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.
Join The Tripawds Community
Learn how to help three legged dogs and cats in the forums below. Browse and search as a guest or register for free and get full member benefits:
Instant post approval.
Private messages to members.
Subscribe to favorite topics.
Live Chat and much more!
Register
Log In
Members
Add Topic
Offline
Hello fellow Tripawd parents, can you help me with deciding if I should continue with the Gabapentin. Three months after her amputation she still seems to sleep alot, is wobbly and constantly wants to be beside/on me. Everything has healed super well so I'm thinking it may have to do with phantom pain .
Here's some history: Before I had adopted her, back when she was a kitten, she had broken her back leg. During the healing process it never healed well and she had a constant limp. When I adopted her 5 years ago, she was mobile but still had that limp. I was told at the time it was normal because the leg in the cast didn't grow as much as the other back leg. Fast forward to a year ago, the limp had changed, which turned out to be arthritis and a torn ligament. That was when I learned she must have been dealing with pain for a quite a long time. 🙁
So knowing she's been dealing with pain for a long time, do you think it's normal for her to be like this? I was really expecting her to bounce back by now. What am I doing wrong? 🙁
She was taking gabapentin 2x day and I brought her down to 1x and then tried a day without a pill. She seems to be more stressed so I usually end up giving her 1x/day. Also, we have 3 other cats but they usually leave her alone. She has a special room she could go to that none of the other cats can get into.
Your post has been approved.
First of all , thank you for giving this sweet kitty such a caring and loving home. What's her name?
So knowing she's been dealing with pain for a long time, do you think it's normal for her to be like this? I was really expecting her to bounce back by now. What am I doing wrong? .
You are doing everything right, okay? The thing is, every recovery is different and every cat or dog recovers at their own pace in their own way. One of my first questions however is what has her activity level been like. Sometimes shortly after amputation a cat can overdo and create a lot of sore muscles, joints, etc.
If you have a Rehabilitation Specialist in your area, it would probably really benefit her to have a consultation. The Tripawds Foundation will pay for the first visit. The fact that she is wobbly could mean she just needs to build some more core strength need some proper stretching techniques etc.
Want to stress, we are not vets and we are not giving that advice, okay? Since she has been on gabapentin for a while, you were smart to go the tapering route. With a Vet guidance of course, you might want to continue the tapering a little longer and even going down to a half dose before no dose. IFEIW it may be that you were observing just going off the Gaba and she needed more than one day to adjust.
When you speak with your vet, you might ask about putting your cat on some arthritis medicine as you taper off the gabapentin.
As far as phantom pain , it usually shows up quickly out of the blue and a cat or dog will get up quickly and try to run away from the pain. It's a severe sharp pain that only last seconds. So based on what you said it doesn't sound like she's experiencing that, which is a good thing.
Just showing them suggestions out there.
Keep us posted, okay?
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie 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!
1 Guest(s)
