Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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I just got Xena home. I laid down with her on her bed and we both fell asleep
. When I got up she just laid her head back down and is resting. She drank a lot of water when we got here but no appetite yet. The vet said she probably wouldn't want to eat for a while. I forgot to ask the vet but I was wondering if I was supposed to have her on some sort of antibiotic or pain meds for a while.
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Didn't your vet prescribe any medication and provide discharge instructions?!?!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
All he said was to remove the bandages in 2 days. I just called him and they said they do have some meds for her. I guess in the excitement of things, they forgot. My hubby is going back to pick them up now.
Most dogs get pain medication and antibiotics for 7-10 days. Let us know what they prescribed for Xena and keep us updated on her progress.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
She's got Ciprofloxacin and Tramadol, and she's doing fine. I made her some roasted chicken and she gobbled it down. Then she went outside with me and did all her business. I guess carrying around that splint for the last 3 months readied her for this amputation as she didn't hardly need my help at all. I received my harness today but at this rate we won't need it by the time her stitches and staples are out
The only downside when Chloe was on Tramadol is that it made her dizzy (when she stood up, she would sway from side to side like a drunk person) and it made her drool more (now she is nicknamed Drooly Girl even though she is no longer on them).
I slowly weaned her off the Tramadol and had her on the less intense Rimadyl because it didn't have those side effects on her. I know that the meds react diff with each dog, but just wanted to let you know that this was my experience with Tramadol...
Glad to hear Xena is doing well!! Lets hope it continues that way!!
-Chloe's mom
PS Chloe was on antibiotics for 2 weeks called Simplef, they too reacted with her pain meds and made her eat less. I ended up feeding her the pain meds in the morning and antibiotics at night so they had the least chance of interacting. You will find what woks for Xena in no time 🙂
Chloe became a rear amp tripawd on 7-29-10. Another tumor was removed on front leg 2-20-14. Found 3rd tumor on neck 2-2015, but she's still kicking cancer's butt at age 14. Chloe's blog
Ruthie didn't have a problem with the Tramadol, but after 1 week on the Cipro, she started throwing everything up. But since she'd been on it for a week and was healing nicely, they took her off the Cipro and was fine.
I'm glad Xena is eatting and pooping...all good news!
Pat, Angel Ruthie & Tess
Her bandage comes off tomorrow, nearly off tonight. My question is, will her licking the staples and stitches hurt the healing? I know she is going to do this. I don't have a plastic collar and hope I don't have to use one.
Since Xena had a front leg amputation, you can put a T shirt on her! That will help prevent any licking or scratching and would be in lieu of the icky cone of shame
. Chloe had a back leg amputation, so we didn't have a choice 
I was with her all day, so I could watch her (and she didn't lick if I was with her), but at night she had to wear it.
Hope Xena continues to heal well!
-Chloe's mom
Chloe became a rear amp tripawd on 7-29-10. Another tumor was removed on front leg 2-20-14. Found 3rd tumor on neck 2-2015, but she's still kicking cancer's butt at age 14. Chloe's blog
tell me how to make her a t-shirt, do I just put one of mine on her? I guess I would need to sew up one arm and make the body part a little more snug. (dang I'm glad I found you guys!) It's after one in the morning here and I need to go to bed, last night I slept with Xena on her mattress on the floor. This huge dog that loves to use me as a pillow and the twin mattress made a sore specimen out of me today, so I think I'll go snuggle with hubby instead. 😉
Here is a recent forum post about alternatives to the cone of shame . I think you can just have Xena wear a shirt without any jerry rigging (no pun intended, well maybe…)
Click here for other forum (only 6-7 posts)
Here is a recent picture of Tripawd Morgan with her Tee on! It is on her blog, so scroll for a bit!
-Chloe's mom
Chloe became a rear amp tripawd on 7-29-10. Another tumor was removed on front leg 2-20-14. Found 3rd tumor on neck 2-2015, but she's still kicking cancer's butt at age 14. Chloe's blog
Well I put a tee shirt on her after removing the bandages, took her out to go potty, then back in. Left her alone while I went out to feed the camels and when I got back in she had scratched out an inch of staples right through the tee shirt. She acted as if the whole thing was itching like crazy so I had no choice but to re-bandage it. So I guess I will be taking her back to the vet tomorrow for them to put some back in.
You can also get a soft "no bite" collar. I just had the new kid on the block neutered, but one of the testicles hadn't dropped so it was full blown abdominal surgery and he wants at that incision BAD. I put the cone of shame on at night (well one night...we just started this 10 day process)...but I found a blow up collar at a pet store that you blow up by mouth like the old style air mattresses, it attaches to his flat collar and SEEMS to be keeping him from the incision ... but wouldn't trust it at night. Point being (finally) that it would probably work well in this situation.
Magic's amp incision was wrapped so that was really convenient for keeping that incision away from busy teeth. It also allowed us to use the harness before the staples came out.
Guess Xena gets no breaks and has to wear the cone! When I was with Chloe, she was fine about not licking (so no cone), but whenever I left, I put the cone on. I had to upgrade to a larger cone because the smaller one she could still reach and figured out how to get out. At night, the cone was always on just in case.
-Chloe's mom
Chloe became a rear amp tripawd on 7-29-10. Another tumor was removed on front leg 2-20-14. Found 3rd tumor on neck 2-2015, but she's still kicking cancer's butt at age 14. Chloe's blog
It's not the licking she doing it's the scratching the wound with her BACK leg! That's how she ripped the staples out I even had a tee shirt on her at the time. So I took her back to the vet this morning and he re-stapled the part she scratched out. He said we would just leave it bandaged for the next two weeks. I will just re-bandage every day to keep a check on it.
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