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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As far as emotional support..here we are! Right here! Plus we have a Helpline you can call anytimemand one of our volunteers are here to help you over the "hurdle" and answer any questions..
1 888 TRIPAWD
Of course you are crying silly girl!! You are exhausted mentally and physically and filled with uncertainty and lots of fear. Yeah, we get it!! So go ahead and cry and vent and scream, okay? I do find that eating lots of junk food and chocolate and ice cream is a great stress reliever for me. Actually, t's just great anytime!
Ca t really address the protocol yoir Vet suggest as far as the infusion and the Carboplatin starting now. A month out for the path report to come back seems a very long time. So. not sure of the situation in your area or where the pathology is done.
Can tell you that as far as Carboplatin, IF....IF...there are side effects they are usually mild and onlymlast a couple of days AND can be somewhat prevented. Nausea and a bit of lethargy and maybe off food a bit can show up. HOWEVER, the Vet will send you home with Cerenia to stop the nausea and you can get all sorts of yummy foods to entice her to eat. Many dogs sail through with no issues st all. Rarely, a dog may have a "bad" reaction and a reduction in dose doesn't seem to help, ......but the good news is, you can stop Carboplatin anytime and any side effects subside pretty quickly
Celebrate that she is moving past the biopsy recovery. Joaquina is a Champ indeed! And so are you!!!
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!
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Hey it's good to hear from you, thank you for stopping by.
I can't blame you for being worried. We all understand how emotional and exhausting this is. You don't need to apologize, ever. This journey has many emotions and not all of them are happy. And this IS your emotional support thread 🙂
Yes, call the Tripawds Helpline anytime!
Now here's what I can tell you based on what I've seen here:
Carboplatin is one of the most well tolerated chemotherapy drugs. Some dogs do have mild side effects like nausea or lack of appetite. But most dogs do really well on it! It is the "Go To" choice and "Gold Standard" treatment for bone cancer. Ask your vet for an anti-nausea medication just in case she experiences those side effects. Hopefully she will not.
Yes, you spelled pamidronate correctly. It is a bisphosphonate, and your vet is giving it to Joaquina to help with pain control and strengthening her bones. It's another "Gold Standard" treatment.
She is in great hands, try to focus on her beautiful, happy spirit! The only way cancer "wins" is if we let it overcome our emotions and steal precious time away from those we love.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hello My dearest community!
It is with a huge amount of relief and happiness that I want to tell you that the results for Joaquina's second biopsy and the second opinion of her first biopsy came in and IT IS NOT CANCER.
The best way her ortho and oncologist explained it to me is that apprently her bone is producing a sort of callus because of wear on her joint. The oncologist still would like to do a CT Scan to discard any tumors swirling around in her body since she did explain that this reaction could be as a secondary reaction to a tumor. She doesn't think is that since the presentation is way different than what Joaquina is looking like but still given the scare we had we all just want to play it in the safe side.
She will still continue with pamidronate to strengthen her bones, weight loss diet to relieve weight stress from her joints, and physical therapy.
I want to thank so much each and everyone of you that posted, read, and gave me your words of wisdom. It has been the most scary months in my life and knowing I had a community behind all of us was just a bliss.
Thank you!
WOW!!!!!! Talk about a roller coaster ride, your journey definitely fits that description!!! Apunds like you can finally get off that crazy ride amd get your feet firmly planted on the ground!!!
Thrilled to see thos update, absolutely thrilled. AND this is quite informative about a rather unique situation.
Now give that sweet girl a vig smooch for us!! Good job...both of you!
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!
Woah! Wow that is a huge and happy turn of events! Thank you for letting us know how things have turned out. You had so many really smart people working on her, going with their gut instincts that there was something else going on. Talk about a scare! So is there a name for the condition? It sounds like severe osteoarthritis to me, but I'm no vet.
You and your sweet pup have been through soooo much. This has been an emotional time and I'm so happy that now these are happy emotions you are feeling. Not having cancer is amazing!
When is the CT scan happening? We'll keep our paws crossed for more good news.
Hi community! Hope you are doing great.
I am so sorry for not updating you guys but as you know sometimes life happens.
Joaquina had her CT and it is all clear, no masses, no anything, no cancer. Her ortho believes that what could have happened was that Joaquina at some point injured her bone and when the bone tried to repair itself it started doing so without much order, hence the enlargement of her joint. She will still get a dose of pamidronate every month, she will keep going to physical therapy, diet, and now she has a brace we put a few hours a day on her leg.
Thank you everyone for all your support!
Hey there! No need to apologize, we are just SO HOPPY that Joaquina is doing so well! WOW!
It's the happiest conclusion to her situation that we could ever hope for. Thank you for taking time to let us know, not just for us, but for other people in the future who read about her situation. Your and Joaquina's story gives hope to others! WONDERFUL!!!
She is on the road to better health, no pain, and she can live life to the fullest. Lucky dog! And I'm sure you learned so much too. It's a win for everypawdy!
We love good news arou d here!!! Thanks so much for the update!! Yes, this will be very helpful AND hopeful for mothers who get on a similar roller coaster ride.
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!
Hi Beautiful communitiy,
I would have loved to post using my account but for some reason it went nuts on me when I tried to retrieve the password. A few updates here:
So Joaquina’s non cancer journey was done however, her joint kept growing by the day. It came to a point in which it was a huge thing, she was on pain medication and other than having a huge leg, she seemed herself all around.
Since her joint was huge (and I mean HUGE) I took her to an ortho to get a second opinion because physical therapy and pamidronate was just not helping. He took X Rays and came to see that yes the bone forming was a lot and it had started causing edema on her paw due to the size. He came to the conclusion that the best course of action for this lady was to get her leg amputated (right rear leg).
I have to tell you, it was confusing all through and through because throughout this journey I was always told that Joaquina was too heavy for amputation. And given that her other rear leg was showing the same signs of growing bone she was not a candidate. I had some of her vets on the team tell me I was pretty much killing her if I pursued amputation, which to me was horrible. They even said that one course of action was do nothing and wait with the risk that this huge ball on her leg could rupture or ulcer so no. With the ortho we took her, we had already went with other dogs of the family so we trusted him fully and again, his practice is pure ortho so with a lot of faith we took the leap and Joaquina has officially become a tripawd.
She took it like a champ, came out walking of the vets clinic and she is way more agile and active all around. Again that is the challenge because as good as she might feel she needs to stay calm to recover. I try to keep it off stairs and just walk with her to her potty spot which is a house away from my house and that’s it.
Yesterday, she started leaking from her wound which now I know was a seroma . It scared be so much because it was A LOT. We took her at 1 am in the morning to the vet because we all panicked. She drained so much fluid and I was told that in her stitches they left one with more space with the purpose of drainage but apparently it had gotten blocked because of healing hence it hadn’t drained, hence the huge build up.
Obviously today she is sleeping while I am half awake writing this post so yeah….big night.
I am having a lot of trouble keeping her bandage on because it just slips through her booty and I have to do it multiple times a day, any ideas??
Ana it is so good to hear from you. I'm sorry that Joaquina had to have the amputation but good for you for being such a great advocate for her needs! And your orthopedic surgeon too.
When was the surgery exactly? Usually a rear-leg amputee doesn't wear a bandage because they are so hard to keep on. If she is trying to lick the incision area, the plastic cone is the best way to prevent that from happening.
Some people have tried boxer shorts (turned around so the dog's tail goes through the front opening). But even those are hard to keep on all the time.
The draining as you discovered is normal, and you can try speeding up the draining by placing a warm compress / wash cloth a few times a day around the incision area, for a few minutes. See if that helps.
Glad to see you were able to log back into your account!
Thanks for the update on they amazing Joaquina. # glad to hear she's doing so well! Sorry about the seroma scare. Yes, as Jerry noted, the drainage is "normal". Good job of getting it checked out ss sometimes draining can be from an infection.
It's wonderful that you can tell she feels better now that the painful sore leg is gone. Good job of still making her take things slowly for a bit longer
Let us know if you come up with anything "fashion-wise" and functional. My idea of "sewing" use scotch tape to repair a hem orange tear.🤪
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!
Hi Everyone,
Well my idea of sewing is staples so yeah I don't have a clue how to tackle the bandage. Right now I am covering the wound with patches, think big band aids. I found them at the drug store and looks like a good idea.
This morning I was cleaning Joaquina up and all the stitches look pretty healed to my unexpert eye, she has a follow up appointment on Saturday. Her vet did mention that she might get some stitches out depending on how the wound is healing. I've never had surgery but I am told that when the stitches start healing they get very itchy.
Joaquina right now is plain bored. You can see her face like "yeah I am so bored I want to go out" when I take her potty outside of my house she walks tentativley the first steps after that she is off and then I come saying no no, let's go back to the house.
The vet mentioned the possibility of getting a prosthetic. She had her amputation up to her knee not all her leg but I've read that not all dogs adapt well to the prosthetics . Any insights on this?
Also, getting a harness, my back is killing me...
Hi Ana,
You can always look for fabric glue if sewing isn't your thing. That's pretty helpful stuff for less crafty people.
That's great her incision is looking good. Yes, the healing area does get very itchy. Make sure she doesn't bother it. Dogs are so stealthy about getting to the stitches.
It's so hard keeping an active dog occupied during recovery. It's for the best though. Have you tried any interactive mind games with her? There's many you can use with ordinary items around the house.
Very cool your vet talked about prosthetics ! If you click on the link it will take you to all of our articles about them. Many dogs do great with prosthetics , some do not. It's really more about how patient the pet parent is when it comes to training the dog to use one. Our last interview with Boris' mom talks about how she trained him, and how he uses it in daily life.
Oh don't forget to measure Joaquina for a harness, you might find one in the Angel Exchange!
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