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
Hey Tripawds family, we've had a heck of a few weeks over here and wondering if anyone can share any experience or advice. A little before Christmas Atlas burst his tail open at the tip from wagging so much and hitting walls, furniture, people, Sophie, etc... At first we kept the wound clean, wrapped the tip and wiped blood splatter off the walls daily. Dr. W said their was no real solution, just what we were doing to try and get it to heal. Well, three days ago I finished the dishes and came around the corner to the most horrific sight I have ever seen....Atlas was chewing his own tail like it was a bone. There was blood everywhere! Doc said they do that sometimes, to clean it, wrap it and put on the E collar. I was horrified....my perfect dog who has never so much a chewed a shoe was eating himself. Ugh...can't get the image out of my head. The next day I had to run errands, so I put his E collar on and made sure his tail was wrapped up and he was snuggled in bed. Came home to a scene from Friday the 13th. The whole room covered in blood, the walls were red with blood running down, bedding, furniture everything....RED! Marc almost passed out. He still had his e collar on, but managed to get hold of his tail. 36 hours later at the vets with major staff infection climbing rapidly up his tail. He is now on antibiotics, and we have special antibiotic spray and chlorhexadine wraps. I'm freaked out. If we can't stop the staff, he may have to have his tail amputated. The good new is Doc didn't think it was the cancer coming back in his tail, more likely the wobblers causing tingling irritation and lack of feeling. Doc will examine him again in a few days and we go for X-rays in a week. Ugh....poor buddy. 
Patricia & Mighty Atlas
Jeez, poor guy!! (Not to mention Mom & Dad!!) I haven't had anything like this happen. Just wanted to say I hope The Mighty Atlas gets well soon! Will be keeping our paws crossed for no infections!!
Tail wounds are extremely frustrating and take forever to heal. I had an Irish Wolfhound puppy years ago that did exactly what your dog did - ate the end of his tail off. This was after his was injured by being caught in a door. He was also excellent at chewing anything off the end for protection, and they simply do not make e-collars big enough for these dogs. They can just curve their bodies and get to the tip. It took 3-4 months, 2 amputations, and him wearing an e-collar and basket muzzle with tape around it whenever I couldn't watch him to prevent him from chewing.
Years later, I was dealing with another tail injury in one of my girl Irish Wolfhounds. I was at a dog show, and a lady told me about the pants. What you do is take a pair of children's sweatpants with a draw string waist. Cut one of the legs off (like into shorts), and the dog's waist goes through that hole. The tail goes into the the other leg. Then you tie the end of the leg shut and bring the end of the leg around and tie it to the waist band. This prevent him from wagging and chewing (unless he's persistent enough to chew the pants off or chew through them). Plus you can open the leg every day and check the tail for progress in healing. Plus the tail isn't really wrapped, so it gets air. Girl dogs can go outside and go to the bathroom wearing these pants, but boys wouldn't be able to. I wish I had known about these before when I had such an awful time with my boy.
Beth
Patricia,
I am so sorry to hear about Atlas & his tail. I hope you can get the infection stopped. I don't know of any way to stop a big dog like that from chewing except maybe like Beth suggested pants of some kind that would stop him from chewing. Prayers for you & your boy. Atlas please stop chewing your tail
Hugs
Michelle & Angel Sassy
Sassy is a proud member of the Winter Warriors. Live long, & strong Winter Warriors.
sassysugarbear.tripawds.com
07/26/2006 - Sassy earned her wings 08/20/2013
05/04/2006 - Bosch, Sassy's pal, earned his wings 03/29/19 fought cancer for 4 months.
"You aren't doing it TO her, you are doing it FOR her. Give her a chance at life."
So sorry about his infection in his tail.....sometimes tail injuries are so hard to get to heal, but hoping sweet Atlas can get through this soon. Keeping you in my thoughts.
Here's hoping through all your hard work that the infection gets under control and Atlas does not require any further surgical interventions.
Our pups really have strong natural instincts about how to "take care of themselves" so I can just imagine that this is hard on all of you.
Hugs
Linda and Tucker
Oh MY GOSH! I'm so sorry Patricia, that is just awwwwwwful! Sounds like your vet is onto something. Just a thought in case you don't get a whole lot of ideas here but have you looked online for wobbler's support groups? I haven't ever searched for one but I'm sure they're out there and perhaps you can find out if other pawrents go through this? They might have some excellent ideas which we could learn from here too.
Meanwhile, I'm always sharing this photo, which Wyatt Ray hates, but this is the way we prevented our long-nosed guy from getting to his butt-stitches:
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
WOW, This isjusr craaaaaaazy! I'm sure you ARE freaked out seeingthe scenes younhave!
I have ZERO advice, but you've been given some help by tryint the britches and checking withother "wobbler sires"..Clearlh so etings votheringthe heck out of him! I feel so badly for him...and you!
Post as soon as yo can, okay?
We love you guys!
Sally and Happy Hannah
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!
Thanks you guys. Beth, that's a great idea, going to buy some kid sweat pants tomorrow. Wyatt Ray
you are so cute in your get-up! Had to go check out your post to make sure you were ok. Assuming it was from the plexi surgery, and looks like you're doing great visiting all your buds in Oakland. What great pics of you guys!
Thanks for the idea about wobblers group, now if I can only find the time. Atlas has calmed down since the meds. I think the genomycin spray really helped relieve the irritation because he hasn't been trying to chew it again. Fingers and paws crossed that the antibiotics kill the staff infection and he gets to keep his tail because he really seems to use it for balance a lot. Of course this all happens when work is crazy busy and I'm already about two months behind! Maybe by spring I'll get to come back and catch up on my Tripawds friends. Hugs & big slobbery Atlas kisses to you all!
Patricia & Mighty Atlas
Patricia,
I wanted to check in & see how our Big Buddy Atlas is doing? I hope healing up well
Hugs
Michelle & Angel Sassy
Sassy is a proud member of the Winter Warriors. Live long, & strong Winter Warriors.
sassysugarbear.tripawds.com
07/26/2006 - Sassy earned her wings 08/20/2013
05/04/2006 - Bosch, Sassy's pal, earned his wings 03/29/19 fought cancer for 4 months.
"You aren't doing it TO her, you are doing it FOR her. Give her a chance at life."
Thanks for asking Michelle, he was on my mind too!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Atlas?! What is happening???? You OK, dude??
~ Katy & Jackson
ACL tear in right hind leg 12/5/12 and scheduled ACL repair surgery 12/21/12. Pre-op xrays revealed osteosarcoma. Amputation 12/28/12. Chemo (carboplatin) started Jan 10, 2013 and ended on April 5, for a total of 5 doses. He handled carbo like a champ! No side effects. We started metronomic therapy at his third chemo and have been also doing some holistic treatments. He's a lively, playful 10 year old huskie-boarder collie and a very proud member of the Winter Warriors! Our love. Our funny little guy!
Oh geez. I'm a quite late to the conversation so I'm hoping you've figured out a solution from everyone's great advice. For what it's worth, possibly nothing at this late date, my Jersey Girl had her tail amputated as the result of a retractable leash accident. There were 2 operations and tail chewing was a HUGE problem after the 1st one. We ended up buying our own hard plastic and making an extra long collar. We also punched holes in it around the neck area and tied it to the collar that holds her tags / leash. That way no matter how she moved (and they can be pretty darn crafty at figuring out how to get to their tails), the plastic collar stayed put. She never got at that darn tail again.
Oh boy have we been busy! We just realized we missed Atlas's 9 month ampuversary! Happy ampuversary buddy!
It's kind of nice to just have the clock tick by enjoying life. The Mighty Atlas has been very good at letting his tail heal. He finished 10 days of antibiotics and it conquered the staff infection, thank God. He is not chewing it anymore and after 2 weeks of dressing it daily, we are just now giving it air and he busted it open wagging today, but it wasn't bad and I caught it quickly and wrapped it. I think we are going to try taping yoga mats to the walls. It's a powerful wag! Any ideas welcome. Can't really tie his tail to him as he uses it so much for balancing his big 140 pound tall frame.
Tried inserting a pic of him resting after dinner tonight. I'm on iPad so not sure how to do it.
He's just so cute, the biggest sweetest love bug ever! The color vet wrap drew his attention more and when we found white he left it alone more (maybe because it's his normal color, who knows, was interesting though.)
Patricia & Mighty Atlas
OMG! I'm SOOOO relieved. I had really bad, really scary thoughts about Atlas and his infection. I'm SO happy it's OK!
Yoga mats sound intriguing. Try 'em. You may have to keep his tail wrapped, too, forever. Ummm...can I toss out there: tail amputation? Is that faux-paws around here?
YEY for 9 months! YEY for just letting time pass, tails heal, and bonding continue.
With LOVE,
Katy & Jackson
ACL tear in right hind leg 12/5/12 and scheduled ACL repair surgery 12/21/12. Pre-op xrays revealed osteosarcoma. Amputation 12/28/12. Chemo (carboplatin) started Jan 10, 2013 and ended on April 5, for a total of 5 doses. He handled carbo like a champ! No side effects. We started metronomic therapy at his third chemo and have been also doing some holistic treatments. He's a lively, playful 10 year old huskie-boarder collie and a very proud member of the Winter Warriors! Our love. Our funny little guy!
1 Guest(s)
