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.
Join The Tripawds Community
Learn how to help three legged dogs and cats in the forums below. Browse and search as a guest or register for free and get full member benefits:
Instant post approval.
Private messages to members.
Subscribe to favorite topics.
Live Chat and much more!
Register
Log In
Members
Add Topic
Offline
We are 3 weeks and 3 days out of amputation. Our girl, Darli, has been doing amazingly well. Two nights ago, she was eating, standing, walking, being normal, and when my daughter asked her if she wanted to go out to go potty, she turned around and Darli was sitting. She is unable to bear any weight on her rear left leg. She is a labrador retriever, and now she is having to be carried everywhere which is now causing her to be depressed. We have runners all over the house, she is with someone 24/7, so she did not slip. We took her to the oncologist yesterday who did x rays, and it is possible the osteosarcoma has come back in this rear leg now. It typically goes to the lungs eventually and not another limb, but the vet is not sure of what she is seeing on the films and is sending them to be read by a radiologist. We are devastated. She had been doing so well! We are not sure if she is depressed from the sedative they had to give her to do the x rays or from the fact she is now immobile. Any advice?
Darli and family, welcome. Your future posts won't need approval so post away.
You did the best thing by having your vet look at her. Please try not to panic: while there is indeed a slight possibility that cancer could have returned, it is rare. We don't see it that often here, at least confirmed cases of cancer returning in a bone (more often it is suspected to have returned because MRI hasn't been performed).
Usually, the cause of the lameness is because the brand new Tripawd is getting used to life on three legs and the body is sore in some muscle. It doesn't just take a slip to do that, just moving around can make that happen too. Is Darli overweight at all? What was her fitness like before amputation? A pre-existing condition can make the animal more susceptible to a situation like this.
I know it's hard to wait for the news from your onco but try not to panic. It could be something totally fixable (and usually is, especially at this stage in recovery). Keep us posted OK?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thank you for taking the time to answer. It does help. She is very small for a lab, 52 lbs. Pre-amp she was 54-56 lbs. She was very fit prior to the surgery, and she used to run with my husband, but that came to a screeching halt once the osteosarcoma was diagnosed. She was diagnosed 7 months ago, and we didn't even experience a limp until April 15. The only reason we found out she had osteosarcoma was because while at the vet's for acupuncture, the tech noticed a thickness in her leg and it was x rayed and from there on we were patients of the oncologist. Typically people will notice their dog is limping, and it is diagnosed after a time from that point. Not in our case. Thank you for the advice. It TRULY helps.
More than 1 time Murphy would become almost lame or where he would just lay down or even sometimes yelp. It always turned out that it was from pain. Normally a pain pill (we had Rimadyl or Carprofen on hand all the time), massage & rest would help. I would say try that - give her a pain pill, and try massaging from her neck all the way down to her hips. Nice slow, even, muscle rubs. Murphy was a front leg, and when I would massage his back, he would start arching backwards so far that he almost formed a "C" lol. He loved it! You can also do some passive range of motion with the affected leg - when she's laying down, take the leg & move it in the natural movements - up, down and each joint - hips/knee, very gently.
Donna
Donna, Glenn & Murphy
Murphy had his right front leg amputated due to histiocytic sarcoma at 7 years old. He survived 4 years, 2 months & 1 week, only to be taken by hemangiosarcoma at 11 1/2 years 6/12/17
Read about Murphy's Life on Three Legs
we definitely will continue with that, but I'm a bit concerned because if there is a break or a met then i don't want to hurt her. That being said, she is exhibiting zero pain. I appreciate your replying. This is very stressful. Murphy is adorable by the way!
TRY not to think the worse case scenario, okay? As already mentrioned, these kinds of hings are so often some sort of muscle pull, maybe a disc issue, all sorts of things that are treatable. And the slightest unnoticed misstep, the slightest unnoticed tweak of a muscle can cause these things.
Did I read this right? Your sweet girl was diagnosed with Osteo seven months ago before she even started limping? Just want to say that's quite amazing if that's the case!
Update us when you can. You'll get this figured out.
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!
Hello, and thank you for the reply. Yes, you read that correctly. She had zero signs. It was found by a fluke during an acupuncture visit. We had a mast cell diagnosis last August 2016, and we were devastated. She had that tumor for well over 4 years, but every time the vet would tell us it was a lipoma. When my daughter got married, Darli was going to be in the wedding and we had her teeth cleaned and told the vet to remove the lipoma that had been there for so long as well as a couple of tiny "warts". He said it was purely cosmetic, but it always bothered me, so we had it removed. It was mast cell tumor. We began treating Darli holistically and 3 months later they found the thicker leg. That diagnosis was far worse. We continued on with our holistic regimen, amped it up a bit, and thought we could control it since we had been. We used zero pharmaceuticals until the day she limped. Then we absolutely needed them. Thank you for listening and the advice. It helps. I'm trying to not worry, but the oncologist is "worried" she sees something on the films. Thank you again.
1 Guest(s)
