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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Good luck, Shadow! Today's your big day. We are keeping our paws and fingers crossed here in Portland, OR for your speedy recovery.
Love, Blazer, Kitty Kimber & Vicki T
Good Luck today Shadow!!! Calamity & I are keeping you in our thoughts & prayers.
Janie & Calamity
Janie & Calamity http://www.trix.....gspot.com/
Prior to doing his amputation on Thursday more tests were done including an ultrasound of his abdomen. The tests showed some undefined spots on his liver and spleen and an additional spot on the bladder where the uretha enters from the kidney, no spots on the lungs. Needle biopsies were non-diagnostic so were not of any help, the surgeon asked what I wanted to do and I told her to continue with the plan and remove the leg. Due to the suspicious spots the chemo was started the next day Friday 10/31 instead of waiting the normal 10 to 14 days and I picked him up late that afternoon. He is doing as well as could be expected with as many times as he was sedated for various tests over the past 3 weeks and the pain medication that he is on, but already you can see improvement. I don’t know where things will go at this time, but the hope is to buy him some enjoyable and pain free time.
Well, Shadow & Mom,
I'm sorry that they found some suspicious spots on his liver, spleen and the urethra that goes to the kidneys. Without really knowing what these are, I applaud you for going through with the surgery and it sounds very wise that they are starting the chemo immediately, instead of waiting the normal 10-14 days. We'll just have to pray really hard for Shadow and keep our fingers and paws crossed. I hope this works out for you, I really do. We're sending all of our pawsitive thoughts your way!
Love, Blazer, Kitty Kimber & Mom (Vicki)
Ditto, can you hear the applause coming from here too? Nobody really knows where things will go after the amp, but as long as pawrents adopt your good attitude about the unknown, things will be A-O-K. One day at a time is all anyone can really ask for, tripawd or not, right?
So glad there's already improvement. Keep us posted OK?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Update on Shadow. It has been a while since we last reported, so time to bring things up to date. Shadow had a couple of bad days after the first chemo (carboplatin) with shaking and vomiting, but that lasted only a couple of days. After 5 or 6 days he developed serious diarrhea that was very difficult to control and lasted about 5 days.
After that everything has been normal including eating and learning to walk very well on three legs, have not had the nerve to have him try steps on his own, don't need an accident that breaks one of the remaining three.
On Friday 11/21 he went in for his second chemo which was to be (doxorubicin). This requires an EKG and an echo cardiogram first to make sure that the heart can take this drug as it is very hard on the heart muscle and can cause cardiomyopathy. He passed the tests and was given the chemo, he was released to me about 1PM and we started our 200 mile trip back home.
So far he has seemed to do well on this drug with only a minor decrease in diet at this point.
Shadow, you are such a trooper! I'm sorry you had a ruff time after the chemo. We are curious, how did your Mom control the diarrhea? That's a long time to be runny, yikes!
But yeay for you for getting up and around again! Your Mom is smart for guiding you up and down stairs for a while. It's nervewracking for humans to watch us. After a while, you can show her that you're OK on the stairs, but for now, it's good to put up with her nervousness and let her help you.
Good to hear you're making it on your own! If you have any questions about your treatment, remember we are having a live chat with my oncologist, Dr. Marie Mullins, on Tuesday December 2 at 5pm Pacific time. Hope to see you there!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Dearest Shadow,
We're so sorry the first round of carboplatin was so hard on you. Let's hope the doxorubicin goes a little easier, although we have to admit, it sounds like it is a really heavy duty chemo treatment. We're keeping our paws crossed that everything will work out really well.
Love, Blazer, Kitty Kimber & Mom (Vicki)
Following the doxorubicin on Friday 11/21 Shadow developed diarrhea on Monday night about the same time frame as with the carboplatin. With heavier duty medicine than with the carboplatin we were able to get better control and he was well enough to go to our sons place for Thanksgiving dinner with us.
We had been giving him a rather bland diet that had quite a bit of moisture in it. This time we gave him his normal food dry (Wellness Core Original) which helped absorb excess moisture possibly helping minimize the diarrhea. At this time he is back to as normal a he can be.
We walk about 1/8 mile a day to keep his strength up in his one rear leg, but not so far as to damage his arthritic hip. We have a fair amount of dense hard snow on the ground in our back yard and it does cause him some problems at times as he doesn't lift the rear leg up very far when he walks.
The oncologist asked if he has had any cough at all and the good answer so far is NO.
Yeay for Shadow! So glad to hear his tummy is better and things are looking up for you guys. Happy Holidays!
Other than the diet change, what else did you do to get his poo back to normal?
Oh, remember, if you happen to have any questions about the chemo treatments, don't forget that our live "Ask an Oncologist" chat is this Tuesday night at 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hi Shadow & Family,
Would it be too much to ask what meds they gave to help control the diarrhea? I'm really glad to hear that he was able to attend the Thanksgiving activities at your son's house! Also, if he is having problems with the snow you may want to invest in a RuffWear Harness that you can buy from this site; it would help you balance him when he tries to go potty because it has a handle on top to help support him.
Your friends,
Vicki, Blazer & Kitty Kimber
To answer some questions: The first time with the chemo (carboplatin), the intensity of the diarrhea came as a surprise and we tried over the counter Kaopectate with no change then we went to Immodium which had better results.
When we went in for the second chemo(doxorubicin) I told the Oncologist about our serious diarrhea and he gave us Metronidazole-every 12 hours. This had a much better result, but I also gave Immodium in between the dosages as more control was needed.
About Shadow in the snow, he does very well in loose or fluffy snow even when it is fairly deep, but this stuff was very dense was full of moisture and partially frozen with lots of dog paw prints in it. I have a Pet Support Suit for Shadow, but he is a very independent dog and wants to do everything for himself without help. We have a very short leash that we used to use when we took him out the door by the bird feeder because there would sometimes be raccoons or other animals there and he hated to be hooked up to the short leash, long one no problem.
Hey Shadow, thanks for the info on your tummy medicine. We didn't know that dogs could take Immodium! What a great idea. Mom put some links in your post so people can read more about it.
Take it easy in the snow my friend! Send us sme photos too when you get a chance, we'd love to see you romping around in it.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
I am glad that Shadow's diarrhea responded well to metronidazole. Tazzie used to get some soft stool for a few days after chemo but I found that keeping her on probiotics has helped tremendously. I use a brand made by Purina called Fortiflora. You just mix 1 packet with the food once daily. I am keeping her on it every day until she finishes chemo. There are other brands of probiotics but make sure you use one made for dogs since their normal intestinal bacteria is different than ours.
Pam and Tazzie
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