Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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My crazy 3-legged Hugo has a hemangioma in one of the weight bearing toes of his remaining front leg.
A little back story: Hemangiomas are extremely rare tumors that are made up of blood. They ARE NOT cancerous/malignant. This particular tumor makes his pad bleed alot (sometimes a cup of blood at a time). He had laser surgery for this one year ago--a year after having his left leg amputated because of a birth defect. The specialist was confident that he had gotten rid of it and the margins were clear. Well, now it has come back and the bleeding has started anew.
The specialist has recommended that we remove his whole toe as this could move into his bone and then he would be truly screwed (I think it can turn into a sarcoma at that point).
Hugo is a super-active, 100mph dog who doesn't give a rip that he only has three legs and does more than many 4-legged friends. He can run, jump, swim, catch frisbees, etc. Nothing has slowed him down yet.
My question is, does anyone know of a dog that has three legs and only three toes as well? The vet thinks since he is so gung ho crazy that this won't really affect him, other than possibly slowing his endurance. I love this litle monster and want to do what is best for him!
Thank you
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Hey Hugo! That's a real bummer, I hope it doesn't hurt.
I searched back through our forums and while I found lots of Tripawds who injured a toe, I couldn't find any one who was actually missing a digit. If your people are unsure, a second opinion with another vet would really help them feel better about whatever they decide to do.
Keep us posted OK? You'd sure be an original here if you do proceed with the toe amputation. Good luck!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hello!
Well, I'm not sure how much help this will offer, as 1 - Jill is a cat and, 2- she had her toe amputated prior to being a tripawd as her primary tumor appeared on her toe. But, I will give you our experience with toe amputation!
Jill SAILED through this surgery. She came home that night, acted like nothing happened. She was on a pain killer for 4 days (buprenex), but never acted like anything was wrong. The potential problem I can think of for your guy is that the bandage/cast Jill had after her toe amp was quite large. She had no problem moving around on it as it was a soft cast, however, on three legs, it might pose a problem. Below is a picture of what her cast was like. She did need to keep the cast on for two weeks and it needed to be changed three times during this time. If you have any questions at all about the toe amp, feel free to reply or PM me!
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
Well I can't speak about Sassy. But my other Rottie Shadow had a toe removed due to an injury & it got infected. she never had any problems. Just had a foot without one toe. I don't know anything about hemangioma so I can't speak on that either. I know that isn't much help but Shadow had no problems but she was a 4 legged dog. I guess that doesn't help much sorry. I just reread it after i hit submit
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."
All I can do is send you supportive energy and assure you Hugo won't be as laid back as Jill-------great photos!
The best to you and Hugo and really sorry he has to deal with another hurdle----not fair!
Hugo sounds Lima a real delight and joy!
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!
No idea, but I'd give it a try! The alternatives don't sound very good.... I guess whatever can be done to make it a nice, tiddy incision with as much healing powers as possible. Laser therapy is supposed to speed up wound closure and healing times. Look into that? Maybe forcing your pup to remain in the hospital and confined for the first few days would help keep him quiet and lessen the risk to wound-reopening?
Keep us posted! It's a tough call, but it sounds like he's lucky that it's not a lethal cancer (yet) and that with his energy and zest for life, he'd bounce back!
~ Katy
ACL tear in right hind leg 12/5/12 and scheduled ACL repair surgery 12/21/12. Pre-op xrays revealed osteosarcoma. Amputation 12/28/12. Chemo (carboplatin) started Jan 10, 2013 and ended on April 5, for a total of 5 doses. He handled carbo like a champ! No side effects. We started metronomic therapy at his third chemo and have been also doing some holistic treatments. He's a lively, playful 10 year old huskie-boarder collie and a very proud member of the Winter Warriors! Our love. Our funny little guy!
Our first lab had a cancer in his toe and we had the toe removed. He was 100% find with no toe. He was not a tripawd though so I can't speak for having only one front leg and a toe removed, but I can assure you he had no balance problems with the toe missing. He was up and running the day after the removal. It was one of the middle toes so I don't think he even noticed it was really gone.
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