Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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So Da Bear currently eats Paul Newman's Senior dry food. What SHOULD he be eating instead? Which diets and supplements either anecdotly or through data help potential cancer dogs? ( His diet now includes Newman's wet food as well. Want to balance weight with health and like that Newman's is irganic.) Because he eats very little ( Pyrs apre like that) i could likely afford anything other than home cooked...
So you are telling us that you have been taking typo lessons from Sally?
I really don't have any other recommendations for food except to suggest the Tripawds Nutrition blog .
Kathi and the Turbotail April Angel...and the Labradork
Murphy is a five year old Lab/Chessie cross. He was hit by a car on 10/29/12 and became a Tripawd on 11/24/12. On 2/5/13, he had a total hip replacement on his remaining back leg. He has absolutely no idea that he has only three legs!
UPDATE: Murphy lived his life to the fullest, right up until an aggressive bone lesion took him across the Rainbow Bridge on April 9, 2015 and he gained his membership in the April Angels. Run free, my love. You deserve it!
Ruby, Staffy, born June 2022, became a Tripawd, November 2023, adopted January 2024.
Also Angel Tripawd Meg (aka The Megastar), who died in April 2023, aged 14, after seven glorious years on three, and Angel Staffies Elsie Pie and Bille. In the pawprints of giants...
Whole lotta giggling gping on over here!!!
You mean people actually try to correct their typos?????? >
Clare! That's a great cartoon!!!!
Here's a link that may help you get started as far as food and supplements, etc. It can be a bit overwhelming with all the recommendations! Sometimes it's best to just pick three or four supplements and one or two really good dog foods.
The Dog Advisor and The Whole Dog Journal offer rankings that are pretty helpful.
The Honest Kitchen brands offer good selections too.
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!
OMG Meg's Mum!!! We all snort laughed here! Unfortunately, in that scenario I have an Evil Empress rabbit, Ruby Roo, who would spell out Dog F U D and Cat F U D: and they would fall for it...and, if unlee mi culd typee az will a z Sally!
On the FUD side, thank you everyone! It is much like buying sneakers these day: too many choices. Will read the links and plan on spending Santa dollars on the SantaPyr. He is developing a tongue lesion so am hoping a really high quality food will help with that...have ordered Victor Hero Grain Free Dry to start mixing with Paul Newman's Organic and will move on from there.
That is a great cartoon!!
I can't remember all of Charlie's health story but one thing I've learned with my kitty Mona is not to change too many things at once because she starts to resist anything new.
Do you know what the tongue lesion is from? I know humans can get mouth sores from certain medications. Your vet may be able to help you with this.
My sister took her dog to rehab where they gave her better food advice than the vet. Here is a book that's been recommended as it talks about food and supplements: http://tripawds.....de-e-book/
Kerren and Tripawd Kitty Mona
I downloaded the book The Dog Cancer Survival Guide by Dr. Demian Dressler a few years ago when my 3rd golden got soft tissue sarcoma. He didn't have surgery or any treatments and I wanted to see what I could do to increase his survival time. There's A LOT of information in this book and chapters on nutrition, supplements etc. I couldn't really afford to put him on all the cancer fighting supplements, but I did put him on K9 Immunity , fish oil and switched him to a high protein, low carb kibble per recommendations in the book. When I adopted Fionn I used the same kibble thinking the likelihood of him getting cancer was high (boy I hate to be right) since my other 3 goldens all died of 3 different cancers. Unfortunately , even though I slowly switched him over, the high protein gave him terrible diarrhea and he gained weight. The fish oil did the same thing. He's on just a grain free fish based kibble now.
Nancy- mom to the FABULOUS Fionn. He rescued me in 2015 when he was 6.
Right front leg amputation at age 7 for osteosarcoma 10/6/16. Taken too soon 6/12/17. Read about our journey here:
http://fionnsjo.....pawds.com/
Happy PyrPaws to all! Thanks everyone.
Totally agree, Kerren and Mina ( ADORABLE!) that switching too much is, well, too much! You will be happy to know my mom has a cat who is such a finicky eater that if he rejects it once, he will never go back to it ever. Thank goodness for chewy.com!
Da Bear's tongue lesion is of an unknown origin but his onco definitely said it was not thrush because dogs don't really get that. She thought it may have been from his intubation for his MRI but I don't think it looks like an injury. It looks like a lesion. And it is in the middle near the back of his tongue so hard to think it was injured right there. Tried to make CharlieBear say " aaaaahhhhhhhhh" so I could take pictures but he is completely uncooperative on that front. His onco also said it his not his meds...he is only on Tramadol, Previcox, and Gabapentin at this point.
Nancy and Fionn, still read your blog and am delighted by the recent road trip! Funny you should say, " I hate being right". In our house, if one does not have special needs, we don't even know how to act:) Pushkin, our previous to Heffalump Pyr, had food allergies: or so they thought. We put him on fish and potatoes and he gained so much weight...so I am very cautious now with food that adds weight. I am going to mix the organic Newman's with a grain free high protein and see if that helps CharlieBear's overall condition. What does the fish oil add? And also K9 Immunity ( haven't heard of it)?
Again, thanks everyone! This is an amazing place to be and helps for those of us still struggling over the holidays ( no diagnosis yet for CharlieBear....sigh.)
I really like the Honest Kitchen dehydrated mixes although they are pretty expensive, I manage since my dogs are small. I have pugs and now a pug mix and they are notorious for being overweight. I had trouble with quad pug Tani for years as she was always hungry (pug + pheno barb) and she tended to eat whatever she found...little rocks, bugs, etc. She also had IBD so finding something for her was challenging. Once I put her on a grain free high quality food the IBD resolved but her weight was still a battle. What finally got it under control was taking her off kibble as her main food source. I also had good luck with 'Trouble Beans', that is using green beans as a filler to keep the dogs full.
K9 Immunity is a mushroom based supplement that boost the immune system, you can click on the link to read more about them. Tani also had mast cell cancer which I treated holistically including K9 Immunity Plus. I can't say for sure that is helped the cancer but it really did give her a noticeable increase in her energy level.
In our house, if one does not have special needs, we don't even know how to act:)
This made me laugh! I didn't start out getting special needs dogs but somehow...
I'm sorry you are still waiting for a diagnosis- that must be really hard.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Oh my dog I can totally see that!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
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