Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi, everyone. My girl is 11 years old and I have had her since she was a puppy. She had her front leg amputation 5 weeks ago. She has never had accidents in the home until now. Not even as a puppy. She pee pad trained and then outdoor trained very young and very easily. Since her amputation she has had several accidents. Her first accident was while she was quite drugged up. I quickly attributed that one as being due to the drugs. However she is now off most of the drugs with only a few occasion gabapentin here and there. And her mobility is doing really well. So it is not that she can't get to the door. So has anyone else's dog had unusual instances of urinating in the house? This is really not like her at all. I stayed home with her 24/7 for the first 3 weeks, went back to work a couple of days on the 4th week and a couple on the fifth week. The urinating happened while I was at work, until tonight, when she actually did it right in front of me after just coming in from a long time outside. I quickly ushered her back to the door to go outside. Is it incontinence? Is it common after these operations?
Hello and welcome, your future posts will not have to wait for moderation.
First- the normal questions: what's her name? why the amp? how big is she?
TriPug Maggie lost her rear leg to cancer when she was about 7.5 years old. She also was easily house trained and NEVER had accidents in the house. Well, houses- she spent a lot of time at my parent's house. After her amp she was not able to go up stairs, there were lots at my parent's house, so my mom took to carrying her around including outside to pee. A few weeks after her amp she started peeing in my parent's house instead of going outside on her own- she was able but she liked having someone carry her. At my house we had a couple of stand- offs where she would pee outside and then wait for me to carry her back in. Once she figured out she was on her own the problem resolved.
Could it be that she got used to going out with you during recovery and is now reluctant to go out on her own? I adopted a quad dog about a year ago who had been dumped on the street and I had a terrible time house training her. I had to restrict her access to the house to just a few rooms. She goes outside on her own when I'm home, and is fine when I leave both dogs home, but when she is home alone she potties in the house. Now that I restrict her to only a few rooms she is fine.
As far as incontinence- Maggie developed incontinence when she was just under 11 years old. She would usually pee in her sleep, overnight mostly but sometimes when she was napping. In my experience incontinence is more of an involuntary action.
I would discuss with your vet. If it is incontinence there are some meds that can help.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls and Boy
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Her name is Gracie (Amazing Grace). She is a 65lb purebred Border Collie. Her amputation was due to a tumor on her front shoulder about the size of a child-sized nerf football. The concern was that it's aggressiveness would soon move around the leg and into the ribs and internal organs. It grew to that size in less than 3 months. I am really hoping the urinating problem is behavioural and not incontinence. She is extremely smart so I can deal with the behaviour more easily. Money is sooooo tight right now. The cost of the operation really broke me. Even with the insurance it was insane. I always try to put her first. She is my everything. But there is just nothing left in the coffers now for more vet visits so I need to deal with as much as I can on my own for now. 
Welcome Judy and Gracie! Sorry you had to join our club and so glad you found us.
I wouldn't jump to incontinence yet. This could be as simple as a urinary tract infection. Our dog Nellie gets them occasionally and this is how it presents. Get her to your vet so they can take a urine sample, and let us know if that's the case.
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