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! My name is Silje, and I'm from Norway. This is the first time I've postet here, and I'm not the best in English, but I have to try. Hope I can make my self understood:-) One year ago I adopted a dog from a shelter in Cyprus. Here name is Whitney, and she is truly the love of my life. She was about 4 years old and had lived on the shelter for two years with a damaged front leg before I found her. When I finally got here home to Norway we went right to the vet to get her leg checked out. Sadly there was nothing to do other then amputate. Everything went well, and she had no problem adopting to her new life as a tripod. But from the day I got here home from Cyprus and took her out for a walk so she could do her business it was clear that she struggled to pass stool. It could take hours with walking on the worst days before anything happened. After doing some x-rays we found out that she has a deformed hip that makes it hard for her to pass stool. The vet thinks that she has been hit by a car since it's on the same side as her amputated leg. She has no difficulty sitting down when she's doing her business, the thing is that she needs to go for long walks in order to poop. She's on Duphalac to make it easier to pass trough, but she still needs long walks. Sometimes we go for several hours a day just so she doesn't get constipatet. I'm so afraid of how all these long walks will impact on her body, after reading that it's not good for her. So I really don't know what to do. We live in northern Norway and don't have any rehabilitation options for dogs and it's still very uncommon to amputate on dogs here, so I don't feel I get the best help from the vet on what to do. They only say she can live as normal. We don't go on mountain hikes, but she loves to run without a leach in the woods. She seems happy, and I haven't seen any signs of pain after our walks, but I get scared I'm missing the signs? She eats, sleeps and play, and the vet says she has good muscles in her remaining three legs. I've downloaded the e-books, and started reading, but so fare I feel I've done all the wrong things. I hope someone here can help me with some tips on what to do to make her life as best as possible. She is my everything, and I really want to have her in my life as long as possible. Thank you for reading.
Hello Silje and Whitney, welcome! Your English is perfect, there is no need to worry, we understand you perfectly 🙂
I see you're online. I"m in the Tripawds Chat room right now so stop by if you'd like. I will post here again in just a second with some feedback.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
First of all, you are so fortunate to have found Whitney, and she is fortunate to have found you. I can tell you make a GREAT team. You are doing everything right, please don't feel otherwise OK? Just by being here you are doing so much good for her. We are not vets but we can guide you toward making her life as high quality as possible.
I had to look up Duphalac to see what it is and I see it's a laxative. That's a good start, is it helping? Are her stools soft when they do come out? Don't be shy about poop, we talk about it here all the time! 
If the stools are still hard, you may want to add more fiber and moisture to her food. Steamed pumpkin pulp, steamed squash, olive oil and bran flakes are all very helpful to keep things moving along.
Regarding the long walks...you are correct. Long walks like that may eventually catch up with her. There are definitely other things you can do to get her bowels consistently moving. Exercises and games that test balance and core muscle (abdominal strength) are all things that are even more effective than long walks. The exercises we mention in our Tripawds Gear blog and our e-books are good places to start and there is so much you can do on your own. As long as you go slow and safely, you will be helping her tremendously.
If you are concerned that you are missing her pain signals , now is the time to get educated and know what to look for. Here are some places where you can start:
Pain Signs in Cats and Dogs: Learn the Symptoms
Vet Expert Mike Petty Shares Tripawd Pain Management Tips
Amputation Pain, Rehab Care Tips
Learn Rehab and Fitness Tips for Tripawd Cats and Dogs, Part 1
I know this seems like a lot of information to take on all at once. Don't worry. We aren't going anywhere. Take it slow and let us know what kinds of questions you have. We are happy to help.
Thank you so much for joining! We don't often meet people from Norway here, so we are extra happy have you as part of the community!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thank you so so much it means a lot:) I only want the best for my girl. I think I got the name wrong, it's called Lactulose and it's supposed to relieve constipation by drawing water into the bowel to make poo softer. It helps, but for some reason it's different from day to day although I'm giving her the same dose every day. Some days it will be very soft and everything goes smooth, other days it's more hard and will take longer for her to poop. I also think she thinks it's uncomfortable, and try to hold it as long as possible because very often the poop comes out laying double. I will absolutely try some of your tips about giving her more moisture in her food. She was a bit overweight when I got her, so I've been giving her Hills metabolic/joint care, and she now weighs 14,5 kilos which is good. The vet said we could give her only Hills joint care from now on, and that it maybe will make her poop less.
I've started to read a little bit about the exercise you mention, and I will definitely try this when I get home from holiday. Since I got her when she already had the bad leg (the vet said she has had to live with a lot of pain because of it, but didn't show any obvious signs of it) and amputated it only a week or so after she came to Norway (one year ago), I think it's hard to see if she's showing any signs because she is still running around wagging her tail playing and eating as if nothing's bothering her. I read the link you postet about signs of pain, and the only thing I've seen a couple of times is that she has sat down on our long walks, and that I think is because of stretching it to fare, but because of her problem it's been so hard to try and limit her walks. But I hope with the exercises it will get better.
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