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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Hello! I stumbled across this page while looking for some information and I must say it seems like a great site!
We just got our kitty’s back leg amputated yesterday after suffering from a broken femur. Any tips to help get us through the recovery journey? I did read a few articles about phantom limb pain that I think she may be experiencing now that the anesthesia is wearing off. Any tips on how to help? We’ve been calming her down and made her recovery room as cozy as possible. They gave her a transdermal injection that they said would last 3 days so no need to give pain meds until day 3. They sent us home with Gabapentin tablets (50 mg) and told us to give them to her twice daily starting on day 3.
Welcome to you and your sweet kitty. So are you find yourself here but it is the very best place for support , information and understanding of what you are going through during recovery.
Have to run but wanted to get your post approved so others can chime in. In the meantime, just a quick question. What makes you think your kitty is having Phantom limb pain? My guess is you are probably seeing her react to having the anesthesia start to get out of her system.
Apologies for the quick post, but we do have tons of information here and lots of kitty experts to help you further.
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!
I'm so glad you started your own topic! 
How old/young is Tipzee?
As I mentioned, our Tripawds What to Expect series is good to check out, as is our Tripawds Recovery Shopping List . How is your house? Got traction for your floors? Low sided litterboxes are super helpful too. And perches for when she's ready to explore. You mentioned in your other post that you have a room set up, which is great. Are there other cats in the house you will need to manage during her recovery? Do you have help? It's good to have a partner but if not that's OK.
Her pain management sounds really good! Phantom pain is common but the Gabapentin should take care of it. It's also really early so it could be something else that's bothering her, like just the fact that she's on pain meds and feeling weird. What kind of symptoms is she showing that makes you think it's phantom pain ?
Keep an eye on her pain signals to make sure she's getting her medications dialed in. Most times it needs some adjustment over the first week or two. How many days of pain control did the vet give you?
Have you seen our e-book, How to Help Your Three-Legged Cat? It's got tons of great info there too.
Hello! She is about a year old (unsure of actual age, we took her in as a kitten. She was found in the woods alone).
We have hardwood floors, but have a giant comforter down on the floor in our spare room for her. She gets into her litter box no issue. She finally went once today since her procedure yesterday. She’s still not up for food or much water. The vet said they have her fluids yesterday and she should be okay today. She did eat a few small bites of wet food. We do have one other cat, a couple months younger than her. Keeping them separated for now. The other cat can smell her through the door. We do have some small cat perches. Would it be best to introduce those after her 2 week recovery period? I do and he has been helping. I have the ability to work from home for a few days and my work station is set up in the room she is in so I can keep an eye on her. We have a giant pop up cat closure in here as well and made that cozy if she wants to hide.
since my original post last night I am thinking it was the anesthesia wearing off. She hasn’t displayed any of the yowling or thrashing since. A lot more rested and comfortable. Last night was very rough. I slept in the room on the floor with her to comfort her when she was experiencing any pain and just gently stroked her head and talked her through it.
The vet gave us 20 tablets of the gabapentin instructing us twice daily starting on day 3, so would be about 10 days worth. I still have a few syringes of gabapentin and the buprenorphine from her ER visit on NYE. Those were instructed as 1 syringe each every 8 hours.
Thank you for the references and information! I will look at these articles in a bit. It’s just very overwhelming. We went into this with them reassuring the amputation recovery process would be easier than the surgery. Just want to make sure she has the best recovery as possible 😸
Hello and Welcome
I'm sorry, you have to join us.
They gave her a transdermal injection that they said would last 3 days so no need to give pain meds until day 3. They sent us home with Gabapentin tablets (50 mg) and told us to give them to her twice daily starting on day 3.
Im glad to see they prescribed both the transdermal Buprenorphine - Zobium and Gabapentin!
I have no first-hand experience with Zobium. We had the liquid Buprenorphine and 100 mg Gabapentin. We did those one hour apart.
I would ask the vet if you can start the gabapentin now instead of waiting three days and see what they advise.
(((Hugs))
Holly, Purrkins and Saxton in the sky💫
💝💝💝
Oh my gosh you spent New Year's Eve in the ER with her? Awwww!
Some thoughts:
No-slip runners will be super helpful for her now and as time goes on. You want her to have enough safe places to walk where she won't slip or need to expend extra energy trying not to slide. Don't need to cover your whole place, just create paths to her favorite spots like food/water, window perch when she's ready, etc.
Yes I'd wait to put the cats back together for at least another week, especially since they're so young. You want to keep her calm and make sure stitches don't come out because of over-activity.
Perches should wait until her stitches are out.
I agree it would be worth asking about starting Gabapentin now. It works on different pain pathways and compliments her other meds by reducing nerve pain that can cause phantom pain .
Yep, that was probably anesthesia medication wearing off last night!
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