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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Yay for poop, eating, drinking, getting about, less drooling, and good recheck. Whoo-hoo!👏🏻👏🏻💩
Once again, bravo to you for ensuring Kaju is getting the nutrients via syringe! Pat yourself on the back. You are doing fantastic!
You are not all over the place. We all know what recovery is like and how exhausting it is. Get rest whenever you can & tell the other kitties you are all hopping closer to your new normal.
The probiotics will help with the runs and get his gut flora back. I am happy to see poop in any form;) I agree on the supplements wait until your thru recovery. Kaju is eating well and off his meds before adding anything more back in.
Ditto Jackie on teeth. We are not vets & only guessing by your description. The elimination process will tell you when you are off the meds. If the drooling continues, have the vet give an oral exam, it does sound like it is a side effect of the Gaba if you see less drool already. You will know definitively soon enough. The pain meds and antibiotics should keep things in check if it is tooth related.
Keep training on the steps, move them to where Kaju is jumping down. Add a special treat to each step when he is eating better and show him this way. You want to avoid the jumping down whenever possible to protect that remaining front leg taking all the brunt. Jumping up, nothing has changed for him.
Hugs & Scratches to Kaju, kalonji, and marmalady, (love the names)!
Holly & Purrkins 💝
Day 8 update
Today the doctor examined his wound again. There's a patch of his wound that hasn't healed and joined and isn't a healthy pink colour. The rest of the incision has healed and the stitches were taken out from the healed bits.
The discharge from the wound is also more than the last time (day 5). The vet said it isn't infected but slow healing which can be because 1) this area was previously inflamed and there was some tension when the skin was stitched up or 2) it might be cancer. The biopsy won't be back till day 10. I was really hoping that it was not anything other than just a badly healing wound as the surgeon had previously just said the tissue looked a bit abnormal so he's sending it for biopsy. For now the vet recommends daily changing of dressing on top of the wound and continuing with the medicines.
In the good news he's very mobile and is wanting to eat and eating many small meals throughout the day (as opposed to his usual 2 big meals) but I'll take it. The amount he's eating on his own is still less than what he should be eating but I think that he's asking for food nad has a small appetite is a good sign. I'm still syringing some k/d and giving sub cutaneous fluids alternate days. Maybe it's the probiotic that's making him hungry though poop is still a bit loose. He's also distinctively less grumpy (that might also be a 3 day break from the hospital between the last visit and today), is purring readily, talking back to me, etc. The vet also prescribed some appetite medicine (cyproheptadine) and I might try some tonight.
I'm just worried about the bit of wound that's not healing. Should I again restrict his movement to a cage? He has the run of one room and the balcony now and is using the steps some of the times when getting down from the bed.
Please send him healing vibes.
So glad his appetite is getting better. That really is good news! For day eight, he seems to be doing really well. Engaged, mobile, alert..all good signs.
It is not unusual to see a place in the incision that doesn't heal up quite as well and re,ains kind of festering and angry,. Does he try and lick it (-which can irritate it) or does he leave it alone?
You may have already said, did the Vet do a culture? Is he currently on an antibiotic?
Hang in there. He's recovering very well, and it's still early on.
Hugs
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!
It was bandaged up so he has no chance of licking. He's on antibiotics but the vet didn't do a culture. I will go to vet again tomorrow to dress the wound and bandage it I can ask for a culture but somehow that takes upto 10 days here, so I'm not sure how helpful that will be in terms of changing the antibiotic.
The culture would show which SPECIFIC antibiotic is needed. Often whatever is going on is resistant to a lot of antibiotics that "usually" work. This could be the case here. Anyway, worth a shot although it takes a while to get results. Maybe he could try a different antibiotic in the meantime. Jist throwing stuff out there.
And sorry again ig already asked, but is he on any "external" cream or salve type stuff from the Vet?
You're doing a great job!
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!
The vet's advice is now to dress daily. Clean with saline water. Dry it and apply liquid iodine then cover with sterilised gauze and bandage it up. My local vet, a 5 minute walk away from home, agreed to do it so I don't have to drive him to the hospital everyday.
That's pretty cool that he's eating a bit and showing some spunk! All signs point to a steady recovery, despite the incision issue. I love that you have two vets working on that situation!
Yeah, the MRSA culture can take a while to see what's growing, but it's been very helpful for members who found themselves fighting it.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Healing vibes are on the way across the ponds!
Yaaay 
Kaju is asking for food! 👏🏻👏🏻😁HUGE!
Eating several small meals is excellent and how cats do best. Precisely what they would do if they were on their own. Hunt several times a day. Kaju is still on his meds, so i don't expect appetite to be 100% yet. As Sally said, many have had the same issue, not healing in one spot. If it was not covered before now, it is a real possibility he was cleaning that incision. It needs more time to heal.
We are keeping fingers & paws crossed for previously inflamed or tension! Good to hear they sent the tissue off to pathology prayers it is not C!
I’m just worried about the bit of wound that’s not healing. Should I again restrict his movement to a cage? He has the run of one room and the balcony now and is using the steps some of the times when getting down from the bed.
I won't tell you not to worry but do try to stay positive ok! Kaju has made great strides in eight days!!!!
I would keep restricting activity and stay in one room, as you are. We had restrictions for 14 days. I took Purrkins out on our balcony for some fresh air, but I held him. I would not take the chance, but that's just me.
Always better to be safe than sorry and control what you can.
Hugs and scratches to the kitties, please.
Holly & Purrkins💝
I wish I'd seen this thread sooner! Kaju sounds like he's doing much better now, but a lot of this sounds very much like what we went through recently with Ziggy. We had the drooling, the lethargy and lack of interest in food(at one point we were force-feeding him too), poop delay, pee issues...
I think the amputation takes a lot out of them but he seems to be doing much better! We had a lot of trouble keeping our boy still too. We had a large dog crate for him so that we could keep him in our living room with us, but he flipped out in there so we moved him back to his familiar bathroom. He was up on the counter to sleep in the sink when he was DEFINITELY not supposed to be jumping.
Ziggy didn't really get his full appetite back until he was totally off all of his meds. We had to have a second related surgery two weeks ago and as soon as he was back on gabapentin and Veraflox, his appetite took a hit. We finished the meds Monday and his appetite came roaring back the next day.
I know it's exhausting but I promise you'll make it through his recovery and it won't seem like such a big deal. You're doing the very best you can for your boy and that's all you can do!
Hi little green apples! Ziggy's story does reassure me. Because I feel Kaju's improvement has plateaud since day 6-ish. The level of activity,talking back, appetite are the same. In fact appetite is probably a bit lower. He's asking for food but isn't having more than a few mouthfuls. Yesterday he got given some appetite meds so was asking for food a lot but not eating much. He has another visit to the vet tomorrow. I will get them to do a bloodwork. I'm suppose to get his biopsy results back so please wish us luck. The bacterial cultures test was done yesterday so the test results might be back only on Saturday. His surgical site has been covered throughout so it's not a case of him worrying the stitches. The vet yesterday said his wound didn't look bad despite not joining up fully but don't know if she was saying that to console me. I'm really worried about his lack of appetite and hopefully can get a check up on his teeth too.he flips out at the hospital so it's difficult to do too many things at once.
I have all of my fingers and toes crossed that the biopsy comes back clean! We did have a lot of issues with Ziggy and honestly, even not being able to get to the stitches didn't help in his case. We had an infection that actually flared back up and resulted in a second surgery, necrotic tissue, leaks, a spot that opened back up, the works.
From initial amputation to his first stitches being removed actually took a month due to the necrotic tissue, and we had him on the Hill Science Diet A/D food the entire time. Sometimes he would eat it cold but only after we wiped some on his tongue, and most of the time I had to sit there and hand feed it to him, letting him lick it off my fingers. I wondered if the gabapentin or some other medication might mess with their sense of smell a bit and put them off their feed.
EDIT: I also want to add that we were feeding him basically a teaspoon or tablespoon at a time multiple times a day, as he wouldn't eat all that much in one sitting.
Poor guy, it's so much harder when they freak out at the vet. That was one of the only lucky things about Ziggy, he's so docile with them. Even if they have to knock Kaju out, it's better to be able to get a good look at him and get some answers. I'm really hoping hard that it's going to be good news for you!
It's hard not to feel worried, but just know that you are doing everything right to make sure that Kaju gets his mojo back. You've got this! Let us know how tomorrow's visit goes.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
My kitty Mona has been losing weight. The vet said to let her eat anything. She loves canned kitten food and I've discovered she goes wild over Royal Canin Recovery RS Veterinary Diet (it's for both cats and dogs!). I feed her at least every two hours and she evens comes for some at 2:00 am.
Good luck,
Kerren and Tripawd Kitty Mona
littlegreenapples said
I wondered if the gabapentin or some other medication might mess with their sense of smell a bit and put them off their feed.
Absolutely YES meds mess with appetite and senses & more that's why we always suggest the smelly foods, warming foods, toppers different types of food, hand feeding, giving a taste, dab on the nose or mouth, syringe feeding, any way to get past those meds. We ALL usually have to pull out all the tricks on pain meds. Try anything and everything when possible. We also NEED those pain meds and have to work around that.
madhura8788 said
The vet yesterday said his wound didn't look bad despite not joining up fully but don't know if she was saying that to console me. I'm really worried about his lack of appetite and hopefully can get a check up on his teeth too.he flips out at the hospital so it's difficult to do too many things at once.
Excellent news and a vet would not console and tell you something he/she did not believe to be true IMO. We know it is impossible not to worry; you are doing everything right and then some to help Kaju! I do think you will see a change in appetite when Kaju is off his meds and healed! It is a very common theme around here.
Continued prayers and positive thoughts!
Holly & Purrkins💝💝💝
I figured, Purrkins! I mean medications can mess with our senses just fine, I'd imagine it's even worse for a cat when you can't reason with them about eating. In our case, I think Ziggy hated the syringe feeding so much that he was willing to just eat some to avoid it!
Madhura, don't feel bad about panicking a bit. Even when our vet assured us everything was fine (and it was!), we're not vets so what actually is fine can look bad to us. For about a week and a half, I was emailing my vet daily pictures of Ziggy's incision and we hauled him in SO many times. Sometimes it was nothing, sometimes it was something - it's not your job to try to figure that out! Let your vet guide you and if it's a good vet, they're not going to mind taking a look and reassuring you. If you start getting the feeling that they're fed up or annoyed it's definitely time to look for a new vet.
Once I started thinking more about it, I remember being REALLY worried about Ziggy's temperature at first too. He was laying there shivering for a while and we weren't sure if it was anesthesia or a fever. Never got to the point that we needed the heating pad but it happened with us too!
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