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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You really have to be careful about their front ends too, especially with such a young dog. Dogs put so much weight up there anyway & rear leg amps become experts at shifting forward the minute they twinge their backs or rear legs even a little. You can loose muscle mass in that back leg in days when they do this & spend weeks rebuilding it. I think those of us with older dogs are especially sensitive to the long term wear & tear of regular living, the added stress on a tripawd takes active management.
Even young tripawd's walks should be short. Just because they can, doesn't mean it's the best long term plan. My dog has amazing muscle mass in her rear leg, and participates in excessive rehab…underwater treadmill 3x/wk, daily Fitpad work, etc but she still throws her shoulder & upper spine out of alignment frequently & needs regular chiropractic adjustments..she has arthritis in her lower spine, but not in her upper spine or limbs. There's a pit-mix I know that was a traumatic amp as a very young dog. His activity was essentially unchecked until now, at only 8, he has severe physical limitations after multiple injuries and arthritis. Humans verbalize their discomfort, sometimes excesssively, dogs innately work to hide theirs.
It doesn''t matter how great a surgeon or general vet is…they're supposed to be good at their specialty….a good rule is to seek the advice of the most experienced practitioner for the problem at hand…..you wouldn't ask a rehab vet to perform an amputation. Veterinary rehab medicine is still a somewhat limited specialty and is sometimes overlooked
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Don't be surprised if your vet doesn't know about the long term care of a tripawd. Until I found tripawds, I was on my own for 10 years with hit or miss on what to do. My vet knew how to take off a leg but not so much on how to take care of a 3 legged dog. I even asked for any studies I could read on long term care and supposedly there are none.
And I totally agree, I never considered Comet handicapped and never treated her as a such until she was about 11 years old. Although we never went on long walks. Half a mile was her limit - otherwise we would have to carry her. So we bought a cart and that helped. She walk and then get in the cart for a while.
When she got old, she got old fast because of the wear and tear (and other unrelated maladies).
I think you guys will do great together!
Comet - 1999 to 2011
She departed us unexpectedly January 23, 2011 at the age of 12 1/2.
She was born with a deformed front leg and a tripawd all of her life.
I guess we've been very lucky here in NEPA--we have a great vet hospital with a team of professionals--not just the surgeon who did Zack's surgery, not just the internist who treated Zack with the chemo, not just the techs who treat our dogs like their own--it's a whole team approach. I find it amusing that so many of you seem to be "down" on my vets when you know nothing about who they are and what they've done (and continue to do) for our dogs. They had good suggestions for Zack's care after his amputation and treated him like a rockstar from Day One. I have absolutely no complaints about them, and, being that I'm a healthcare professional myself, I'm not an easy customer to impress in this arena.
I understand that you are all trying to offer your opinions and help, but let's refrain from just assuming that everyone's vet is an idiot and doesn't know anything about rehab or care of tripawds! As I said above, we must just be lucky here. If Zula receives the same excellent care and advice that Zack did, she will be a fortunate girl, and we will be fortunate owners.
taranwanderer said:
I find it amusing that so many of you seem to be "down" on my vets when you know nothing about who they are and what they've done (and continue to do) for our dogs. They had good suggestions for Zack's care after his amputation and treated him like a rockstar from Day One. I have absolutely no complaints about them, and, being that I'm a healthcare professional myself, I'm not an easy customer to impress in this arena.
Oh my gosh I'm sorry if all of us gave that impression, really. It's just that generally most people don't come across vets with PT experience, especially for Tripawds. We've seen some bad situations based on a general lack of information that pawrents are given after surgery and it's hard not to be biased sometimes. The vets who do know about Tripawd care, like yours and our resident vet here, Tazziedog, are few and far between. You are very lucky indeed!
I apologize if we seemed like we were being negative about your vet clinic, that wasn't our intention, promise.
With your being a PT person yourself I'm sure you already know a lot more than we do!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
OH MY GOSH! No, we don't mean to sound down on your vet! We are just generalizing from experience! I'm glad your vet and staff seems versed in the long term care of a 3-legged dog! That's great!
We are just middle-aged jaded folks with nothing better to do than to complain! We mean it lovingly though! 
Comet - 1999 to 2011
She departed us unexpectedly January 23, 2011 at the age of 12 1/2.
She was born with a deformed front leg and a tripawd all of her life.
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