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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Sounds like he has really good pain management . The patch cam definitely make him whiney and restless and be a little bit whacked out mentally. It's good for the pain though.😎
And YAY for drinking water! The eating will pick up soon. Peeing will be important, pooping may take a few days.
This is the time you have to remind yourself you are soing this FOR Chisum...not TO him. The benefits will make all this well worth it.
Try and grab some shut eye yourself. Getting to thisnpointnis exhausting mentally and physically .
Give sweet Chisum something really yummy for usomething .that he's not usually allowed to have😎
Hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
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!
Hey there! Congratulations on earning your fast-track dog nurse degree tonight! Bringing home a dog the same day of surgery is NOT an easy thing but you are doing it! Better that he is home with you than alone in a vet clinic. And he even went potty with assistance? YEAH! That's great news.
Expect him to be a little anxious and out of sorts for the next 24 hours. The Fentanyl patch makes animals quite out of it, but in 3 days it wears off and you'll start to see his personality slowly return. What's his Gabapentin dosage? pain management is the biggest recovery challenge. Sometimes it takes several fine-tunings before getting it to a place where he is comfy but not out of it. Keep in touch with your vet if you have any concerns about his pain signals .
And try to get some rest if you can. Chisum is a strong GSD, it's likely that he will handle this without any issues but it's good to be rested and ready for anything just in case. And if you have any questions at all just bark at us OK? We are cheering you on! Congratulations on becoming an official Tripawd parent!
I was wondering if the patch was affecting him more than the other meds, that makes a lot of sense.
Yes, he drinks lots of water anyway.. so I’m glad that didn’t slow down! He is very uninterested in food currently, I did read on another post about the rotisserie chicken… picked one of those up yesterday but he isn’t ready for it yet. He ate a few pieces of cheese but that was all he wanted. Just needed something in his belly for his next round of meds.
He hasn’t really asked to go potty yet, took him out once and he just wanted the lay in the grass, bless his little heart 🥺 how long does it usually take for the pee to start flowing?
I actually met someone during pick up time who was also taking home a new tripawd, I told her about this incredible community and some of the advice I had read. She was very thankful and said she would be reading on here as she takes hers through recovery.
It is hard to stay in the mindset of this is for him, but I do try to remind myself.
Chisum’s vet also mentioned referring him to an oncologist for a possible round of chemo as a preventative measure. She was sending the biopsy to them to confirm it was cancer.
Of course, not a Vet and not giving Vet advice. However, oten a dog may not pee for anywhere from twelve to twenty four hours after a surgery....sometimes even a bit longer. They are pretty well doped up and don't even realize they need to pee. That said, Chisum may even have an "accident " when sleeping at this point. If he doesn't urinate for at the 24 hr mark keep your Vet in the loop. Sometimes expressing the bladder by the Vet gets thing flowing.
Pretty special that you connected with another tripawd ethe Bet. I do hope they join. I know I was clueless about reco until I joined thos courses aga.
You're doing a great job!
Hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
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!
Jerry- I didn’t see your post early, I’m sorry!
Yes, crash course is in full swing. He hasn’t actually gone potty yet, he just wanted to take a short trip outside. When he gets loopy he likes to go lay in the grass, little goofball.
Gabapentin is at 300mg 3 times a day.. they did say that was probably the medication that would make him the most out of it after the fentanyl.
All 3 of us had a short nap for a little while, had some water and a couple more pieces of cheese and resting again. Gotta keep a hand on his paw so I know if he’s moving and can assist, cause I’m a helicopter mom now lol!
Still no pee yet. But I know he’ll let me know when he’s ready.. or have that accident. It happened once when he was really loopy during the other surgery, he was so embarrassed he came and woke me up to show me. Sweet little dude, we are making it so far!
Has anyone had their pet want them to gently rub around the shaved areas? I don’t get close to the incision at all but when he is really whiney and restless if I run my fingers over the shaved area above the incision on his back he calms down a bit, hoping this is okay!
WE HAVE PEE! (Sorry for yelling)
He got up and on the move, barely kept up with him! Close enough to keep a hand on his little booty and move with him to open the door and follow him to a spot, longest little pee I’ve ever seen. We are celebrating and he is back to resting!
YAAAAAY FOR PEE!!! And this deserves YELLING SHOUTS OF GLEE!!!
Chisum is getting such good care. And if petting his shaved area is calming to him, by all means continue. I imagine it feels strange to have that bald area exposed to the air. It may also be a little itchy. So keep doing what you're doing.
Good update!
Hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
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!
That is super duper news! Good boy Chisum! When you 💩 your moms going to throw a block pawty!
Is he still loopy? Hope today is going great.
Oh a pawty will absolutely be happening when the 2nd order of business is complete! 😂 celebrate the milestones right?
He is resting a lot more today, this morning he ate the chicken, thank goodness! Once he had a full belly he slept for a long time. Had chicken for lunch too with his iron supplement and has been resting more. It’s storming here today so it’s a perfect relaxing and recovering day for us! (I say us because moms took shifts staying up with him last night lol!) No potties yet today, we took a small outside trip before the rain started hopeful, but no luck.
It definitely soothes him to have me run around the shaved area, I mean what pup doesn’t love butt scratches right? Bare skin rubs on the booty must be good too!
I got a call from the oncologist this morning, our vet recommended seeing him after recovery from amputation and the biopsy results came in. He goes on the 28th of this month and they said maybe just watching him closely or doing a round of chemo may be possible.
He's such a good boy. Glad the chicken did it for him. Whatever works right now, and then, if you decide to do chemo. Some added fiber (steamed pumpkin, sweet potatoes, even some olive oil can help).
I just saw the Gabapentin dose. Glad to hear it's working and allowing him to rest without being so out of it he can't eat or potty. That's a relatively mild dose for a GSD but most vets start with 300 and then work around that if the meds need adjusting.
The 28th will be here before you know it. Is that for the oncologist or for stitches removal? If stitches, that's an unusually long time to leave them in. I'm guessing it's for the oncologist appointment not the re-check?
Yes, trying to feed him whatever he wants right now to keep good things going in! Thank you for the advice on additions for during chemo, I actually splurged a bit on one of those fresh food diets that deliver to the house for him to add to his normal food during recovery as well to help make sure he is nutritionally sound to be healing.
He was 75lbs before the amputation surgery.. i did tell them he seemed to be building a bit of tolerance to the gabapentin but they didn’t seem worried yet with the fentanyl patch plus gabapentin and the other pain med the sent us home with, started with a C (I can’t remember it off the top of my head)
The 28th is only for the oncologist. Chisum sees the vet on Monday to have the fentanyl patch removed and to make another appointment for removal of stitches.
Chisum hasn’t pooped at all or peed again since last night as of right now. He’s gotten a lot of rest today, thank goodness, and hopefully will continue that through the night!
Jerry and Sally - thank you both so much for taking time to give advice and knowledge throughout this. I can’t thank you enough for the peace of mind and support you have given my little family.
We appreciate you taking the time to update. We're already in love ,with Chisum and cheering for him♥️
Every recovery is different and every dog recovers in their own way at their own pace. So chronicling everything helps others too.
So glad his appetite is picking up some. Keep giving him yummy stuff. As he eats more and more 
will happen
Sounds like the Moms have a good rotation arrangement for catching some zzz's. As Chisum is showing you today, rest is therapeutic for hoomans too.
Hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
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!
Sally, so glad to hear the love and support for my boy.
Part of the reason I am posting so much is to remember everything going on and to help the others that are about to go through the same journey. It was so helpful for my prep and knowing what to expect.
We still haven’t had another potty break yet, but his appetite is definitely back. That prepared fresh dog food choice was the way to go for Chisum, it came in this afternoon and he loves it! 🥰
We are all much more relaxed (possibly from exhaustion) tonight and learning the signals for what he needs! I am definitely surprised on how well he is getting around already, I keep the towel around his belly just in case but he hasn’t needed much today. Still waiting to see how that first squat to 💩 is going to go lol!
Aww you are welcome. Post as much as you want, it's therapy and it's also how members learn from one another. Plus we really do want to know how he's doing.
Try to encourage him to at least urinate, you doing want him to go longer than 12 hours. I'm wondering if the sling might be making him feel to awkward to go?
I totally forgot about your appointment this Monday! Be sure to have a list of questions and notes ready for that day.
Hope you have a restful snuggly weekend!
Jerry - Thank you, it really is like therapy lol! And I genuinely do feel like y’all appreciate the updates after hearing stories, can’t imagine not hearing the progress part!
He can move pretty well without me holding the weight in his rear, so I have been keeping the towel up around his rib cage but trying not to hold too much weight so there isn’t too much pressure in the pee pee area.
We just had a trip outside again for his 2nd pee since surgery!!
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