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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Thank you for the appetite tips!!
I am going to try a few things out, and I saw a few things on there we have used in the past that he loves so that is encouraging.
Yeah so today he was a lot more lively, he was perky and actually even wanted to play a liiittle bit with a favorite grunting toy until he reached a bit too far and it hurt a bit.
One big thing was he finally pooped for us!
I believe the vet mis-informed us and he had not pooped at the clinic.. that it might have been during surgery. This evening he wanted to go outside to our backyard, which required a bit more work on his end, but he went out and pooped and peed. But his poop wasn't good, according to some others the first poop after the surgery can be a bad one.. so hopefully we can help him out with some probiotics!
We are hoping that all made him feel a bit better though! We hung out outside for a few hours again which he enjoys.
I think things are going fairly well all in all, we just want to get him best prepped for his Chemo coming up in a about 12 days.
YAY FOR. 
Doesn't have to be a "pretty" All. is good during recovery!!!
I know we sound like a broken record, but continue with sloooow and easy. It is a really good sign that he wants to play with his toy.....or at least thinks he can til he said "ouch"!
And FWIW, if I recall, I waited until the end of week three for Happy Hannah's first chemo as I wanted her recovery to have progressed a bit more before she started it. So just saying a little delay, IF necessary, is no biggie.
You've got w8iite the tripawd RockStar! Keep on keeping on sweet boy👏
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!
Yeah he's sadly on more of a downswing, I do t personally think the vets recommendations on 1 Galliprant and 3xgabapentin only daily are enough.. he's been up most of the night on and off panting, and I am frankly a little disappointed that the vet we went too did not provide more.. as now Gabriel wants no treats at all and no food either.. making it difficult to give him medications.
He was up a lot tonight, but we believe it was partially because he had to poop again and didn't want to get up.
After giving him his needed meds we mad him head outside and he did the deed and is now sleepy soundly again.
Upset stomaches can be tough, especially after an amputation!
Oh there's something about anesthesia and smelly poops. I remember it well from our Jerry and after Wyatt Ray 's numerous obstruction removal surgeries! Ick!
I hope you find some appetite tricks that work for him. Remember, don't mix the pills with regular food or touch them with your hands. And paper plates are your best friend right now. See if feeding from them helps.
As for the pain meds. It's such a delicate balance. I wish there was a standard recipe for pain control but even Dr. Downing says there isn't really:
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Yeah it is tricky!
I am having a hard time telling if his general mood differences right now are pain or medication oriented, I find after sleeping all night he wakes up looking alert and ready for breakfast and he is willing to follow my partner around the house a bit.
But as the day goes on and we start his Gabapentin and Galliprant he gets quite groggy and even when he is up and walking he is a bit wobbly (I heard Gabapentin will do that, and he had it happen even before his Amputation)
He ate all his breakfast, supplements and all and cleaned the bowl. Dinner though, he didn't even touch it. So we let him rest and tried to give him a new creation of ours, home-made beef jerky, which he now loves!
All in all, for only being 5 days out from his Surgery, he's doing quite well. I am really just wishing the pain meds didn't affect him this much, but I understand why we are doing this for him, come.maybe day 8 or 9 I think we could start toning down the pain meds. They gave us medication for around 7-10 days so that would make sense!
On a separate note, would anyone know where one might find a very large open bed wagon?? Kind of like so (see below)
I think his tiredness could be a combination of two things. One, the day's activities catch up with him at the end of the day, and two, he's super sensitive to Gabapentin. So yeah, five days out is still early and he is doing GREAT which is so so nice. I agree, talk to your vet soon to discuss the best way to taper the Gabapentin down. You should start to see all of his glorious sparkle return all day long once you start doing that.
As far as the open wagon, I'm going to bet that Tractor Supply has them. But why not a dog stroller for big dogs? We find dogs will ride in them much more willingly than an open wagon.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Okay great I will take a look at both those options!
Gabe would 100% be the dog to get out of the flatbed style trailer.
As for his current status, we changed from every 8 hours to every 12 hours for his pain medications, and today was the first day where he ate two full meals in nearly 2 weeks. He was in a lot of pain before and right after his surgery, and he rarely was interested in food in the evening time. Today he also wanted to play in the snow and he tried digging in the garden, I say tried because he did a few big dig motions then laid down 😅.
He also begged for a bone, which we used to give him almost every evening between supper and bed time, but now we dehydrated our own beef jerky for him and I think he likes them as a replacement!
Overall, today Gabe was much better, and I'm so happy to see him improving and it's not even been a week yet!
WOW! What a difference in his personality. I'm so happy that just one little adjustment helped Gabe come back and into his sparkly personality! That sounds like a really huge milestone. You guys are so good to him!
Yes let us know if you decide on a dog stroller . We couldn't believe that our Wyatt would ride in one but he really loved his buggy and we loved being able to take him places without worrying about him jumping out or walking him too far. They're so cool. I can just see Gabe in his own limo!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thanks so much for chronicling his progress with great all the specific ways his sparkle is coming back.
A d ya know what Gabe, tripawds are darn cute and so easy to spoil, I bet you can dig in the gardener a time you want now....and your hoomans will think it's CUTE! Yes, there are many advantages to being a tripawd😎
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 that's exactly what were are thinking! We were known for being "crazy" and taking Gabe on usually 2-3 hour daily walks, and often 5+ hour birding days! So getting a cart or buggy would be such a perk to be able to take him out all day if possible!!
Today he also ate two meals, and at times he was quite perky, a friend came over to see him (human friend, no dog friends yet) and we took him for two 5-10 minutes walks around the neighborhood! He did do well but took a small tumble coming inside the house, but he was okay! (It's -30 here and ice and now is hard to avoid completely!
Today we only did Galliprant and GABA, we shall see how well he sleeps tonight, as last night he did wake up whimpering around 5am, then fell back asleep till 6:30 and started whimpering again!
He occasionally does whimper, most likely due to the nerve page creeping through!
Yep, dog carriages will do that, they really help keep dogs engaged with the world and the family. As long as I have Tripawds in my life I will always have one around.
I hope you all had a restful night. He's one tough doggie hopping around in -30, just like his humans. You have a terrific attitude about occasional stumbles, they aren't uncommon at all.
Glad to see that his normal fun things in life are slowly happening again. You are doing them at the right pace to make sure he doesn't overdo things.
Stay warm and keep us posted!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Good good! We are looking at perhaps something like an older Thule Cougar 2 Chariot!
We have noticed more often that he is whining at night, we aren't 100% sure why he has been whining at night, it feels as if it doesn't really matter about his meds or not, he will typically start whining around 2:30-4:00am and then we usually can get him back to bed via some warm compresses, calm music, petting at times, or a pee break.
We aren't too sure why as it always seems to be something a little different or perhaps we are just assuming it's always different.
Oh gosh you guys are probably so sleep deprived. What time are the meds given before bedtime?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Tonight he hasn't slept at all, we are finding as this goes on he is up more and more and sleeping less.
We have him some pain meds here around 2:00 am and he also had his Gabapentin around 6:00pm.
Throughout the day he is moving around and being fine no pain or noticeable issues and he even wants to go on walks and car rides. Then usually around 9:30-10pm he starts to breath heavier and pant at times. We had strange timing for his medications today as my partner was out with him and didn't bring the pain killers with her. We are trying to see if not doing the Percocet will help with appetite and drowsiness. Plus it wasn't a medication that was originally prescribed for his recovery.
He seems to have finally settled down now about 30 minutes after his Gabapentin at 2am here and a poop outside.
We are having a hard time knowing of it is pain, he needs to poop, restlessness due to lack of walks. It all seems to be pain though in my eyes. It just is strange to me that on nights where we gave him his pain meds at 11pm before bed he would still wake up at 3am most the time whining? And how the longer it goes on the worse it's getting.
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