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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Hi all,
I am new to the Tripawds forum and this is my first time posting though i have used the site for advice after my pups amputation. Chance is a 3.5 (or so) year old boston/pug mix who came into foster care with me with a severely deformed rear left leg. It was decided to amputate and after his amputation when they xrayed the leg they found that his bones were all present and had been pulled apart when he was around 6 weeks old. He came to me at 8 months so he lived with that pain for such a long time. He was a champion through his amputation and recovery and bonded with my Bugg Patches so soon after Chance recovered we adopted him!
Fast forward to today, he has done awesome on 3 legs however recently he jumped off the bed and his front legs splayed. He was OK for about 2 weeks but last sunday he woke up lame. Non weight bearing on his front left leg (same side as his amputation). We went off to the vet, xrays were normal and were followed by a visit to an Orthopedic surgeon for further examination as you could hear a popping noise in his shoulder. After more xrays and finally a sedated MRI we had a diagnosis. He had medial shoulder instability and has completely destroyed his glenohumeral ligament. The vet wants to surgically treat him obviously and we are looking at a procedure to put Anchors in and a synthetic sutures so to speak to replace the damaged tendon. I am SO worried about this and through research this does seem to be the best solution but I am concerned about recovery as he will not be able to walk.
Has anyone been through a front leg surgery on a rear amputee? Specifically same side? we did MRI his other shoulder to be safe and that one looks great. Any advice is appreciated. We love our boy and want to do everything we can to get him out of pain and back to his normal crazy self.
Thank you ALL!!
Jessica and the brindle bunch (Chance and Patches)
Hi Jessica, Chance and Patches, welcome. Your future posts won't need approval so post away.
So very sorry about the jumping off the bed accident. We appreciate your sharing your story here. It's a very common, damaging injury to have happen unfortunately. Front leg Tripawds put such stress on their front limb already that any extra impact like jumping from furniture and cars is extra risky.
Surgeons treat injuries with surgery, it's what they're trained to do. In a situation like this, I would want a second opinion from another veterinarian in another specialty, specifically canine rehabilitation therapy, to take a look and assess the odds for a non-surgical recovery. This article about treating soft tissue injuries explains more.
To find a qualified canine rehabilitation veterinarian see:
http://www.cani.....apist.html
and
http://rehabvet.....rals.lasso
Since you've already had the diagnostics done it would be easy to transfer them to a referring vet. Here's how.
I hope this helps, stay tuned, more will chime in shortly.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thank you Jerry,
I should have included that we did consult with 3 other vets and a rehab specialist. We also contacted a company that makes shoulder braces for 4 legged dogs that have this injury to see if they have had experience with treating a tripod with just conservative therapy. All came to the same conclusion that Chance's best option is surgery. The long term prognosis based on his damage with the conservative therapy in other patients they had treated was more damage to the outside tendons and riskier surgery. The tendon does not just have a small tear, it is completely destroyed.
Also he is a rear leg amputee, he injured the front leg on the same side as his amputation.
Unfortunately you are living what we all fear- injuring one of the remaining legs. I'm sorry to hear Chance hurt himself so badly.
My first Tripawd was a rear amp pug named Maggie, she was older and a bit cautious by nature, and we were lucky that the times she did jump off of things she was OK. I now have a 14 month old pug mix rear amp named Elly. She is pretty good about using the stairs for the furniture, but what she gets a bout of pug mania she flies around and scares the crap out of me!
How long after surgery will Chance be non- weight bearing? I don't have experience with shoulder surgery in dogs, I know after knee surgery my pug Obie was putting his toes down after a few days and weight bearing in a week or so.
For both of Obie's surgeries I used the RuffWear Webmaster harness which worked great. I hooked a leash to the back loop and could support his weight that way. How big is Chance? You could probably use a front harness and something in the back like a GingerLead. I had to do that with my old pug girl Tani when she had mobility issues. It's sort of like working a puppet! With Chance having two working legs he could guide himself while you take up the weight.
i have to add that to get the RuffWear to fit my pugs and pug mix I had to modify it. Modifying the harness invalidates the warranty!
I hope that makes some sense. I have the GingerLead I used for Tani and I would be happy to send it to you if it is the right size and you want to try it. It is a boy's version. I also have Obie's modified RuffWear Harness that I could lend.
PM me if you want to discuss more.
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
Thank you Karen,
Right now the vets are saying 6-8 weeks of strict crate rest. I believe they are going to actually sling his front leg so that he cannot weight bear initially. Depending on how his recovery goes he can slowly start to weight bear. I am going to invest in one of the harnesses but I am leary to order too early as I dont know where the incision will be on his shoulder and worry about rubbing. I do have a rear wheel cart that was custom made for Chance last year that Eddies wheels for pets is going to modify to make it a full support cart which should help during feedings and potty time while he is recovering. Since he depends on that shoulder we will be very cautious with following the rules post op. I will definitely message you and keep everyone updated as we walk through this surgery and recovery.
Jessica
Good call on the harness and incision. You should talk to your surgeon and see what he/she thinks about the harness and where the incision will be. Some vets allow the harness with front amps right after surgery- with a tee shirt on to protect the incision.
A couple other things that worked for Obie after his knee surgeries- with his surgeons approval. Obie was on 6-8 weeks crate rest after each surgery.
Obie was not treated well by his original owner and as a result confining him in a crate was a problem. I was able to set up a small area with a x-pen to confine him. The other advantage was that I could set up a couple of them in different rooms of the house so I could just carry Obie to another room and put him down in his little pen.
Due to poor vision and his history a cone was also very traumatic for him. I was able to use the inflatable donut type collar combined with some pants I made for him to cover up the incision. Our surgeon did a beautiful job and there were no external sutures visible!
Even after the first 8 week Obie was not allowed to jump. So instead of x-pens around him the pens went around all the furniture! I had to put big pillows on the kitchen chairs and wedge them under the table. I closed off one room all together.
The surgeon did allow me to have Obie on my lap or next to me on the couch right after surgery as long as he was on a leash and under my control. That did a ton for his mental state- one thing that was sort of normal.
Do you have an idea of when the surgery will be? How is Chance getting around now?
Karen
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Does Karen know her stuff or what?
Have no insight, just want to welcome you and let you know we are all here for you. You jave clearly done an enormous amount of research and have checked out your options. These horrible situations are thrown our way and all we can do is make "forced choices" with no guarantees. We plow ahead doing what we can out of love, and that's always the right decision.
I LOVE looking at Chance's avatar photo! OMD!!! He is sooo cute!! More pictures please!!
Love!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie 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!
I'm just here to offer you support and hugs ((())) too because I can only imagine how hard this is for you. We'll all be your cheerleaders. It sounds like you've got the best people in place who know their stuff. Please keep us posted we're all here for you.
Linda, Ollie, Riley & Spirit Mighty Max
Thank you for all your support. Chance has also never been crated (at least not since being with me). However because we foster rescue pups we have xpens and a crate just in case. Thank you for the tips about putting the xpens around the furniture, i will have to get taller ones because Chance right now is a jumper! We have plenty of baby gates and have already put those up to block the stairs and areas with slippery floors :). I plan on leashing him when he is out so he can be with us and not run. His brother Patches and him are my alarm system and usually Patches barks and Chance runs to the window to see who is nearby so we are well prepped to keep him safe. I did go get an inflateable donut cone for him so he doesnt need the dreaded plastic cone, its worked way better for all of our fosters who have had surgery.
Chance is on pain meds now and getting around pretty well even on 2 legs, he is bearing a little weight on the front leg now and surgery is schedule for tomorrow morning to make sure we get him on the road to recovery. He is staying overnight so they can have him on IV pains meds after surgery and hopefully will come home thursday morning. After the 8 weeks of crate rest he will be on restriction for up to 6 months based on what the surgeon said. He has a higher risk of the Anchors not taking because he likely will weight bear sooner than most 4 legged pups. We do have a cart from Eddies wheels that will be modified to be a 4 wheel cart but we are waiting until after surgery so we can see what will fit his needs best and have him properly fitted so nothing will bother the incision.
Thank you all for such support, I love my tripawd boy and we will do anything for him. This is of course scary but we are prepared and have a great plan. If this surgery does not take the surgeon explained we will need to fuse his shoulder permanently which is also the same feedback from the other surgeons and the rehab specialist as well.
<3 jessica="" p="">
Hey Jessica thanks for clarifying things, now I get what happened. It's also very cool that you went through the different consults, you are a great pawrent! So, yeah, it does sound like surgery is the way to go. Ugh. It won't be easy but you can do it, and of course you've got great pug peeps like Karen here who know their stuff about the breed and can help you through the recovery!
We are thinking of you and Chance and sending our best. We're also very interested in following how things go so I hope you'll consider documenting recovery in a blog, they're so helpful for others who are going through this kind of situation with their Tripawd.
Keep us posted.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thank you Jerry and all for your replies and support!
I was thinking about starting a Blog of his recovery as it seems this likely will be a challenge others face (maybe not quite the damage Chance did). Is there a link that explains how to start it? His surgery is tomorrow so I would love to get it going and then i can take pictures and video along his recovery. I am sure it will also be therapeutic for me as we walk down this long road of recovery.
Jessica
You do have a great plan in place and contingencies.
To start a blog go Here. There is information and links there to get you started. Looking forward to seeing more pictures of your pack.
Best of luck tomorrow with the surgery and I'll be looking for an update.
Karen
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
You, and Chance, have what it takes ro get through this! And every single one of us will be cheering you on and sending you strength!!!
What a beautiful story of love and devotion
Lots of love to all!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie 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!
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