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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My 11 yr old chiweenie, Wally, had his left foreleg amputated 5 days ago due to a mast cell tumor. It's been up and down since but he's doing well once we adjusted his sedative, acepromazine, to a much lower dosage than prescribed. What I'm concerned about now is that his doctor said to take the bandages off after 5 days (changing it daily). His incision is doing well, but still far from healed. I'm afraid that something will happen to make the incision come open or get infected if I leave the bandages off. Any advice?
Hi Wally and family, welcome. I'm sorry you had to lose a leg but it sounds like you're doing great. Senior dogs are especially inspawrational!
When you say the incision is far from healed, what do you mean? Is there any smell? Leakage? Irritation?
Believe it or not, many Tripawds come home without bandages, including our Jerry. They do just fine. Keeping the area clean and free of debris is important, but the fresh air will help the incision to dry out and heal. Maybe emailing a photo of it to your vet will help you feel more at ease?
P.S. your future posts won't need approval so post away.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
No, there is no leakage or smell, but still raw and pink. Most likely healing normally. I was just scared to leave it uncovered, I didn't realize that would help the healing process. Thank you so much for your reply. I'm new to all this, I'll probably be asking a lot more questions before this is over.
Online
And we are all nere to help support you with any concernss you may have! Goodness knows this journey is full of ups and downs during recovery! We certainly understand like no others can!
My Happy Hannah had no wrappings when her rear leg was amputated for osteosarcoma, so I don't have any first ha d insight.
CANNOT wait to see pictures of WALLY! He has to be adorable!!!
Curious about what lain meds he's on. I know you mentioned ACE?? If it's the sedative I'm thinking of it's REALLY strong! Is Wally in any Tra.adol.or Gabapentin?
Wally should just be resting, going out to.potty, so he shouldn't be doing anything that would cause him to open the stitches. Although, if he was on a strong sedative, then maybe he was a bit too feisty for his own good!!
When you can, tell us .ore about Wally!
Hang in there! Recovery doesn't last forever and his sparkle will be coming back bigger and brighter than before!
Hugs to you and Wally!!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle 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!
Hello ! each vet and parent has a different way of taking care of the amp site. I'm neither a vet nor a doctor, but had personal experience, having gone through three c-sections and having my own incision and stitches to handle. Used this experience on the furry patient.
I kept Johnnie with a bandage until the stitches were all out, cleaned it once a day. The stitches were removed in two stages - the largest part within 8 days and the last ones, I believe, with 2 weeks (these were home-removed. The vet gave me the green light to take the remaining three or four out at home). I also kept Johnnie with a t-shirt on in order to protect his incision. Remember this is major surgery and proper healing takes around 3 weeks.
Wishing Wally a speedy recovery.
Daniela & Johnnie
Our awesome Golden Boy was diagnosed for OSA in April 2014 in the proximal humerus, front-leg amp on 05/20/2014. Finished chemo (Carbo6) on 07/10/2014. Ongoing treatment: acupuncture + K-9 Immunity Plus ( 3chews) and home-cooked no-grain diet. Stopped Apocaps because of liver issues. Liver issues: controlling altered enzymes with SAM-e and Milk Thistle. October 17: started having seizures. Taking fenobarbital for seizures. April 18: started prednisone.
Murphy came home with a bandage, but it only stayed on a day or so. We kept a t-shirt on him to keep his incision clean and so he couldn't lick it or scratch at it (he's also a front amp). We never cleaned it with anything. He had staples that were removed at about 2 weeks. It's good for an incision to be open to air to help with healing, too...too much darkness and moisture is a breeding ground for infection.
The first 2 weeks after surgery are definitely the hardest - it's a giant roller coaster ride of emotions. It will get better!
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
Welcome Wally and family!!! I can't wait to see some pics of your precious Wally...chiweenie sounds totally adorable!!
Anyway, like others have mentioned front leg amps are able to wear t-shirts (my Leland was a rear leg amp so he didn't have bandages and had to wear the cone of shame ) which will help keep Wally from getting to it and licking at it. It also wouldn't be as tight and closed off as bandages and wrappings so more air would be able to get to it.
Looking forward to hearing more of Wally's story and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that recovery continues to go smoothly!
Sahana and her Angel Leland and Lucian too
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!
benny55 said
And we are all nere to help support you with any concernss you may have! Goodness knows this journey is full of ups and downs during recovery! We certainly understand like no others can!My Happy Hannah had no wrappings when her rear leg was amputated for osteosarcoma, so I don't have any first ha d insight.
CANNOT wait to see pictures of WALLY! He has to be adorable!!!
Curious about what lain meds he's on. I know you mentioned ACE?? If it's the sedative I'm thinking of it's REALLY strong! Is Wally in any Tra.adol.or Gabapentin?
Wally should just be resting, going out to.potty, so he shouldn't be doing anything that would cause him to open the stitches. Although, if he was on a strong sedative, then maybe he was a bit too feisty for his own good!!
When you can, tell us .ore about Wally!
Hang in there! Recovery doesn't last forever and his sparkle will be coming back bigger and brighter than before!
Hugs to you and Wally!!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle too
Wally came home with an antibiotic, Clavamox 125 mg twice a day, and Metacam 1.5 mg/ml, 1 ml per lb once a day, he's 20 lbs. I fill the syringe (it's oral) to the 20 mark. Wally was on Tramadol pre surgery for a week to help control the pain he was having. His doctor said he didn't want him taking anymore of that, the Metacam was easier on his liver. He seemed to be in a lot of pain the first night and couldn't get comfortable to settle down. We called the vet the next morning and he gave us the acepromazine to calm him down. Half of a 10 mg tablet totally knocked him out for a day and night. It scared me so bad, I stayed up with him all night just to make sure he was breathing! That is some STRONG stuff. Now, if he needs it, I just break off a tiny chip (less than 1/8) of a tablet and he still sleeps for several hours but wakes up alert and not so zombie like. I gave him none last night after reading up on it. He slept fine without it so I think he's ready to go off of that. I've left his bandages off today and feeling a lot more at ease with it after the kind replies I've received. His daddy brought him home a little toddler's Batman tshirt yesterday. He looks adorable in it! I would love to send pics but have no idea how. Thank you, everyone, for your replies. I'll get around to telling Wally's story soon. It's potty break time
.
My experience is that my husky Cinnamon came home on day two after a front leg amputation without any bandage. Our vet tech had suggested we use a t shirt to help keep it clean but mostly stop her from itching with her back feet. We tied it up at the bottom and later learned to tie the spare sleeve with part of the neck to stop it from sliding back too far. Let me tell you it works like a charm. It allows the incision to breath. Now that Cin is back in the yard during the day it helps keep it clean, but more importantly it stops her from sunburning since her hair is not all back yet.
Hang in there we are here for you. Cin will be post surgery three weeks tomorrow.
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