Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

Hi everyone!

Harriet’s doctor appointment went well. Her sutures were removed, her incision is healing well and we just need to keep a tshirt or onesie on her for another week to ensure she doesn’t pick at it. Her kidney levels were a tiny bit better than they were pre-surgery (but still in the stage 3 range, so better is not fabulous, except onsofar as they are not a lot worse). We are to wean her off her pain meds, and stop the antibiotics she was on. 

She seems to be doing really well for the most part! We’ve noticed though that yesterday a couple times she just sat in her litter box for a few minutes after peeing or pooping. And today she has gone back and forth from her bed to her box multiple times within the same span of time - so, within 20 minutes she went back and forth 4 times or so and is seeming unsettled. I’m hoping it’s constipation, but am worried it’s kidney related. But then her numbers were ok. Any ideas?

Hi all! Thank you to everyone who is weighing in! Now we are also experiencing record heat here in Harriet’s town, and we are doing our best to keep her tolerably cool with a portable AC unit (which, fighting against our 102 degree heat, is barely keeping the living room 83 degrees!). So - we think this is impacting her appetite I think. She ate her breakfast but was pokey about it. She only ate about 1/4 of her dinner. But she’s gotten fluids today, has been drinking water, and in her multiple litter box trips we’ve observed her either peeing, doing nothing productive but moving her tail and anus like she wants to poop but can’t (aw, Mom! Don’t talk about my anus on the internet!), or she has actually pooped - she pooped a few tiny poops overnight, and then today she produced two large fully formed but slightly squishy logs, about 20 minutes apart. Since then she’s settled down to rest more, so perhaps it is constipation? The 20 minutes apart makes me think so. She is already on miralax. 

We are taking her in to see her regular vet tomorrow. We kind of panicked and called in and since they had an opening we took it. 

Other than that - she is walking/hopping herself to her box, she has been giving her self more of a bath rather than just a few licks, and she leans into scratches and pets. We are so nervous that we’ve hurt her more than we’ve helped her. I know that’s ridiculous given she would have had to have an euthanasia exit but for the surgery. I’ll update tomorrow evening after her appointment!

Update Saturday: Harriet is doing ok! The vet gave her a shot for a uti, and sent us home with more meds. Her trips to the box are fewer but still more than normal. As I write this we are sitting in the front yard with Harriet in her baby carriage, sleeping. 

Other excitement - one of our 8lb terriers snuck into Harriet’s recovery pen and got into her litter box, and ate some litter.  This resulted in an ER trip for the dog and 24 hours of panic for the Moms. Abbie (dog) got her stomach pumped and the vet said they got 3 tablespoons of litter, yikes! So it could’ve been very serious, and now Harriet’s pen stays zipped up. Hopefully after the uti is under control we will see more progression from Harriet re interest in moving around other parts of the house. We are not sure when we will be able to move her out of the recovery pen.  Maybe it’s a feature of our living room that will be here for the rest of the time Harriet is with us? We will do whatever she needs and feels best with!

I tried to post a photo but haven’t figured it out yet.  Sorry about that!