Ginger will be receiving $10 in Café Cash to spend toward anything she wants in the all new – and much improved – Tripawds Gift Shop!
Thank you to everyone who submitted answers! We’ve received 62 responses so far, but we’d love more, so remember you can submit your answers anytime you’d like.
Meanwhile, Admin is working on Part II of this impawtant survey, which focuses on cancer care, holistic therapies and metastasis. When it goes live soon, we’ll have a second drawing for another $10 winner for the new Tripawds Gift Shop.
Stay tuned for preliminary findings from the Part 1 survey results, and new questions coming soon in Part 2. And be sure to drop by Ginger’s blog to leave a comment with congratulations for Ginger & Randy!
Here are some of CARE’s post-surgery tips to remember:
Keep an eye out for pain medication side effects; if you’re concerned, stop the medication.
Use supplements only when they are needed
Choose supplements that have been third party tested by unbiased organizations such as ConsumerLab.com.
Many thanks to the pawesome staff at California Animal Rehabilitation Center in Southern California for helping us bring this series to you. If you are lucky enough to live nearby, be sure to visit this incredible facility and see how they can help your Tripawd stay strong and live hoppy!
In this second of our three part series with Drs. Jessica Waldman and Amy Kramer from California Animal Rehabilitation Center (CARE), the good doctors answer popular questions Tripawd pawrents want answers to:
Who has it harder: front, or rear leg amputees?
Do dogs get depressed?
How can we help our dogs heal faster from surgery?
While rehab is great for Tripawds, Dr. Waldman says she wishes she could see all of her rehab clients before they have surgery; when they are still young, healthy puppies. If she could, she would warn pawrents about seemingly harmless fun that could result in injuries later on.
She would tell pawrents not to let their dogs jump in and out of trucks, or play Frisbee without warming up and cooling down. She would also tell them to use a ramp instead of jumping into trucks or on furniture. Because if pawrents wait until their dog is injured to take her advice, that’s when things get complicated. Changing a dog’s behavior patterns is another hurdle to add on top of recovery.
In the next and final discussion we have with Drs. Kramer and Waldman, we’ll address concerns about supplements and pain medication.
Many thanks to the pawesome staff at California Animal Rehabilitation Center in Southern California for helping us bring this series to you. If you are lucky enough to live nearby, be sure to visit this incredible facility and see how they can help your Tripawd stay strong and live hoppy!
Dr. Waldman says she wishes she could see all of her rehab clients before they are injured; when they are still young, healthy puppies. If she could, she would warn pawrents about seemingly harmless acrobatics that might result in injuries later on.
She would tell pawrents not to let their dogs jump out of trucks, or play Frisbee without warming up and cooling down. She would warn them about allowing them to jump on the bed instead of using a ramp. Because if pawrents wait until their dog is injured to take her advice, that’s when things get complicated.
What a great time it is to be a Tripawd. With the increasing number of animal rehabilitation practitioners, or what humans call “physical therapists,” three legged dogs can now take advantage of the same life-changing therapies that humans do.
Tripawds recently visited Southern California, and were lucky enough to spend the afternoon with one of the most respected animal rehabilitation centers in the region, California Animal Rehabilitation (CARE).
The founders of CARE, veterinarian Jessica Waldman, VMD, CVA, CCRT, and physical therapist Amy L. Kramer, PT, DPT, CCRT, are partners at one of the few rehabilitation centers in the country that has a vet and a physical therapist on staff, both certified in canine rehabilitation.
Drs. Waldman and Kramer were kind enough to spend time with us to answer Tripawd member’s questions about rehabilitation. And here in part 1, “Stretching and Exercises with Happy Face,” they demo conditioning exercises on this two year old pup who was hit by car. Happy Face is just a few weeks post op and is in therapy because he has neck, lower back, pelvic pain and phantom pain caused by the accident.
CARE’s Exercise Tips to Remember:
Be creative and find new activities to do together, such as creating homemade obstacle courses and playing new games that can help with mobility.
Create body awareness by doing things like playing with your Tripawd’s paws to help her connect her leg movements with her brain.
Open your mind and be creative with finding new activities such as homemade obstacle courses and seeking out different terrain to walk through.
Create body awareness by doing things like playing with your Tripawds paws to help her connect her leg movements with her brain.
Fun doesn’t have to be about rough play. Research canine physical therapy to show you different activities that are both fun and rehabilitative.
Many thanks to Drs. Waldman and Kramer and the pawesome staff at California Animal Rehabilitation Center in Los Angeles for helping us bring this series to you. If you are lucky enough to live in the region, be sure to visit this incredible facility and see how their staff can help your dog stay strong and live hoppy!
Ketamine is used for everything from teeth cleaning, to amputation.
As many as five cats have died as a direct result of contaminated ketamine, but thus far, the ketamine recall has been completely botched by the FDA.
Much like the pet food recalls of previous years, this mishandling has resulted in mass confusion in the veterinary world over what specific dates, lots numbers, etc., are actually being recalled.
Thousands of vets might unknowingly have the contaminated versions in their practices.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the drug butorphanol is also rumored to be on the recall list, but the FDA hasn’t released anything about it.
Remember, anytime your animal companion is going to be anesthetized, always know what drugs will be used. When we read the book “Vet Confidential,” we learned some nasty things about ketamine:
“This drug, which is similar to PCP (also known as Angel Dust), causes allucinations, which I worry may be an alarming axperience to the animal.”
The author, Louise Murray DVM, says she limits the use of ketamine in all procedures, for this reason.
We encourage you to become informed by reading books like Vet Confidential, and getting the specifics about all aspects of your pet’s surgical treatments.
When your dog joins the Tripawd community, one of the most helpful things you can do is ensure that the floors in your home are slip-proof. Even if you are just able to create a path throughout the house for your Tripawd to follow, this will give your pup tremendous confidence with his new body structure.
When I became a Tripawd, one of the first things my pawrents did for our home was to cover the hardwood floors with pre-made carpet floor runners. They covered our hallways and my favorite parts of the house. But this wasn’t cheap, and since then they’ve discovered other ways in which pawrents can affordably slip-proof floors.
Do you have a favorite no-slip floor solution for your three legged dog? If so, please share it below in our Comments section or in this Discussion Forum Topic.
Once again, our friend Calpurnia has her paw on the pulse of canine news. . .
These pretty pups aren’t Tripawds, but we wanted to help spread the word about them. Last week they were saved from a terrible dog hoarding situation in rural Park County, Colorado.
Calpurnia and her Mom are working hard to help find donations and homes for these dogs. Here’s what they had to say:
“We are dealing with a horrific case of a musher ‘hoarding’ dogs, resulting in 100 dogs (6 mos to 14 yrs) that are now in desperate need of homes. Here is a local news story about the discovery.
Luckily, another musher who lives in the area discovered the situation before it got any worse and contacted the authorities. Amazingly, the dogs seem friendly and well socialized.
All the dogs are “somewhere” safe for now.
I asked what the critical need is right now, and it is money.
Park County is not a big county, and very low on funds. It is costing them to bond these dogs, plus medical care for the critical ones, plus checkups, shots, spay/neuters for the rest.
They can also donate to one of the shelters (listed below in order of need):
If someone wants to adopt a dog (someone with an active lifestyle, with a 6′ or greater fence and lots of patience and time to help these dogs adjust to being pets), they can contact the shelters directly.
The more doggy people I can get brainstorming on this, the better we can get these dogs homed and the love and care they each deserve.”
This powerful essay, written by Denver lawyer Doug Koktavy, helped Mom and Dad by finally convincing them that blame, fear, anger and guilt are a waste of precious time when living with cancer.
“. . . I realized my fear of the disease was the fuel that was being used against me. Devilishly clever, my biggest enemy was not the disease, but me. I was the power source being used to generate the very negative energy destroying my own being and wasting a special day with my beloved dog.
This paradoxical contradiction was glaring. I had thought the growing presence of disease was causing my mounting fear. In fact, just the opposite was occurring. My daily increasing fear was causing the disease to grow and become more powerful. I decided it was high time to start working for me and the Beez, not against us.”
Doug’s story brought tears to my pawrents eyes, and his straightforward coping pointers gave them the motivation they needed to get on with life.
His essay is one of the most powerful tools around for coping with serious illness in our animal friends.
“Not only is it so well written that you become a bystander observing the story from within, but the compassion for the vital connection we share with this wonderful kingdom oozes out of and between the lines.”
–Martin Goldstein, DVM, author, The Nature of Animal Healing, and host, Ask Martha’s Vet, Martha Stewart Living Radio
Proceeds Benefit the Tripawds Community
With this book, big-hearted Doug has set out to accomplish two impawtant things:
Help you cope with your best friend’s terminal illness, and
Help companion animal groups by donating forty percent of the proceeds for each book sold.
For every copy of “The Legacy of Beezer and Boomer,” purchased here, Doug will donate $10 to Tripawds! We are so excited about his generous offer to help us maintain this community.
We recently had the opportunity to talk with Doug about his book and this is what he had to say about The Legacy of Beezer and Boomer. Check out our video interview above, then be sure to head on over to BeezerAndBoomer.com, and get your copy today!
Meeting new online friends in pawson has been one of the joys of our lives since we started Tripawds.
But not all of the pups we meet because of Tripawds are three-legged; some actually have four! Hedi, a quadruped who became my YouTube friend in early 2007, was one of them.
Our hearts were broken when we learned that Heidi passed away recently. She was one of the most gentle, sweet souls we have ever known. Her Shepherd spirit will always live on in our hearts.
And now, we’d like to pay tribute to Heidi, by sharing these fun YouTube videos we made together.
Here’s Heidi playing it cool the day we met:
And here’s a video mashup that Heidi’s brother, Creekracer, and mine put together:
When it comes to dogs and the people who love them,words cannot describe how thankful we are for having our furry companions and their humans in our lives. Thank. You. So. Much.
Our friend Eve just sent her incredible Thanksgiving poem to us. Nothing more beautifully expresses the love we all share for the canine species. We hope you enjoy this as much as we do.
Join the Tripawds Community Announcements and Featured Blog Updates forum discussion on this topic.
Wyatt Ray Dawg was busy today picking a name out of his paw’s hat.
Randy B. & his Tripawd, Ginger
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