Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

Dakota Dawg said
I'm happy to read that Sid is improving. I hope it continues. 

I have a sling I could send to you if you think it would help. It's very similar to the photo that Michelle posted about Sassy. Here is a link to what it looks like: http://www.drsf.....catid=8082

Mine is the green one. You do have to take it off the dog for him to pee; that's the only downside. It has clips along the top that allow you to fasten it together, but I never used those. I just used the handles. I used this when Dakota first came home from his amputation surgery, before I could put a harness over his incision. It made peeing possible!

I know Sid may not need anything like this any longer. If you think you might have a future need, I'll send it to you. I'm starting to think about passing along Dakota's things, and his harness will go up on the Angel Exchange shortly. I would happily send this if you want.

Shari

How very sweet of you, Shari!  I am touched. 

However, I think I will pass - firstly because I'm in England and it would cost a lot to get it here, and secondly because I think I need to look for one in which he can pee.  Since he is a rear leg tripod, and a greyhound (narrow 'footprint') this would be important for us, so we didn't have to try to support him discreetly while he does his stuff.

Perhaps it would be better to donate it to someone more locally, perhaps someone who has a recent amputee and needs a lot of help.  I do so appreciate the offer though.  Thank you so much! 

Thanks!  He is doing better, and has now been out with us for the last two days on very short walks.  The longest was about a quarter of the distance of our usual 'short' walks (as opposed to our longer walks), and he's managing that.  Yesterday I asked DH to give him his painkiller and by his answer ('I can't find the cheese grater') thought he'd heard and was on it, only to discover that he hadn't heard and was doing something for himself with cheese!  Sid was not noticeably worse, so that's a good thing.

But it got me thinking.   When is the right time to be looking into wheels for him?  He will be nine this year.  I don't want to reduce his exercise by getting a cart too early, and maybe make him not want to go out without it when he could manage, but on the other hand, I don't want to cause him unneccessary difficulties and perhaps joint deterioration.

Darn it - I just wrote a long reply and wasn't logged in, so I lost it.

Thanks for the reply.  Seems that he's not quite ready for a 'wheelchair ' yet, because he can definitely walk more than 30 yards. 

He's walking between about a third and a half of his normal distances on his outings.  We go twice a day, now that he's able, because we are aware of the 'use it or lose it' truth, but we watch him carefully for signs of tiring, and make sure to turn back at a point which allows us to get home before he's done.  There's a piece of grass he likes about 150-170 yards from our house, and yesterday I ran with him (with breaks for sniffing and to give me a breather) to that point.  He does better loping along, and yesterday enjoyed it, and did fine.  I might need a wheelchair soon though, if I do much more of it!    Anyway, he's also managing to get into the car by himself, and he's sensible enough that if he's too close to the car, he'll turn himself around, and go a few yards back to give himself a run up.  He's a smart dog.

I'm going to take him back to the vet because he's about to run out of Onsior, and also because I want them to take a look at his spine and make sure it's not involved in this.  They couldn't really examine him properly before because either he was simply not standing up, or he wasn't standing properly and was in danger of falling over.   If it is, we might have to reconsider on the wheelchair and the jumping into the car. 

The vet was pretty sure it was just the leg.  Couldn't feel anything other than muscle spasms elsewhere, and they dissipated as he worked on them, which they wouldn't have done if they had been protecting a disc or something.  I was reassured.  He was very pleased with Sid's progress, actually exclaiming 'Well!  He looks a lot better!' as we walked in the door.

He's back to nearly normal now.  We're tailing off the Onsior and are down to half the therapeutic dose, but I have enough to be able to put him back on them if he needs them. 

Yesterday we took the dogs to the town park. which is a great place for a dog with mobility problems because there is a perimeter path with 'spokes' in to the centre, and also a gate on three of the four sides.  This means that if he suddenly tires, we are never very far from a gate where the car can be brought for him.  He managed the entire circuit and was still perfectly able to jump into the car with no sign of problems, which pleased us enormously!  It's about a 30-40 minute walk, taken at a slow pace.  The dogs are usually slow there mostly because there are a lot of strange dogs being walked there and they keep having to stop to sniff!

Thanks for thinking of us!

I think we can safely say that he's well on the way to being healthy again!