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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Poor little guy. Hope he starts to feel a lot better soon! Definitely best to bring him home if they don't have 24 hour care!
Hope you all get some good rest!
Jackie, Angel Abby's mom
Abby: Aug 1, 2009 – Jan 10, 2012. Our beautiful rescue pup lived LARGE with osteosarcoma for 15 months – half her way-too-short life. I think our "halflistic" approach (mixing traditional meds + supplements) helped her thrive. (PM me for details. I'm happy to help.) She had lung mets for over a year. They took her from us in the end, but they cannot take her spirit! She will live forever in our hearts. She loved the beach and giving kisses and going to In-N-Out for a Flying Dutchman. Tripawds blog, and a more detailed blog here. Please also check out my novel, What the Dog Ate. Now also in paperback! Purchase it at Amazon via Tripawds and help support Tripawds!
I have 8 dogs, most recent is my tripawd Cheeto, a mix of some kind of bulldog (probably American) and hound. Other 7 are pomeranian, shitzu, combinations of those two, and a lhasa poo and last but not least tater tot who is jack russell/scottie mix. Tater and GG were inseperable for 3 years (tater was abandoned at age 3, never socialized). For some reason around the time they turned 6 they started fighting. Before I learned to grab them by their hind legs to break them up, I had 3 er visits. Now they are seperated most of the time, only together under very close supervision and with no toys, food to fight over. Meanwhile Cheeto my big bad bulldog is the most submissive in the house. Tater also growls and snaps at humans and I have considered having her euthanized. I am lucky enough to have a huge house where I can put her away when I need to. I am very close to you (in Camilla) and would like to help if you do any events. I am starting a position as trainer at ALbany Petsense next week so could help get the word out there!
Hey Cheetosmommy, I actually read your introduction where you shared Cheetos story. I figured you lived close when you said you found Cheeto on hwy 19 in south ga. The only event I really have planned is to have a yard sale. My vet's tech had a place for me to have it on Whispering Pines but when I ask about it the tech puts me off and I want to make sure to advertise so I guess I am just going to have it at my house. I live on 8th ave between Palmyra and Slappey so its not too bad of a location either. You are welcome to come out and help and spread the word about your training as well.
Oooooh a Tripawds pawty in the making!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hello Krista,
That's pretty much what I thought you have to do for Dexter is use the puppy pads under him. I went through a time when I had to use a truckload of those for two reasons at the same time. When Valentina was recovering from her amputation she had complications and she had severe drainage from her incision for 5 weeks. Some days it was 2-3 cups worth of fluid! I had to always keep lots of those pads under her to soak it up and I had to change them and her bedding all day long. It also smelled bad because she got an infection too. Along with this she was somewhat incontinent while healing and she peed her bed quite often and pooped on it sometimes too. After she was healed the pooping and peeing on her bed stopped until she developed the spinal problem that left her unable to walk. I know how you feel in that area. It was so exhausting to keep her bed clean. And she was so big sometimes it was hard to get her to move to change the bedding. Luckily we have a washer just for the purpose of washing the Dogs bedding in our garage. Before our Chihuahua passed away we had 3 Dogs and I am always washing their bedding but so much Dog hair gets in the washer and dryer. So we put the stackable one in the garage and got new ones for the people for the house. It has been great to have it that way. The one in the garage is getting old though. Hope it doesnt break down anytime soon. Anyway, I know that it is really hard work having to do what you are doing and I know that Dexter can feel your love for him. I hope that his bed sores will get better soon. I know that must be super frustrating to have to deal with that on top of everything else.
Wow that is alot of fluid. Luckily Dexter's surgery site looks amazingly well. It's very clean and normal in color. Keeping his bedding clean has been a task. When he pees on those pads it speads so fast that he ends up covered in pee. So I am constantly having to bathe him with a wet rag along with changing his pads alot. Right now he doesn't have the greatest control over going to the bathroom so he pees a little here and there unless we press on his bladder to help him keep the stream going. It seems to be a little better now that he is more relaxed. Which I haven't given that update yet...
I took him to the vet before work on Monday night. She sedated him and shaved his bedsores and cleaned them really well. She took some x-rays to make sure everything was going well and make sure there was no fluid around his surgery site (he has a huge hump - which he will always have now) so it was hard to tell if there was fluid or if it was just the hump. Everything looked good there, no fluid. So we discussed how stressed out he has been and that he wasn't sleeping much at all and neither were we. He was just constantly tense. So she gave me some medicine for that and things have been wonderful ever since. He has been getting great sleep at night which is increased his appetite and playfulness during the day. He was chewing on bones and playing with his squeaky toy yesterday. She gave us a paste that we put on his bed sores twice a day and they already look a bit better. We have been keeping him off them as well. He moves and stretches his back legs but right now when we try to stand him up he pulls his back legs in and won't put them down on the ground to try and stand. Also his front leg he crosses way over to the other side and won't try to stand on the front leg either. I think he has some pain in the front leg from the bed sore though, so I am hoping as that gets healed he will feel more comfortable putting weight on the front leg. She did take x-ray's of his front leg to make sure nothing else was going on for why he won't use it and everything with the front leg looks fine. So it must just be the pain from the bedsore that covers his whole elbow.
I also spoke with the vet about getting Dexter into a pool or hot tub to help with rehab and she said it was fine to start that now, so this weekend we are going to go to my moms who has a pool and a hot tub and try to get him swimming. I am a little fearful of how he will react. He has never been in water before. (other than a bath) I would really like to get a life vest but with his incision and hump on his back I don't think it would be comfortable for him. So we are just going to hold him up in the water. I am hoping that getting his feet moving in the water will give him confidence to try and walk outside the water. Well I have rambled enough for now. Pictures and videos to come soon.
what about one of those baby bathing suits with the floating things in them? Just a thought. Email me at jgoree@camillaga.net so we can chat. Would love to come meet Dexter and when he is feeling better bring my monster to meet him!
dextersjourney said
So we are just going to hold him up in the water. I am hoping that getting his feet moving in the water will give him confidence to try and walk outside the water
Try the old canvas shopping bag sling trick, where you cut the sides open and use the handles to support him; that should help him gain some confidence.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Happy to hear the update on Dexter! Sounds like he is doing pretty good. Stretching and moving his back legs sounds good. He is probably a little fearful of standing I would suspect. Hopefully after a little more healing and going in the pool and things like that he will build some strength, endurance and confidence. Also I am glad that his bed sores are getting better. So many things for sweet little Dexter to deal with. Bless his heart. That is wonderful that he is feeling up to playing with his squeaky toy and chewing his bone too. Looking forward to more pictures of Dexter! Praying for Dexter to heal and to be able to walk again.
I'm so glad you posted an update! I don't know if you realize how many times a day people think about your Dexter, but I can tell you that I alone think of him a lot.
The movement sounds like a step in the right direction! Was he moving them while laying down right before the surgery?
His spirit is amazing. Keep up the good work!!
Leslie
Great to hear he is improving and good luck with the swimming hope it goes well!!!
keep them updates coming we are all hopeing for the best for the little guy.
Krista, I've been on vacation for the last week so have had some difficulty keeping up but, like Leslie, I think about Dexter a lot. I have a flaky internet connection where I am (Mexico) and pick what I use it for. I picked Dexter! I surely do hope he realizes that he has a new chance now to get up and moving, and I hope he makes the leap of faith and stands for you. I really believe that once he stands he will be on his way.
Good luck with the swimming. He may not like it since he has never gone swimming before, but don't give up if he doesn't. Lots of kids don't care for big water at first and later on end up living in the ocean. I imagine it could be very overwhelming for Dexter at first. Of course I'm hoping the opposite is true and you find out he's really a fish.
Shari
From abandoned puppy to Tripawd Warrior Dude, Dakota became one of the 2011 February Furballs due to STS. Our incredibly sweet friend lived with grace and dignity till he impulsively raced over the Bridge on 12-15-12.
Dakota's thoughtful and erudite blog is at http://shari.tr.....pawds.com/
So swimming was fine, but he still didn't move his back legs. He flapped his front leg around some but we had to hold him up so he felt safe from going under. I think he was pretty scared of it. We stayed in there for awhile though and he didn't even attempt to move his back legs 🙁 It has only been a week and a half though, so all hope isn't lost yet. I am however preparing myself for him to not improve at all. I really don't want to have to give up on him, but my vet feels like if there is no improvement after a month that we need to start thinking about when we are going to do "it". So I just pray he will show some sort of improvement.
Leslie - right before the surgery he would stand and take steps. His legs were bowing out and he couldn't move much but he could move. It was to be expected that he wouldn't be able to walk or move alot back there after the surgery though as there is inflammation with it being "tampered" with. I have him on Synovi G3 and Yucca Intensive (the synoviG3 for his joints and the Yucca Intensive is for inflammation) I want to say I found those mentioned on this website somewhere but I can't remember. So hopefully we will see improvement soon. My vet said the spinal cord only heals itself about 1mm per month. So we needed to give it at least a month before we give up on him. He still had a good time at my moms and now with no meds he is sleeping soundly so even though he didn't progress with movement he did have a good time and it was worth it to take him out there. Probably going to try again this coming up weekend.
Oh sweet little Dex. Swimming makes me tired too buddy! Hope you start to feel better really soon.
It's only been a week, so hopefully he is healing up and will start to move his back legs soon!!!
We're pulling for you, little guy!
Abby: Aug 1, 2009 – Jan 10, 2012. Our beautiful rescue pup lived LARGE with osteosarcoma for 15 months – half her way-too-short life. I think our "halflistic" approach (mixing traditional meds + supplements) helped her thrive. (PM me for details. I'm happy to help.) She had lung mets for over a year. They took her from us in the end, but they cannot take her spirit! She will live forever in our hearts. She loved the beach and giving kisses and going to In-N-Out for a Flying Dutchman. Tripawds blog, and a more detailed blog here. Please also check out my novel, What the Dog Ate. Now also in paperback! Purchase it at Amazon via Tripawds and help support Tripawds!
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