Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hey all!
Ok we are almost 5 days post amp. We've had a little bump,which took us back to the vet this morning. Friday night was a rough one. The fentanyl patch came off and we started him back on his tramadol. Well he had a ruff night. Extremely fidgety, pacing, panting, no rest and his wound was bleeding a little. So after 3 hrs sleep for mom and dad they had us bring him in. After exam he has a seroma
and they took a culture of the ooze. They had us switch from cold to warm compresses, added another antibiotic to take along with baytril, and said we can up the tramadol to a tablet and a 1/2 if needed. I explained to the dr (as I have many vets) that Kota has always been an anxious dog and I think his fidgetiness is making him do too much too soon, and now the cause of all the swelling and oozing.
He gave us some sedatives to keep him calm. We decided to only give at night so he can just rest. He's snoring up a storm right now, and sleeping on his incision side. Ughhhh but at least he's finally getting solid sleep. They said it would also help with the oozing. I guess since it's giving him the chance to rest his body. He now hasn't pooped in 2 days, but seeing he's on 5 meds can we blame the guy? He's being such a trooper. I went and bought him superhero toddler shirts to wear as he is our superhero!
Some good news to come out of the vet trip, his blood work is completely normal! Thank The Lord for small miracles! So by Tuesday we should have the lymph biopsy and culture results! Pawsitive prayers requested! Than you all for your support! Love Amy, Pete & Kota the Barbarian<img src="http://tripawds....." title="superstar" alt="superstar" /
I'm sorry about the tough night! But it sounds like the vets did everything right and Kota's on the right track. What kind of sedatives did they give him? Our own Wyatt Ray is also an anxious dog and tramadol makes him insane. We found that a combo of doggie Xanax and Gabapentin worked well when he had a gastropexy surgery last year.
Hope you're all having a restful weekend!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hi Amy, Pete, and Kota,
Sorry you had a bit of a bump, but to be honest, everything sounds completely normal.......he seems more comfortable at this point and your vet is on top of things for Kota. And him sleeping on his incision sight, completely normal as well.......not pooping yet?, completely normal........so very glad all his blood work was good.
I agree, your handsome Kota is a super hero !! I will continue to keep you in my thoughts, and please let us know about his biopsy report.
Bonnie & Angel Polly
Thanks for the love! Well what we learned last night is we are never giving him this medicine again. They prescribed "ace" and although it knocked him out he had major erradic breathing and was extremely comatose. He even pooped a little in this state. It was very upsetting. We slept with him on the floor and his breathing would steady some when Pete would put his hands on him. It took about 8 hours for him to become semi alert. He's still very mooshad today. But if anything good came out of it, it's he's getting the stillness he desperately needed and the seroma and redness does look better today. It was pretty scary. So now we will just rely on the pain meds to keep him calm. I wished they prescribed a Valium like med instead of a tranquilizer! And I read collie breads have adverse reactions to ace. Umm hello, did you not see our dog doc? He also wasn't our primary doc at the practice. So we will let ours know what happened on Monday. Here's to a better day and night.
Ohhhhh, Ace........I don't like this med at all either.....it did terrible things to my black Lab Maggie......really scary stuff for her and me, so once that experience happened with her, I asked my vets to NEVER use it in ANY of my dogs ever again.
Hoping sweet Kota has a better night, and glad his seroma seems better.
Stay connected with us.....
Bonnie & Angel Polly
Oh poor Kota...I'm sorry he's been having a tough time this weekend. I'm glad he was able to get some rest but it's sounds like it was pretty scary for mom and dad with the eradic breathing.
One thing I learned through my journey with Leland was that as pet parents we need to educate ourselves and look into meds and procedures being recommended for our family member(s). I researched meds prescribed to Leland so I would know what their purpose was and what effects they may have on Leland. When Leland came home from his amp surgery he was on like 7 or 8 different meds (pain, antibiotics, gastrointestinal). And when we went to get Leland after the amp surgery they tried to give us Tramadol...which I flat out refused because Leland did not do well on it from before. Luckily I still had some Gabapentin from our local vet that we were using to assist with pain when we thought he was dealing with synovial cell sarcoma. I went back to the local vet to get more Gabapentin because the surgeon didn't send us home with anything else for pain. Oh and I had asked about doing a Fentynal patch because we had used that with our first dog Lucky and it was administered a day or so before his TPLO surgery so it was already in his system. The surgeon wouldn't let us do that for Leland.
I'm glad you'll be speaking with Kota's normal vet and hopefully he'll switch him to doggie Xanax to assist in keeping Kota calm so he can heal.
Sending Kota and family positive thoughts.
Sahana and her Angel Leland
November 17, 2009 - June 30, 2014
May you finally be healthy and running free at the Rainbow Bridge. Until we meet again my sweet boy!
Welcome!
My girl, shelby, had an awful time with Tramadol and the patch. Made her truly psychotic (the vets words). We got her some doggie valium and all was better. I can't remember the name but it definitely helped and kept her calm so she could rest and heal.
She also paced, panted, whined .... broke my heart but for the both of us, I had to get her some relief and that was w/more drugs.
Once Shelby got past the initial few days of recovery and was off all pain meds, she was better. She took to hanging in my tiny bathroom to heal but basically she got much better. It was about 3 weeks before I saw her sparkle but it DID come back!!!
Good luck!
Alison with the Spirit of Shelby fur-ever in her heart
Shelby Lynne; Jack Russell/Shiba Inu mix. Proud member of the April Angels of 2014.
October 15, 2000 to April 8, 2014
Our story: Broke rear leg in June 2013 - non-conclusive results for cancer so leg was plated and pinned. Enlarged spleen in September 2013 and had it removed and was diagnosed with Hemangiosarcoma and started chemotherapy. Became a Tripawd January 8th, 2014 and definitive Hemangiosarcoma diagnosis. Three major surgeries in 7 months and Shelby took them all like a champ only to lose her battle to cancer in her brain. We had 8 amazing extra months together and no regrets. #shelbystrong #loveofmylife
Oh they gave you Ace eh? Yeah it can definitely have that kind of effect, it's a very old-school tranq that is not recommended by vets who are more up to date on current anti-anxiety/pain relief protocols. We were told it can slow the heart rate dangerously low too, so yeah, run far from it. Glad things turned out OK.
As for that gene in Collies, yep, we learned about the MDR1 gene here:
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Kotas doing ok. He's eating what we give him and has been chomping on ice cubes. He's just very lethargic today. We took him out and he peed and pooped so that was good. I'm just worried about the excessive sleepiness but I know there are ups and downs with the first 2 weeks. Google doesn't help. Ahha
Dr. Google will make you craaaaaaaazy, don't do it! 
This is the time for his body to heal. If he's eating and eliminating, that is GREAT. Sleeping is good, he needs to rest. Try not to worry ma!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hang in there Kota - it will get better. Pain meds are kind of wild and what works on one won't on another. I, luckily, have never had a problem with Ace, but I do know it's on the MDR1 list. I highly suggest having the test done - we did for Shooter and it made a difference in the dosage used for his chemo. There are quite a few drugs on there. Some need to be completely avoided and others just require how the dosage is given due to the way their bodies use the drug.
Take care-
Luanne and Spirit Shooter
Spirit Shooter was a Miniature Australian Shepherd who was diagnosed with a MCT and had a LF amp 1/28/13 at 13-1/2 years old.
Shooter crossed the Bridge on 8/28/13, his 7 month ampuversary and two weeks from his 14th birthday.
Hello All,
Sounds like Kota is still drugged. He will slowly clear and is making strides. Remember the first 2 weeks are tough. You are both doing all the right things. Keep us posted.
Laurie
Yeah, it was a very interesting weekend for our little trooper. The only good thing was that he did sleep Saturday night (on his incision), however as far as ACE is concerned - NOT EVER AGAIN! So the added rest he did get on Sunday also helped out. But as always, by the time Sunday night rolled around our little guy was up and about again and was just as fidgety as ever. Gotta love a dog with that "go go go" mentality - just not when he needs to be resting - haha. I did speak with the vet today and informed her what was happening with ACE and I told her that Kota would no longer be taking this - she completely agreed. As far as the oozing is concerned, that will eventually stop. And last but not least we are still waiting on the culture results as well as the biopsy - fingers and paws crossed for good news =)
Kotas Daddy
Super Kota! Sleep is one of the best things during this time. Now that you have his meds figured out, and it can take some trial and error, recovery should be smoother. Sending you some positive vibes.
Thank you Mamatomj!
Luckily he did manage to stay asleep last night (until 4:30am). Then he had a bit of a pain spell so we stayed up with him for about 45 minutes until he went back to bed. Amy checked his incision this morning and it looked to be a little better and not as much oozing.
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