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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So glad to hear Zoey is home and is doing better. I hope you are on the couch now although if you are like I was you will sleep with one eye open for a couple more nights. Just so you know, I still feel like a bad parent when Shooter takes a digger and when I start to hover he gives me the stink eye. My motto is "go ahead and hover", they'll let you know when to back off!
Spirit Shooter was a Miniature Australian Shepherd who was diagnosed with a MCT and had a LF amp 1/28/13 at 13-1/2 years old.
Shooter crossed the Bridge on 8/28/13, his 7 month ampuversary and two weeks from his 14th birthday.
I hear every whimper or cry, so no worries! Had a great night last night. She whined three times and each time I just sat with her, helped her reposition herself, patted her and she went back to sleep.
The best news is this morning not only did she pee but she had her first poop since surgery on Friday. Whoop!
Should I be making her get up and move or just let her get up when she wants to?
Also, I know I saw somewhere here a spray to soothe or continue numbing the suture site. We've been syringing the vet-prescribed Marcaine onto the site, but have gone through two bottles and I would love to find another product that does the same thing. I am not even sure if she still needs it, but would love to know of a product I can use.
I am sure that the book answers these questions, but I couldn't figure out how to save it after my purchase and I reached the maximum 10 download. I'm an idiot.....
Oh, and yes about Happy Hannah! I read your thread and thought to myself that you went through the worst and you came out on the other side. Reading through your story, I realized that I've got it easy when it comes to zoey's situation. So, if you can (and did) do it, then so can I.
fourminipups - I just got what you meant by Shooter "taking a digger". Ha! That sounds better than saying poor zoey fell. I'll just call it taking a digger!
Zoey the product is capled Vetricyn, here is a link to it
http://amazon.t.....-tripawds/
Please Private Message me for a reminder when we are off work tonight and we can help you get the book situation figured out.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Vetricyn!! Awesome stuff - I already have a bottle that I use on my horse when needed. Good news that there is something I can use that I already have.
Thats great! Double check with your vet first, some don't like to use things like this on the incision.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
I have just caught up on all your posts. I am glad Zoey is home and doing well. My English Bulldog had her front leg amputated at the age of 9 1/2. I was so worried that it would absolutely hinder any quality of life. A Bulldog missing a front leg and at her age, it was a tough decision. That was 2 years 4 months ago and she is still hopping around as a happy tripawd. Other issues have arisen but it was the BEST decision we ever made.
The toughest part of her recovery was more of the emotional pain for her. She would sit or lay and just cry and we would see her try and move the missing limb. She used to hold her bone between her paws and chew before and it was hard for her to figure out how to chew it without the paw. We also have her brother and she would cry when he wasn't allowed to be near her.
I have posted a few videos of her early recovery on you tube. (Search boulandau if you want to see them, i even have on video the moment she figured out how to handle her bone)It seemed so hard at first but looking at those videos made me realize how amazing they do so fast.
Sorry you had to join this family but it is the absolute best place for all your joys and pains and questions. We are all here for you.
Lots of love and belly rubs for Zoey
Bulldog22, your post came at the perfect time. I've bought an assortment of bones to occupy zoey. It has been hard for her to figure out how to hold them with only one front leg. That combined with watching her struggle to figure out her new body has been really difficult. I'll go look at your videos, it'll be great to see how your sweet bulldog adjusted.
Sorry if I seem a bit down. Zoey was up whining quite a bit last night. I'm tired and puzzled about why she had a great night two nights ago and a not great one last night. I see now why many people here have blogs. It's a great way to document the journey.
To get zoey's weight down, I spoke with the owner at our local Earthwise pet store for quite a while. They sell many brands of the raw food diet. She said it's the best way to get a dog to lose weight instead of just cutting back on the dog's current kibble (which would just make zoey hungry). Zoey's currently eating Merrick Classic Real Beef Whole Barley + Carrot Recipe. I've always been careful to keep her on Blue Buffalo, Nutro or some other high quality low grain kibble.
I'm rambling. My point is that I know part of Zoey's struggle learning her new hop is her weight. The sooner she gets those extra pounds off, the sooner and better she'll be able to start getting around better.
Brenda,
It could be the fact that Zoey has had a lot of drugs on board. Sometimes dogs do whine more as they tend to come down from all the drugs from the amputation. Make sure to check with your vet before starting a raw diet especially if Zoey will be doing chemo. Their immune systems are more compromised when doing chemo.
Michelle & Sassy
Sassy is a proud member of the Winter Warriors. Live long, & strong Winter Warriors.
sassysugarbear.tripawds.com
07/26/2006 - Sassy earned her wings 08/20/2013
05/04/2006 - Bosch, Sassy's pal, earned his wings 03/29/19 fought cancer for 4 months.
"You aren't doing it TO her, you are doing it FOR her. Give her a chance at life."
As far as the "doing well for a night or two". .....and then NOT. Well, for Happy Hannah that certainly was part of her recovery!! I would think..oh great---she really had a good day..or really had a good. night and then.....SLAM BAM....she would have a bad night of day in the blink of an eye. For some dogs, especially larger dogs....that's very much part of their normal recovery!!
Zoey is still very early in recovery and she will continue to have more ups and downs probavly-----but try and focus on the fact that she is having good times now. THE GOOD TIMES WILL HAPPEN MORE AND MORE FREQUENTLY SOON AND THEN NER SPARKLE WILL KICK IN ALL THE TIME AND YOU----AND WE---WILL BE JUMPING FOR JOY RIGHT ALONG WITH YOU:-) 
Hang in there, you both are doing great!!
Sally and Happy Hannah
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!
OMG, ditto everything Michelle just said. Definitely don't make huge diet changes until you speak with the vet. One of the concerns with a raw diet is that a healthy dog can fight off any bacteria, etc that may be in the food, whereas a dog with cancer/compromised immune system may not have the same ability. Certainly, losing extra weight tremendously benefits a tripawd, there may be other avenues without as much risk (i.e., green beans are a great filler-food).
I also agree about the whimpering. Meds can really really affect these dogs. Every person here will tell you that their dog was not 'normal' for the first couple of weeks until off the meds and stitches are out.
**Regarding your comment about 'great two nights ago and worse now' that is actually NORMAL! We always warn new members to expect their dog to crash after a couple of days home! Several reasons: 1) the first couple of days the serious IV, vet-administered drugs are still in their system and as those start to wear out of their system they feel a bit more pain (the meds they are sent home with are good, but nowhere near as strong as the IV meds); 2) dogs are running on adrenaline for the first couple of days home and once they settle in and calm down some the tiredness starts setting in; and, 3) the soreness of the surgery starts to set in (think about a hard gym workout - always more sore two days later than the day after!)
Of course, if anything seems serious call your vet! But what you are describing sounds like what we all typed about three or four days after surgery. There WILL be ups and downs and a few backslides during the next couple weeks - this is major surgery after all. Just hang in there!
Lisa
Zeus was a Husky mix diagnosed with Osteosarcoma at age 11. A visible lung met and suspicious spot on his liver meant a poor prognosis-six weeks was our vet's best guess. We decided to fight for our boy and his right front leg was amputated on 12/1/11. We did six rounds of chemo, changed his diet and spoiled him completely rotten. We were blessed with 10 great months after diagnosis. Against the odds, the lung met remained a single met and grew very little over those months. A wonderful furbaby with the most gentle spirit, he fought with a strength that we never imagined he possessed. We have no regrets...
http://zeuspod......pawds.com/
Hi there, I've been following your posts.. I guess kind of stalking your posts since I didn't have anything to contribute yet (surgery scheduled for June 11). However, your recent posts on helping her lose weight, I am all over that.
I started feeding my dogs a homemade (cooked) diet about 2 years ago and they all dropped weight like a rock and are maintaining a beautiful healthy weight even now.
The Dog Cancer Survival Guide has a certain recipe for cancer patients (haven't read that chapter yet) but basically my dogs get a mix of ground chicken and brown rice with some apples and veggies mixed in. For calcium I take dried eggshells and grind them in my coffee grinder and mix it into the food. I read several books on the subject and calculated the calories my animals need to maintain their goal weight on a website I found through google.
Getting the pounds off was no problem, sometimes I think they're too skinny but the vet says they're perfect. A diet of whole, good for your foods can do wonders. Apparently it doesn't PREVENT cancer or I wouldn't even be on this site. Oh well, gotta look at the bright side.
Barret was diagnosed with Hemangiopericytoma May 16, 2013. Front left leg/scapula/pectoral muscle was amputated on June 11, 2013 and we've never looked back. Follow our story on http://barret.t.....pawds.com/ and read my column on That Pet Blog
Thank you all. What a difference it makes to read your posts. As much reading as I did and preparing by reading everyone's stories here, it seems to go out the window when I'm actually going through it!
Thank you for the information about the raw diet. I did not know and I'm so glad that you've told me to wait. Zoey goes back to the vet on Monday to get her sutures removed. She said that she would go over zoey's diet on that day, but I thought I'd get ahead of the game. Thank goodness you advised me to wait.
Heather, thank you for that information about what you feed your dogs. I'll ask my vet about feeding zoey a diet close to what you feed your dogs.
Lisa, I'm in the upstate of South Carolina not terribly far from you. Small world!
What part of upstate? I'm from Greenville County (grew up in the town Taylors)! Keep in mind I am no vet, but I read several times of vets (including Dr. Dressler in his book) that discouraged raw diet b/c of that reason. Now, we did want to do something to add to the cancer fight, so we did switch to a modified version of the dog cancer (cooked) diet. Very similar to what Heather mentioned above (we used the meat and veggies called for in the diet but substituted supplements for the fresh foods - cottage cheese/turkey necks, etc - that I didn't think I could easily keep on hand). So, I'm not saying an adjusted diet is a bad idea, but just to definitely have your vet or an animal nutritionist involved!
Zeus was a Husky mix diagnosed with Osteosarcoma at age 11. A visible lung met and suspicious spot on his liver meant a poor prognosis-six weeks was our vet's best guess. We decided to fight for our boy and his right front leg was amputated on 12/1/11. We did six rounds of chemo, changed his diet and spoiled him completely rotten. We were blessed with 10 great months after diagnosis. Against the odds, the lung met remained a single met and grew very little over those months. A wonderful furbaby with the most gentle spirit, he fought with a strength that we never imagined he possessed. We have no regrets...
http://zeuspod......pawds.com/
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