Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi Everyone,
Trevor, my 12-year-old Sheltie, has been home for 2 weeks and 5 days now. He's recovering from a front leg amputation. He previously underwent surgery to remove tumors that was a tough process - ending up with us having to amputate after all. He's been struggling for about 6 weeks with surgery issues.
From reading all that I have on this forum, it seems what he's going through is a bit unusual. He was standing up the first day of his amputation, but has experienced severe anxiety every since. I took him off Tremadyl (spelling?) a few days after his surgery, but the anxiety has never stopped. It seems he never sleeps fully, and neither do we! Throughout the day and night, he'll nod off and then jump up and dart across the room. Sometimes, he cries when he does so. He's been in and out of the surgeon's office. He was given a narcotic to help with sleep and pain. Then another surgeon asked us to take him off of that and give him Acepromazine as needed. A large dose does help him at night, but I just can't keep him "stoned" all the time! I've been told to exercise him, but it's next to impossible when he's like this. Today, I opted to give him half the dosage, but it just hasn't done the trick. He just seems miserable. He's also on Gabapentin for potential phantom pain (which the doctors believe is rare...I don't!). In addition, he takes Prevacox (anti-inflammatory) for another leg problem he has. If anyone has any thoughts about any or all of these medications, I'd like to hear about it. Also, if anyone has experienced ongoing anxiety like this, please share. I'd love for him to be more comfortable and share some good times with us. I'm not sure how long he has in that the latest biopsy showed the cancer in his lymph nodes. We've opted not to do chemo because of all he's been through.
Thanks!
Trevors' Mom
Hi Trevor's Mom. Thanks so much for joining our community here, we are so sorry that Trevor is having difficulties. We hope you don't mind, but we moved your questions to this "Ask a Vet" area, because we think that our favorite vet, TazzieDog, would be best equipped to answer your questions.
Until she does, we found a thread that might be of interest to you. This thread is a discussion of pain management issues that other pawrents went through after their tripawd's amputation surgery. Hope it helps. There are other discussions like this, if you do a search for Gabapentin you'll find some.
Just a suggestion, but have you tried acupuncture? We found that it generally provides a ton of relief for dogs who are dealing with pain issues. You can read about it in our blog here.
Good luck. We hope things get better soon. Please keep us posted.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Are you sure it is anxiety? It can be hard to differentiate pain or phantom pain from anxiety. Has he had anxiety issues before? If he has, then the best drug for that is alprazolam (Xanax). Your vet would have to prescribe it for you. Acepromazine is just a sedative and does nothing for anxiety. I would be careful giving too much of that because it can lower blood pressure and could be unsafe for older dogs.
The Tramadol could be making him act goofy, although in most cases it just causes anorexia or sedation. I would keep up with the anti-inflammatory and gabapentin for sure.
Pam and Tazzie
Pam, you are awesome, thanks for answering that so quickly. Wow, who knew you could give dogs Xanax?? Always enlightening!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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