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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I adopted my baby, Eileen, three weeks ago. About a week and a half before I adopted her she had her front right leg amputated. The first week I had her home she was quiet and we found out she had pneumonia. After some trips to the vet and meds, she was feeling better. A few days ago she was running and fell hard on the sidewalk. She hopped right up and continued running. When we got back home she started dragging her back left leg when she walked. It's been 4 days and she is still favoring her leg. She refuses to walk for more than 2 minutes but has no problem running around, jumping, hopping on/off the bed, etc. She has been fine with me touching her paw and leg. We are scheduled to go to the vet in a few days for some booster shots. But until then, does anyone have any advice on what this might be or how I can help her. I've been trying to keep her calm and crated but she goes crazy (destructive) if she doesn't run around.
Hi and welcome! Your future posts won't need approval so post away. Thanks for adopting Eileen! It sounds like she's a pretty young dog?
Talk to your vet about her injury, she may be healing from the spill she took and needs more time. When a dog doesn't want to walk they're not being stubborn, they're giving us pain signals . She may have pulled a muscle that affects her ability to walk and endure longer distances for walking, but not sprinting or jumping. Keep her from doing anything crazy until you talk to the vet and try not to let her jump off furniture or from high places. I know it's hard to keep young dogs calm and entertained, but you can do that with other ways of exercising her. interactive brain games are the best to tire out any dog! See:
https://gear.tr.....teractive/
The thing about young amputee dogs and cats is that if they're less than a year old, they lost a leg before their motor skills got developed enough to teach them proper balance and proprioception (awareness of one's body in space). Over time, she will fall into bad habits unless you work with a canine rehabilitation therapist to teach her these things. Most general practice vets are not schooled in this relatively new area of care, so it would be super beneficial if you can get her to a therapist. They can treat her pain if that's what she is experiencing and you'll be able to learn what is good, and not good, activity for her. Being a front leg amputee, she will be putting exceptional stress on that remaining front leg so it's up to you to moderate her activity level and make sure she doesn't continuously injure herself. Please see our article:
Ten Things to Know About Adopting a Tripawd (Part 1)
Be sure to check out our e-book, Loving Life On Three Legs , which has lots of details about raising a Tripawd.
Also, if you get her to see a canine rehabilitation therapist, the Tripawds Foundation may pay for your first visit so please take advantage of the program OK?
Keep us posted on how she's doing and stay tuned for feedback from the community!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thanks, Jerry. Eileen is 1.5 years old. She loves playing with food puzzles and working for treats. We have been working on our crate training. I don't want her to see the crate as a bad place or a punishment but she constantly jumps on/off the couch and gets major zoomies. Is crating her to limit activity going to counteract the crate training we've been doing.
That's awesome! You're off to a great start with the puzzles and food workouts. Those zoomies can be so hard to tame!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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