you feeding him now?  Did the vet say Krishna's constituent was ok to have grains, e.g. “cooling” barley?

Can't wait to see Krishna's diving video!

Hugs.


Member Since:
22 August 2008
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12 January 2009 - 7:20 pm
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I have ordered Bone Stasis Formula for Tazzie through her holistic vet, and I am going to start it along with her artemisinin , artemather, and Metronomic Therapy (see separate post).

Good luck with Krishna!

Pam and Tazzie

Member Since:
21 November 2008
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12 January 2009 - 11:41 pm
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Genie said:

Hi Beth, 

Genie didn't get any of these.  She got San Ren Tang to clear damp-heat initially, then ongoing Hoxey Formula with Bone Set.  What kind of “cooling” meat & veggies are you feeding him now?  Did the vet say Krishna's constituent was ok to have grains, e.g. “cooling” barley?


The recipes we got are for a slowcooker--3 lbs ground turkey or canned mackerel (we did a lot of beef liver initially after surgery as well), 3 cups brown rice or barley, and a bunch of any kind of cooling veggies (we have the chart).  Our vet feels it is important to have some grains or sweet potato carbs.

What's your experience with nutrition?

Aloha

Beth

Member Since:
21 November 2008
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12 January 2009 - 11:54 pm
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tazziedog said:

I have ordered Bone Stasis Formula for Tazzie through her holistic vet, and I am going to start it along with her artemisinin , artemather, and Metronomic Therapy (see separate post).

Good luck with Krishna!

Pam and Tazzie


Whoa, just got through reading your other post, which I will print out and take to my vet just to hear what she has to say about those options.  Mahalo!

Beth

Edmonton
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16 February 2008
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13 January 2009 - 12:34 am
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Genie had been getting B.A.R.F. diet since she was 2.  She was used to no grains, raw meat/bones, organ meat, raw juiced veggies.  

Prior to the dx, her menu included chicken backs, ground beef, turkey, lamb, beef liver/heart, chicken liver/heart/gizzards. Juiced carrot/celery, then mixed the juice and pulp together.

After the dx, I did not change her diet much, except to try my best to give her more cooling foods as suggested by the holistic vet.  She didn't see any major changes to Genie's diet was needed.  

Different cooking methods can change a certain food's cooling/warming characteristics, I figured that by giving her raw chicken, was somewhat "cooler" than cooked chicken (also, steamed chicken would be cooler than roasted).  I realized that her favorite chicken backs was "warm", and she would have no fun if there was no chicken back/ribs for breakfast.   So chicken back remained on the menu.

Some charts said beef was warm, but some said neutral.  I made an executive decision to consider beef as neutral, so that she could have one more option.  I also got the Innova EVO 95% rabbit/duck, as these two kinds of meat are cooling.    Pork is cooling, so I had to give her pork cooked.

I also threw in broccoli/cauliflower/spinach into the juicer every so often, but carrots and celeries remained as her primary veggies source.

The reason I asked about barley was that I also heard of a dog whose holistic vet put her on barley because of the warming nature of the dog's constituent. 

I am not sure if I had done properly.  I was improvising along, cause she was under great influence of the pain meds and antibiotics at the beginning that her appetite was really low, and I had to be very creative to get her to at least eat something.

On The Road


Member Since:
24 September 2009
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13 January 2009 - 12:56 am
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Beth and Krishna,

Thanks so much for joining us here and sharing your story with everyone. We are so glad that things are working out so well! Krishna sounds like a cool dog (how could he not be, with a name like that?).

We would love it if you kept us in the loop about the holisitic approach you're taking. How fortunate that you have such a forward-thinking vet! If you can, we'd love to see a breakdown of Krishna's diet and supplements at some point, just so others out there can get an idea of what a holistic approach to fighting cancer looks like. Did your vet happen to give you any links or resources for further reading? We'd love to link to them here.

Ok, to answer your question about embedding a movie. Here is a tech support thread that explains how to do it. We would love love love to see a movie of him swimming!

Yes, it's hard not to worry. But just take a look at Krishna's eyes the next time you are fretting over what you think is odd behavior. I'm going to bet that he's not worried in the least. Follow his lead, and things will be OK.

Thanks again for posting. We're looking forward to hearing more about how you and Krishna are going to kick cancer's butt!

Many hugs,

Spirit Dog Jerry, Jim & Rene

Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
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