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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Hi Jerry and all tripawds pals,
Its been awhile i've register here since i get Yellow from street after his accident. Yellow is a male mongrel dog i believe, though he looks like Lab a bit. Yellow is a very friendly puppy that greet everyone in our area even stranger. The family that keep him was not watch after him and just let him run free into the street while he is still puppy which less than 2 months. Because of this, he always come to us and play with us even he had slept in front of my house gate for few nights...how cute whilst sad in such a scene. And one night, Yellow was hit by the car and his hind leg was cramped heavily...after i hear the crying sound of dog from far, i rush there and i had saw Yellow crawled while the blood was spilled terrible from his hind leg. While i carried him to our closer vet, i saw one of his family member at house gate and having no responding for Yellow's injured. And that was cynical! But luckily Yellow sustain the pain until tomorrow morning for the vet to open. After the long battle with the injury, his leg was infected by worms and doctor suggest to amputate it. 1 weeks later, i've been heard actually Yellow had abandoned by his family for being slip out everytimes and sleep at other people house...what an excuse...and the most irritating scene was, the family start to keep another breed of dog!! Sigh...
I don't know whether my decision is right or wrong to amputate Yellow's injured leg...sometimes i think about it when i start to worry arthritis which develop in tripawds much more than normal dog after i read up the articles. But at least, i can assure Yellow is safe and happier to be with us and no more stray for him. I tried to find any about the Advanced Cetyl-M here but seems not available, and i'm curious if any tripawds here had try this before or any method to prevent the onset arthritis problem. I would like to try out because there are many positive feedback for Cetyl-M although some dogs has no luck with
it. Thanks. 
"To be followed home by a stray dog is a sign of impending wealth."
Wow, Guner and Yellow, what a story. Did you hear us going "awwwwwwww" when we were reading it? We have tears in our eyes.
Guner, you are a saint for doing what you did to help Yellow. Please don't question your decision to amputate one bit. You absolutely did the right thing. You saved Yellow from a miserable life with some ignorant fools without any sense of responsibility or compassion toward animals. Peope like that should not be allowed to have dogs, they don't deserve them! Oh don't get us started!
You, Guner, are a beautiful human being. We wish there were more people like you in this world. Where do you live?
Yellow looks and sounds like he is doing great, all things considered. Is he showing any signs of arthritis? If he is healthy and active, I wouldn't worry too much about it. The times that arthritis may be an issue with three legged dogs is when the dog is older, and already has a touch of it. But if Yellow is still a pup and doing great, I would just feed him a good diet, and a good glucosamine supplement, and let him be a puppy for now. I did find some information about Advanced Cetyl M from a reputable source, but don't know anything about it. Maybe someone else here does.
Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, we are so glad to hear about one more dog that is being given a second chance at a great life on three legs. Keep in touch OK?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Jerry, thanks for you kind words. Its could be motivate me to move few extra miles...aha. I am a Malaysia citizen who live in the Penang Islands. In the moment, Yellow not showing any pain, or stiff while walking, and unbelievable running...he adapt three-legged very well thus far. But i can see his front legs were sustain the extra weight from the body and it looks a bit bend while moving along. But he is lot happier than before his amputation sugery which carried the injured leg. Doctor said there got no choice for him to his front legs and just gave some vitamin. And i gave both of them, Yellow and Gavin the dry food, PROFormace brand.
And here some question:
I used to gave Gavin (5 years old Pinscher) the dry food and some of the human processed food cause she will not eat at all until there is some human food lol. Then i scared those human food could harm their health system slowly. Is it OK or any better suggestion for her?
And Yellow was definitely enjoyed his dry food only like he had starving for few days...lol.
"To be followed home by a stray dog is a sign of impending wealth."
Gunner,
Yellow is so blessed to have you!!! Your compassion for this tripawd will reward you in love on a daily basis! What a wonderful story.
Your decision to amputate was the right one. Yellow deserves to have a happy, fun life & can now do that without pain.
I give my tripawd a glucosamine supplement called GLC5000. Not sure if it is available in Malasia or not though. My tripawd is an ex-racing greyhound & my belief is that they will always have a degree of arthritis from their racing career so prevention is the best medicine. Make sure you get a glucosamine supplement that is bio-available to canines.
Janie & Calamity
Janie & Calamity http://www.trix.....gspot.com/
Guner7 said:
And here some question:
I used to gave Gavin (5 years old Pinscher) the dry food and some of the human processed food cause she will not eat at all until there is some human food lol. Then i scared those human food could harm their health system slowly. Is it OK or any better suggestion for her?
Hi Guner,
You are so funny! We are honored to have you as our first member from the faraway Penang Islands!
Well, some human food can definitely be bad for dogs, like onions, chocolate, raisins and other processed food. But for the most part, most human food that is not processed is actually better for dogs. There are just too many chemicals and poor quality ingredients in most dog food that you can buy in places like the supermarket.
There are two schools of thought on how to feed dogs human food; some people prefer to cook their dogs meals, and make things like stews for them. Other people prefer the "Bones and Raw Food" diet, which is what my pawrents fed me.
We have some information on our Health Tips page, and our Resources page. Keep in mind though that we are by no means experts, so do a lot of reading and don't make a sudden change in your dogs' diet or it may cause stomach problems.
We're going to be that if you switch Gavin and Yellow's diet, they're going to LOVE eating this way!
Hope this helps. Keep us posted OK?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thank you for your courage, kcgrey. And for your information, i'll search it at my local store. Jerry, I've read up several articles about BARF and is quite complicated at the first, but will try to change from commercial dog food to have their longest life. But Yellow stump happened to swelling last few days, and took back to vet, and he will back today. The wound seems dry but still not cover all yet, and this is my very concern whenever he had wound since his first wound had infected by worms. I've sent him back to vet few times for this matter, cause i scared his wound is going to infect by worms again and everytime the wound seems to heal faster if he stay there...what is the secret? Less activity? I feel that i must know the reason so i can take care of myself and not squish my wallet too much...lol. Any suggestion for this? Thanks again and ask a bit more i know!
"To be followed home by a stray dog is a sign of impending wealth."
Hello Guner!
I think that Yellow's leg might heal faster at the vet because they are able to keep him indoors and keep the wound covered. Do you have a lot of flies in your yard? They will lay eggs on your dog's wound and the eggs hatch into maggots (little worms). The best way to prevent this is to keep the wound clean and dry. Are you able to bandage the stump?
It is great that you are taking such good care of Yellow!
Pam and Tazzie
Hi Guner! Sorry to hear that Yellow's wound isn't healing. Please let us know what the vet said OK? Good luck.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hi Tazzie, i never know the flies egg make those scary worms develop on the wound...aw!! I am relief now cause Yellow wound already covered well. And something weird here which is the abdomen (that near to the amputate area) was blacken if compare to the first day when he back from the vet. But the doctor told me that this is normal for the area which had been amputated...
He still having some skin problem which he will go and bite it, and the vet did told me he would choose the amputate stump to bite for being this issue. So i had to wear him the funnel colar until he can get rid of his skin problem in 1 to 2 months time.
Apart from this, everything seems to be OK for him...Just need to teach him our PEE rule which have to be done in the toilet like what Gavin do...lol. It seems quite difficult to teach an him with my previous method...any suggestion from you guys? Moreover, i only off at Sat and Sun that me not so consistence in this. Thanks again guys.
"To be followed home by a stray dog is a sign of impending wealth."
Hi Guner & Family,
What a huge heart you have to help Guner! You absolutely made the right decision to allow the amputation of his leg because he wouldn't be here on this earth without you making that brave move. Guner will get over the hard times of having his leg healed. Is he on pain medications to help him not be so nervous? Could it be that he is having "phantom pains" because the leg is now gone and that's why he's trying to bite at it? There are several different types of pain meds available here in the U.S. and I'm wondering if you have NSAID's (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) available to you? It's good that since flies are common in your area that the wound is now covered as our good vet, Pam (Tazziedog) has said that the flies will lay their egg larva in the wound and that's where the "worms" come from. Your heart is "gold" for helping this dog! Good luck and Guner's hard times should improve here fairly soon once he is all healed up. He will surprise you with how well he can do on 3 legs.
Love, Blazer, Kitty Kimber & Mom (Vicki)
Hi Guner, it's great to hear from you, thanks for the update on Yellow. We are glad to hear things are progressing normally. He sounds like a beautiful, strong doggie who loves his new home.
Now, if you can teach him to pee in the toilet, we've GOT to see that! Good luck!
Your friends,
Rene, Jim & Spirit Dog Jerry
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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