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 wife an I have a 13+ year old cat named Jack who's very overwieght (18lbs). He has bone cancer in his front right paw. So, we have to decide whether or not to amputate the paw or to put him to sleep. It's an impossible the decision. On the one hand he's a member of our family and we want to do everything we can for him. On the other hand, we're very concerned about the quality of his life after the surgery. He's old and fat and set in his ways. We don't want him to be miserable or in pain afterward. Also, we have a toddler who likes to chase him around...
Does anybody have experience with a cat this old? Or this heavy? The vet says that either decision makes sense at this point. Which, of course, doesn't make it easier.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Hi Jack, welcome to the club nopawdy wants to join. Your future posts won't require approval.
I'm in the chat right now, hop on over!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hi Jack! My kitty is Jill - she is now almost 17 months post amputation for bone cancer. She was not overweight (she's about 12 pounds) and she was 8 years old at the time of her amputation.
I can tell you I've been on this website now for 17 months and seen HUGE dogs (up to 150 lbs) go through amputation and do great. Kittys really handle amputation very very well. I hate to rub it in the dogs faces, but they handle it lets just say slightly better than the dogs do.
I was so hesitant at first to put Jill through the surgery, but she handled it all like a champ. If your vet thinks Jack is a good candidate for amputation I would say go for it.
I'm in the chat room now if you want to speak further!
BTW, Jack must just be a name that all fat cats are named, because this is Jill's brother, my four legged kitty, named JACK
Jill is a 9-year-old tuxedo kitty. She was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in June 2012 on her toe in her right hind leg. Her leg was amputated on 12/12/12 and she completed four rounds of chemo (2 of Carbo, 2 of Doxy) in April 2013. "Like" Jill's facebook page: https://www.fac.....tty?ref=hl Proud member of the WINTER WARRIORS!!!! Her blog can be read at http://jillsjou.....ipawds.com. xoxo
We have many new Tripawd Kitty members who've joined us recently, check out our list of TriCat bloggers.
Tripawd Kitty Bloggers Sharing Their Feline Amputation Tales
It sounds like your vet thinks he would be OK as a Tripawd? If so that's great! We've seen many Tripawd kitties go through recovery and although they have their ups and downs like dogs do, they do GREAT after they're all healed up. Even better than dogs! But ssssh, don't tell the k9s here that I said that!
Humans tend to think that animals can't handle this kind of thing very well but when it comes down to it, they handle it better than any human can. You may be surprised at how well he bounces back. As long as he has good pain control, chances are he's going to be fine. Our kitty bloggers can vouch for that so stay tuned, I'm sure they will start chiming in to share their experiences.
Thanks again for joining, we're here to help.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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