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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He is so cute in his shirts. I especially like his "model shot" but then I'm sure he'd be adorable wearing any style or colour.
Happy healing Joey!
Kerren and Tripawd Kitty Mona
CUTENESS ALERT!!!! CUTENESS OVERLOAD GOING ON IN JOY'S HOUSE!!! 🙂 OMD!! HE IS SO ADORABLE!!!! The one with his tummy showing makes me wa t to smooch that lreciojs tummy! Everything about him is so smoochable!!! So glad you got these posted! Keep em comiw! We love cuteness around here!!! 🙂
Hugs.
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!
Joey! You are so bloomin’ handsome in your shirts! And oh so cute in your model shot!
keep up the good work Mum, you’re doing a fantastic job of looking after your boy!
Keep those great reports coming... we love to see all of the successes around here!
Rots of Ruvin’ from Stewie and his super pack!
Remember...“live in the moment!“ 
Those pictures are wonderful! I am so glad he turned that corner and is now recovering comfortably! And his outfits...OMD ADORABLE! Looking forward to seeing more. He looks like a little angel there asleep.
Hugs,
Jackie and Huck
Hugs,
Jackie, Bo, Andy, Oscar, Phoebe, and the coolest feral tripawd kitty Huckleberry 
Hi guys,
Joey has been doing great over the past couple of days. Everyday it seems like more of the old Joey is coming back and some parts of the new Joey I never knew is coming back. It is so exciting to see what his personality is like when he is not in pain since I have not seen it (I adopted him a broken leg unknowingly). He is down to just an anti-inflammatory medication wise and he is wanting to play and run around again. He got the ruffwear recommended harness for Christmas and I am excited to start trying walks with him again soon. He just needs the very top of his incision to heal all the way and then he can wear the harness.
Yesterday, I broke out the treats to see if he remembered any of his training. To my surprise he remembered EVERYTHING we had worked on before surgery. I am so proud of him and never imagined him to have these results.
This is us on Christmas when I finally got him to take a cute picture
This is a video of him showing off the fact the he both remembers "paw" and still performs it as a tripawd
He's a smart one! I like that his personality is shining through. I remember one person who had their cat's leg amputated said that he came home with a new personality.
Great recovery, you both look very happy.
Kerren and Tripawd Kitty Mona
GOOD BOY JOEU!!! 🙂 🙂 GOOD BOY JOEY!!! 🙂 🙂 Jist more proof Joey can do anythw he did before....just even cuter!! 🙂
Such a sweet picture! He really is ADORABLE!! I love the coloring on his mug!
So glad he's getting along well! 🙂 Seeing Joey beinw Joey is why we do what we do around here! 🙂
Hugs
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!
So glad that he is doing so well!! Such a handsome and smart boy 
Thank you for sharing, just beautiful!
Jackie
Hugs,
Jackie, Bo, Andy, Oscar, Phoebe, and the coolest feral tripawd kitty Huckleberry
Hoppy Christmas Joey and family! You are doing sooo well Joey! And you got a new harness for Christmas! You are one lucky fella!
keep up the excellent job of taking care of your boy!
Rots Of Ruv fromStewie and his Pack.
Hi Guys!
Joey was 4 weeks post-op on Thursday! He is doing fantastic! His incision is now completely healed and he has been off all medication since day 20. His new harness fits great and we have started going on short walks when it's not below zero temperatures here. He is very happy to be out walking and we are starting to relearn leash manners. Now that he is out and about more often, I have a few questions:
1. Is there a good way of getting Joey used to booties? These extremely cold temperatures and snow seem to be irritating his paws some even when he is outside for just a few minutes. I think it would help for him to wear booties to protect his paws from the cold, snow, and salt but I don't think he will be a big fan of him.
2. Any advice on dealing with peoples looks and questions? We are for sure getting more attention when out and about and the occasional question about what happened to his leg. He lost the leg because of a broken elbow but I have no idea how he broke the elbow since it happened before I owned him. If I explain this, the next question is usually how did that cause amputation/couldn't they just fix it. Obviously, I never would have amputated if I had thought a repair would be successful (the break was so old it had a very slim chance of success) so I am a little sensitive to these questions. I know people are curious and making conversation but it's not something I always want to talk about. I would appreciate any suggestions about what to say instead or whatever.
Thanks!
Joey and Sarah
Hi Sarah,
I'm so glad Joey is doing well. I only tried booties once in one of my pups, and almost peed myself laughing at the reaction, sorry, it was a total disaster. I cannot help you there.
As far as the amp goes... Huck didn't have cancer. He had something horrible happen to him. I do not know what it was, only that he was a thriving healthy feral cat and when he came back after he disappeared for a month he had come close to death. His femur had a clean break and the only reasonable option beyond euthanasia was amputation. We couldn't just kill him because of that break. My mother of all people cried on the phone over us having to amputate, but you know what? He's doing awesome! There's your choice... euthanasia or a chance at life. You chose life, be proud of it! You gave him his life back, if anybody has the nerve to ask or judge, there it is. You loved him enough to give him a chance at life without dragging a dead leg. It's pretty simple, and he was worth it. You're an awesome pawrent, don't let anybody tell you different.
Hugs,
Jackie and Huckleberry ❤️❤️
Hugs,
Jackie, Bo, Andy, Oscar, Phoebe, and the coolest feral tripawd kitty Huckleberry
Hi Sarah,
It's great to hear Joey is doing so well!
On the booties- of my 3 pugs only one would tolerate booties and that was when she was 13 years old! When Maggie turned 1 year old (long before her amp) I tried putting booties on her. As Jackie said it was pretty much a laugh fest! I could never get more than one bootie on her at one time, she would flip on her back and flail until she got them off.
Have you tried paw wax? I used Mushers Secret on Maggie's paws which helped keep them supple and it made her slip less. I live near San Francisco so ice and snow is not on our radar.
If you do want to try booties you might start with PAWZ. They are reusable but also disposable booties that are not too expensive so if you can't get Joey to wear them you haven't invested too much.
On people asking what happened- I adopted my current pup Elly as a Tripawd. People do ask what happened and I say she was hit by a car and her leg was broken beyond repair. That seems to head off the follow up questions about how come the leg couldn't be saved. Maybe you can say something like you adopted him with the injury and by that time the leg could not be repaired and was causing constant pain. A lot of time people's first reaction when seeing a Tripawd is 'awwwww, poor thing'. I like to point out how happy Elly looks and how well she gets along. I've told people that '3 is all she needs' and that I can't keep up with her.
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
Hi Sarah and Joey
YAY FOR JOEY CELEBRATING HIS ONE MONTH AMPUBERSARY!!! YAY FOR YOUR INCISION BEING COMPLETELY HEALED! Yay for your new harness and going on short walks!!! It all sounds great!
I’m afraid to say that there aren’t many pups who enjoy the booties on their feet. It usually ends up being pretty amusing for us, not so for our pups!
I don’t mind answering people’s questions about Stewie. Like Karen said, people’s first reaction is usually sympathy, but I think that people need more education about tripawds. So many times dogs and cats are not given the chance to live in 3... most people don’t realize how well they can do on 3! Stewie amazes me everyday! As he gets stronger, he gets more confident and pulls off moves that surprise us all! I think you’ll find that we are all very proud to tell people what we did for our dogs and not what we did to them!
Good Jon Joey!
Petra, Stewie and his Pack.
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