Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Good afternoon all- question for you We are 5 weeks post hind limb amp for our 7 year old Bernese- he is walking better and walks get a little longer each week (about 15 min of walking max), and he can climb up and down two to three steps (ie into or out of home)
Would I be too optimistic to think he may someday be able to climb the 15 steps to the second story of our house ? He hasn't been upstairs since surgery now and I know he misses it.(baby gate up to prevent injury). Does your hind limb large dog amp do stairs?
Cheers
Martin
Hi and welcome! I wanted to get your post approved so others can see it, but I'm on my phone now so I'll comment when I'm on my laptop. Thanks for your patience!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hi Martin! Thanks for joining us. Why did your pup lose a leg?
Stairs shouldn't be a big problem now, 5 weeks out is a good amount of time. What are your stairs like? Carpeted? Either way, it's ideal if he's wearing a Webmaster harness and you can be there to guide them up and down. For rear-leggers, going up is more difficult than going down. The first couple of times you want to make sure he only does it while you're there, so I'd leave the baby gate up until you're sure he's handling them well.
Here's how we helped our Jerry with stairs (we had 18 steps just to go in and out of our house!).
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
My Otis, a 100 pound front leg amp, started doing the stairs to our second floor in month 3. I removed the baby gate and he just looked for a couple of days and then suddenly, he was up. I suggest you remove the baby gate and see what he does. The first few times going down were scary (for me), but Otis soon could go up and down easily. I did leave the baby gate up when I was at work - I didn't want him to hurt himself or overdo it while I was away. Good traction and lighting on your stairs and at the top and foot of the stairs is really important. And a lot of dogs were doing stairs much sooner, in some cases assisted by their human and a harness. If you don't already have one, we are big fans of the Ruffwear Webmaster Plus harness which you can find in the gear blog.
Otis - 106 pound lab/Dane mix, lost his right front leg to osteosarcoma on Febuary 9, 2016. Four rounds of carboplatin completed in April, 2016. Lung mets August 25, 2016. Said goodbye too soon on September 4, 2016. Lost his adopted sister, Tess, suddenly on October 9, 2016. likely due to hemangiosarcoma.
Wherever they are, they are together.
Hi and welcome.
I've had two small rear amp Tripawds. Tripug Maggie lost her left rear leg to mast cell cancer. Mag was only about 12" at the shoulder and she never did more than about 3 or 4 steps. It was partly her size and age (7.5 at the time of her amp) and partly that she was stubborn and probably wiped out once and refused to try again.
Now I have a pug mix rear amp who is a little smaller than Maggie. Elly lost a rear leg after being hit by a car at 7 months old. I adopted her at 10 months old, about 2.5 months after her surgery. She has flown up and down the stairs since she came home. I live in a split level house so stairs are a constant. One flight is carpeted, the other is tile and we put down carpet runners.
I would think a big dog would do OK on stairs if they aren't too steep and have good traction . I would start slow and use a harness and lots of treats to build confidence.
What is your boy's name? Why the amp?
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
Our Murphy was also a rear amp, but he had additional problems (a total hip replacement on his remaining rear leg two months after the amp), so things were naturally a lot slower than usual. We finally got him to use the stairs using a method that Sally called the Granny Bump.
The video is pretty poor quality due to the fact that the original disappeared into the Ethernet. I had posted it on Facebook, so made a video of that posting using my iPad.
Kathi and the Turbotail April Angel...and the Labradork
Murphy is a five year old Lab/Chessie cross. He was hit by a car on 10/29/12 and became a Tripawd on 11/24/12. On 2/5/13, he had a total hip replacement on his remaining back leg. He has absolutely no idea that he has only three legs!
UPDATE: Murphy lived his life to the fullest, right up until an aggressive bone lesion took him across the Rainbow Bridge on April 9, 2015 and he gained his membership in the April Angels. Run free, my love. You deserve it!
Hi and welcome! My boy Novak(rear amputee) was climbing stair at day 2, but of course, didn't let do them. At 2 week post op he was going outside on the 6 steps alone. I put a baby gate to downstairs and then by 1 month post op I let him go down and up(about 10 steps) at first with the help of the harness, but I could see he was ok alone. He follow me everywhere and I go down and up a lot. He manage ok, but when he's really tired after a walk, his rear leg is giving up and then I need to assist with his harness. Going down is not a problem, but going up is more difficult for rear tripawds. Each dog is different and my dog is a very fit 5 years old that weight only 47 pounds and he's a daredevil so...nothing is stopping him. Good luck!
Jumping in here to say that in two days Tai will be a month post op. Twice now she has done the stairs to the bedroom (about 14 steps) - she dislikes being carried. She can easily do the two porch steps outside going up. She comes to work twice a week with me and hasn't done all of those steps (office on third floor) yet. She does the first landing and stops so I carry her.
As a terrier she is pretty independent and so I'm worried a bit about being overprotective. I don't think I will ever let her go down the steps from the bedroom - they seem fairly steep to me. The house is carpeted so it's not a slip issue, but with her age (14) and arthritis I'm concerned about a fall. She hasn't shown any wish to jump on the couch like she used to.
Am I being paranoid? I just don't want to take a chance that she will overdo it by trying to go downstairs. She can jump over very small obstacles and is doing well with her new gait.
Work schedule has been hell but I am hoping to get her to PT in the next couple of weeks to get ideas about at home strengthening.
Anyway...she is used to her car seat and we've gotten out to her favorite park. She is awesome 
That Tai is so darn cute!!
Just to add another "stair climbing story", my Happy Hannah (rear legger) was a somewhat "fluffy" 125 lb Bull Mastiff. She never was able to master climbing up my stairs to my befroom. Now, keep in mind my stairs are steep and somewhat narrow (very old home).
She did try a couple of times and got pretty fearful and just sort of froze, so I think her confidence was gone after that. I basically ended up putting a mattress on tne floor downstairs and slept with her that way.
But, as you can see from all kf the posts, most dogs handle stairs just fi e.....even if it took a while like Murphy, who had to have some "Granny Bump" help! 🙂
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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