Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

Harriet update:

She’s a little over 2 months out from surgery, and it seems that her cancer(s) are dictating her exit soon. 

Harriet’s recovery from surgery went better than we expected, in some ways, but she’s had one struggle after another. A severe UTI resulted in her primary movement being the few steps between her bed and her litter box in the big pen that has pride of place in our living room. This also got her on a permanent antibiotic prescription. Her oncologist added palladia to the chlorambisil, and the palladia decreased her appetite and caused diarrhea.  We eliminated the palladia, added the appetite-inducing ear gel, and included a probiotic with her daily miralax (once the runs stopped, the comstipation returned), aluminum hydroxide, CBD oil, and we’ve maintained daily lactaided ringers sub-q fluids. We cheer when she eats a full meal, and continue to offer food to her every half hour or so when she won’t. She is pretty much on a lap, or in her pen, all the time.  We offer her water from a little ramekin all the time; she asks for it by poking her head up like a giraffe or ET.  

She very capably hops like a kangaroo between her bed and her litter box.  She occasionally wants to hop a little farther, and she will walk to the front door to tell us she wants outside time. Outside, she is on a lap, or in a baby carriage we had for her Yorkie brother before he passed.  She listens to the birds and seems to like it when we put her in partial sun. She is a little bit incontinent, so we’ve taken to having puppy pads under her most of the time, on or laps or wherever. She will occasionally give herself a partial bath.  Last week, she actually threw a back leg over her head and did a full back-end bath! Mostly, we use gentle wipes to keep her clean and fresh. She purrs like a train and meows when she sees us in the morning.  When her dog sister Abbie snuggles up to her, Harriet will lean in despite herself.

Deciding to have her leg amputated was such a difficult decision. We agonized over it. I think we made the right decision, as if we hadn’t done it, Harriet would’ve had to leave us back in May (her foot was deteriorating at a rapid rate). We’ve had a difficult but beautiful summer with her, and it’s been precious, precious time…but time for her is now very short.

Despite the Torigen, chlorambisil, and (for a short time) palladia, we’ve subsequently learned she has a tumor taking up much of her bladder. About 3 days ago, my wife and I each separately thought we noticed her abdomen was a little swollen.  The soonest we could get her seen at the vet was this morning.  Apparently, this is ascites, and is indicative of final stage cancer. The vet was able to safely drain the fluid, and it was almost 1lb in weight.  We’ve been advised to escort Harriet to this end of the Rainbow Bridge, 

We have a home hospice vet who offers at-home euthanasia, and we are working to schedule with her for later this week.  We don’t want the fluid to re-fill, and we want avoid any pain or catastrophe for our sweet girl. We love her so much, and we don’t want to let her go. But at this point it’s likely selfish for us to make her stay much longer.