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.
Join The Tripawds Community
Learn how to help three legged dogs and cats in the forums below. Browse and search as a guest or register for free and get full member benefits:
Instant post approval.
Private messages to members.
Subscribe to favorite topics.
Live Chat and much more!
Register
Log In
Members
Add Topic
Offline
They will lay on the incision s8de at their own pace. And when they do, that means that the soreness is going away. I do remember that it took my Happy Hannah several weeks before she would lay on that side, but man6bdogs do it sooner. So yes, just leave that up to heim, and even if it's just for a few minutes at a time, that's still a good sign.
Glad he's resting more comfortably. You're doing a great job!
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!
Online
Wooohoo! Yay for productive meetings! 😉
Yes it is normal and ok to lay on the incision side as Sally mentioned. Some dogs do it right away, some do not, it's all on their unique timeline.
I hope today's vet visit goes well. Let us know what they say about his pain meds OK?
We just got back from the vet! They took his fentanyl patch off and we discontinued the carprofen. He was a champ in there showing off his new tripawd skills!
She said we did the right thing with giving him the gabapentin at earlier intervals. She upped the gaba with the 100mg capsules added to the 300mg and got a sedative to use if he really can't calm down. She just thinks that medication hit him wrong, she said it was completely fine to be off of it as long as we were keeping track of his symptoms and that we can start back on the tramadol we have leftover if needed.
She said his bruising looked good, she checked to make sure there were no hematomas. She was happy he was moving around well and had already had productive business meetings 😂💩
He is home and comfortably resting without staples pushing in his side! Also, we are very excited his recovery suit came in so he can rock the onesie and protect his incision since he wants to lay on it! 🥰
WOW sounds like the best any visit can get after surgery. See, you are doing everything right and he's well on his way to 100% healing. I'll bet it was the patch staples that were annoying him. Let us know if his anxiety behavior stops.
And we can't WAIT to see him in his new business suit! Do share!
Glad the check up went so well. Very good report back from ths Vet
Doigting you will have sedate him. His restlessness doesn't sound too "over the top" and the pain med adjustment should help settle him more consistently now.
Good 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 and Sally, thank you both! Your support has been irreplaceable!
I was so happy for the report from the vet! Chisum has been resting soundly since the vet other than his very successful business trips 😉 Mom’s have had some relief and rest as well! I do think the staples on the patch had a pretty big impact. We had a little mishap involving an itchy ear on the left side with a nub trying to scratch it, but we took care of it with lots of scratches on the left side and got a little rowdy and played with a squeaky toy while laying on a pillow! 🥰 I’d say he’s getting back to his normal goofy self
unfortunately you’ll have to wait on the new business suit, it was too small for his GSD mane/dewlap and deep chest. We have another one on the way though!
Aww you are so welcome. Sooo glad you all got some R&R. Crazy that it was probably the staples bugging him so much. Makes sense though. Ouch! No way I could deal with that kind of thing.
Ear scratching is always so tricky for rear-legged amputee dogs. We had a back scratcher near us at all times to help Wyatt. There was nothing sadder than seeing him trying to "air scratch" with his stump! Bet it felt really good for Chisum to get such relief, finally.
Bummer on the new suit! Can't wait to see the next one that comes in. Hope you all have a great day!
Chisum, love hearing that you got a little rowdy today!! 👍
Rowdiness, resting well, doing your bidness like a chsmp AND your Moms are adapting very well....standing ovation to all!! 👏👏👏
And it still gets soooomich better!
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!
We had such a good day today! Couple trips outside for the 1st order of business and one 2nd order of business completed!
We are on the adjusted gabapentin dose and it has him a little loopy here and there but overall much better. He got a little restless around 10 or so this morning and wanting to hop all over the house without our permission so in efforts to keep him inactive we gave him a half dose of the sedative which was just enough to keep him lazy but not too drunk!
We haven’t had another air scratch yet, but he’s definitely having some twitching or maybe muscle spasms above the incision.. if I see it I try to run my fingers over it with a little pressure to ease the spasm/twitching. I assume this is part of the nerve repairing and rewiring itself after the trauma? I’m not sure he even notices it but I read on one of the pages that rubbing the area can help with phantom limb things.
Excitedly waiting for the recovery suit for him because he really wanted to lay on that side today but could only do it for a few minutes at a time.
The dawg is back in business! Oh yeah! The stock market's going to go sky high now that Chisum is in charge 🙂
Glad he was able to rest without being zonked. Sounds like you got the right dosage. By sedative do you mean the Gabapentin or did they give you something else? Just curious.
Muscle spasms are normal, and unless he yelps when they happen, they shouldn't be bothering him. Phantom leg pain is accompanied by yelps, sudden anxiety, and jumpiness. On the other hand, normal muscle twitching is pretty common and doesn't always have pain attached to it. Our Wyatt's stump twitched randomly throughout this life, and never posed a problem. Yes, the severed nerves are a bit angry and confused. Eventually the brain and the nervous system comes to an agreement that the leg is not there, at least that's how it's supposed to work in theory.
That's such a great side he wants to lay on the amp side. What happens when he does? Does he get up and move around?
Better start investing, business is booming! 😂
They said the gabapentin could have sedative properties to it.. but with how strong and alert he was at the vet they prescribed us one just in case he got a little big for his britches. Trazodone is what they gave us for the sedative.
He hasn’t yelled with any of the spasms or twitches. But sometimes he’ll look back at the area after he moves the stump or during the spasm and just kind of stare, could be because he’s under the influence though lol! Good to know Wyatt experienced much of what we have going on over here
He slowly lays down on the amp side, and he’s okay at first but then tries to roll over on his side and then gets up. He did lay down on that side and rolled on over once today and was okay until he did the trademark inch worm around to stretch out all the way but he hopped up after one inch lol
LOL! That is good to know. Nothing like regular business meetings once again.
Oh Ok I thought you might have been talking about the Gaba. The Traz can definitely make even a big dog wonky so keep being cautious with that one. It knocked out our Wyatt when nothing else would, but he hated every minute of it.
I think in time he'll feel more comfortable laying on his incision. Once it heals you can do more gentle massage around it to break up scar tissues, and laser therapy can help with that too. Imagine him getting to wear those cool laser therapy shades with his new suit!
What a cutie. I haven't even seen him yet and I'm totally in love!
Think I mentioned before, it took my Happy Hannah several weeks before she would lay on her amp side.....most definitely not before stitches were out. Chisum will know what works best for him and when.
Yeah, as Jerry said, some stump twitching is normal off and on. No biggie. Just goes with the territory.
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!
Yeah the traz definitely got him even though I did have a dose, so we only gave a quarter dose today which was pretty much perfect! Today was the first day I went into my office, his other momma was off work with him but he did really well! He was SO pumped when I got home, he picked up a toy and played for a minute and is back to resting after a double business trip!
Cool glasses and the suit… goodness he’d be a force to be reckoned with 😂
his ankle on his leg opposite the amputation looks swollen this evening, I’m currently icing it. Just wondering if this would be from fluid from swelling and gravity bringing it down into the leg or if it’s something I should be worried about?
if I could figure out how to post pictures from my phone to here I would! He wants everyone to see his handsome self! (Or maybe that’s just his momma thinking he’s the most handsome boy in the world 😉)
Cool glasses and the suit… goodness he’d be a force to be reckoned with [Image Can Not Be Found]
Add to that the Tripawd Cuteness factor that melts hearts everywhere 😎
The ankle swelling is probably excess fluid still finding it's way to be absorbed. You can also try gently massaging it upward almost like you are petting the ankle from bottom to top of leg (make sense?). Of course, if the swelling continues or gets worse let your Bet know .
I'm going to PM you my email now. If you would like to just email me some pictures of Chisum and I'd be honored to post them. 👍
Cant wait those his handsome self!!
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!
3 Guest(s)
