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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The worst part I think was the lack of sleep. Even if Happy doesn't need you in the night (which he most likely won't) those first few nights you can't help but listen for their every movement. And then you get a few days in and you're completely sleep-deprived and the dog is depressed (from the pain meds and/or the recovery itself and the lack of anything 'fun' going on) so you start to go a little nuts.
And really it's not all "hell" - there can be ups and downs that first 2 weeks. It's not all bad. You'll get through it. Just try to be rested up ahead of time. You don't want to go into it being sleep deprived.
As for getting him in the house, we had the same thing with Abby - getting her out of the car was a little tricky (we also used a homemade sling made out of a towel to help her down) but then I basically had to drop it and get out of the way because she hopped into the house so fast.
Personally, I would avoid trying to pick the dog up - but that is just based on our experience. Maybe others were able to lift their dogs, but when we tried to pick her up once, she screamed bloody murder and it was awful! (I told her vet about it - said I swore I was nowhere near the incision when I lifted her, but he said she may have just been having a 'don't come near me, I don't want you to touch me anywhere near there' moment.) We found just using the sling and helping her in/out of the car and up/down stairs worked best for us.
We're here if you need us for Q&A or just for venting or moral support during the recover! Keep us posted on how the surgery goes!
All the best to Happy,
Jackie, Abby's mom
Abby: Aug 1, 2009 – Jan 10, 2012. Our beautiful rescue pup lived LARGE with osteosarcoma for 15 months – half her way-too-short life. I think our "halflistic" approach (mixing traditional meds + supplements) helped her thrive. (PM me for details. I'm happy to help.) She had lung mets for over a year. They took her from us in the end, but they cannot take her spirit! She will live forever in our hearts. She loved the beach and giving kisses and going to In-N-Out for a Flying Dutchman. Tripawds blog, and a more detailed blog here. Please also check out my novel, What the Dog Ate. Now also in paperback! Purchase it at Amazon via Tripawds and help support Tripawds!
Rumbles stayed at the animal hospital for 2 nights and 3 days. I think that made a huge difference for him and for us. I would recommend it if your vet is able to offer this. It really helped him to adjust in the first days...they got him up and brought him outside for potty and short walks. Also they were able to regulate his pain meds as he was a bit aggressive at first from the medication. So by the time he came home, I think he was over the worst of the post-op issues.
My strongest memory of the recovery time is how bad I felt because I was SURE I had done the wrong thing by choosing amputation.
Maggie had her amp more that 2 months before our founder Jerry- so we went it alone. All the vet really said was that dogs do fine on 3 legs, so when Mag was unhappy for a few weeks I felt really bad. She was walking the day of surgery, and was small so I could carry her if needed. But she would fall and get discouraged and I really had to coax her to try again. I was tired and stressed so everything seemed worse.
But in hindsight I realized that Mag was being her normal, obstinate pug self. She was never happy with any change to her routine. She did come around and thrived as a tri-pug for almost 4 years.
I had a conversation about the recovery period with my vet much later. I think part of the issue is that most of us have not dealt with the aftermath of such a major surgery with the huge incision and all kinds of meds. Vets see this kind of stuff all the time, what might be traumatic for us is part of the job that they train for and to some extent see every day.
Karen and the pugapalooza
It doesn't necessarily have to be "two weeks of hell", but rather "two week critical period". There are so many factors going into recovery: reaction to medications (Chloe drooled more and "swayed" from her pain meds and the interaction with antibiotics suppressed her appetite), mobility, ability to "go to the bathroom", your attitude, and their progress. All of these things determine how "fast" or "seemingly slow" recovery can be. Just be prepared to take it one day at a time. Pretty soon the 2 weeks will be over and the stitches or staples will come out!
Every dog is different, so you just have to pay attention to your dog's body language since that's the only way you can tell if they are OK or not.
Chloe's vet gave her a sling to help learn to walk again since she had full use of her 4 legs pre amp and he thought she might have more trouble than dogs who were already favoring a leg and were using 3 legs primarily. That is what I used to help fer get to the car. After just one week with the sling, she was walking on her own, but I always carried the sling if it seemed she was getting tired.
Good Luck!
-Chloe's mom
Chloe became a rear amp tripawd on 7-29-10. Another tumor was removed on front leg 2-20-14. Found 3rd tumor on neck 2-2015, but she's still kicking cancer's butt at age 14. Chloe's blog
Welcome to the family, I'll throw my three paws worht in. Gs came home about 24 hours after surgery. He had already been using just three legs by the time he had his surgery, so that adjustment had pretty much been made. We tried to keep everything as much as it was before, although I did buy a 50 ft. nylon rope to tie him when I wasn't here, that way he could still walk around if he wanted, no restrictions when he laid down, but there was no weight to it, and that worked really well. the hard part for him with that was he had never been tied before, but we only did that until he was healed good enough to roam the fields again. Lack of sleep I think creates alot of the anxiety afetr surgery, you find littler things become huge when you've had little to no sleep and your buddy isn't themselves. Gus also didn't get along with Tramadol, we stopped it after a couple days, he was on Gabapentin and rimidyl, the gabapentin was partly for phantom pain , but it helped. Don't be afraid to ask anything, experience gives the best answers, Paws Up, Spirit Gus and Dan
My buddy Gus had a left front amputation on April 7, 2010 and lived a great life until July 26,2010
Skyler actually did well after surgery, although she did cry the first night. For me, it was lack of sleep (from worry mostly), seeing Skyler with the cone on, and having to keep Chloe away from her. Our routine was turned upside down, so we had to learn a "new normal" routine.
Your pup will be fine. Just make sure you take care of YOU too!
Sending you many golden hugs. Please keep us posted after the surgery.
Cathy
Thanks, y'all. Happy is so peaceful now. I hate to shake that up so much. Have any of you gone through the 19 days of radiation treatments? He is not having chemo, but radiation..His prognosis gets shorter every time I talk to the vets, and I just learned they have to open his spine to try to get all of the cells since the tumor is so close to it, and they basically say it's not likely. I am hating thinking about what is to come for the next couple of months for him, and maybe starting to doubt my decision a little bit. The only thing making me decide is that he is not particularly happy now, and my hope is to get to see him active and happy once again some day. They are trying to tell me that this is basically a shot in the dark and may buy us a few months. (including a month of radiation) I really hate this.
One note about my above comment..when he was diagnosed, I was under the impression that amputation was going to be curative, then in the notes saw that he could live up to two years, and now hearing a few months tops..I KNOW that prognoses are sometimes and often wrong, but just now learned of what radiation is like and that the spine is now involved int he surgery..I am going onward through the fog, but I am feeling bummed today about my boy..just feeling loss where I should be feeling really positive I guess. There is a small chance this could all be curative, so i am hoping and praying for that. Trying to project positivity to Happy anyway.
Your boy is so gorgeous.
We don't have any experience with radiation treatments. Hopefully others will chime in. But I just wanted to say hang in there. I hate this all so much too! We recently found out our Abby may only have a couple more months so it's hard to stay positive, but we try to enjoy the moment. She doesn't know that she is getting short-changed. She's a happy girl (for the most part) so we hang on to that.
Sending pawsitive thoughts out for you and Happy.
Jackie, Abby's mom
Abby: Aug 1, 2009 – Jan 10, 2012. Our beautiful rescue pup lived LARGE with osteosarcoma for 15 months – half her way-too-short life. I think our "halflistic" approach (mixing traditional meds + supplements) helped her thrive. (PM me for details. I'm happy to help.) She had lung mets for over a year. They took her from us in the end, but they cannot take her spirit! She will live forever in our hearts. She loved the beach and giving kisses and going to In-N-Out for a Flying Dutchman. Tripawds blog, and a more detailed blog here. Please also check out my novel, What the Dog Ate. Now also in paperback! Purchase it at Amazon via Tripawds and help support Tripawds!
I know how hard it is on this roller coaster.
When Maggie had her amp for mast cell cancer I thought it would be curative. We did lots of tests before the surgery and saw no sign of spread. About 3 days after the amp the oncologist called and said we needed to talk treatment because the cancer was in her lymph system. When we talked about treatment it was clear that we were talking a matter of months- WITH chemo. So I went from thinking we were done after surgery to thinking I might have done the wrong thing with the surgery because we only had 6 or so months. We did do a course of chemo.
Maggie beat the odds big time and lived almost 4 years after her amp, and did not die from the mast cell cancer.
There is always a chance for success and therefore there is always hope! What the amp gave Maggie was a chance- and in our case with that first cancer she beat it.
There are no guarantees, but you are giving Happy a chance. Keep that in mind and it might be easier to stay positive.
Karen and the pugapalooza
What a happy boy he is in the tank! I am not sure Chloe could ever do hydrotherapy, she doesnt like water that goes up to her chest...but she walks through puddles.
No experience with radiation, though it was an initial option if I wanted to opt out of amputation. There are no guarentees with anything, so just take it one day at a time, keep loving him and enjoy every moment you have. We will support whatever decisions you make and we hope the best for Happy!
-Chloe's mom
Chloe became a rear amp tripawd on 7-29-10. Another tumor was removed on front leg 2-20-14. Found 3rd tumor on neck 2-2015, but she's still kicking cancer's butt at age 14. Chloe's blog
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