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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When we do the surgery and get Sierra home, what recommendations do you all have? They say to keep her in a small room or kennel carrier rather than free run of the house and help her walk to go potty and do normal stuff for the first couple of weeks. Does that sound normal? My guess is that she will do an awful lot of sleeping the first day or two and then get a little restless.
I 'walled' Maggie off in the livingroom with an x-pen. Meaning I used the x-pen as a wall as my house has an open floor plan. That way she was on the livingroom RUG and not on hardwood floors. I'll forewarn you, the first two weeks could be HELL. It was for Maggie and I. But she could be great in a day or two as well. Goes both ways around here....
Tracy, Maggie's Mom
Maggie was amputated for soft tissue sarcoma 10-20-09
Maggie lost her battle with kidney disease on 8-24-13
She is beautiful. Very sorry about what's going on. Duke never had cancer, but did have an amputation. I can say Sierra will probaly surprise you by how well she does after the amputation. As soon as most of Duke's pain was gone from his first surgery he was a whole nother dog. We did barricade him in the bedroom with baby gates. He seemed to slip on the hardwood floors. Also we watched for any spills or anything that might trip him. We just watched him like a hawk and helped when we felt he needed it. But every dog is different and takes to amputation in their own way. We hope for the best on her surgery and recovery.
http://marmaduk.....pawds.com/
For what it's worth…Our experience was the opposite. Isabelle was up & active in less than 48 hours post op. I did not confine her, because she was managing the four stairs into my bedroom as soon as she got home. She is an independant soul & I decided very quickly (after I tried to lay down with her, because I was tired & she acted like I was crazy!) it would be best to let her figure things out ASAP. I too have hardwood floors. I put Power Paws socks on her & the traction they provided gave her confidence. Of course, she fell, but was able to quickly get up & learned how to pivot & change direction pretty quickly. I took on on short walks the first evening home. She walked down the stairs to the outside, but was & still is carried up-this because of spinal arthritis, not amputation.
I do think some of her success had to do with analgesia choice. A discussion prior to surgery is well worth the time. I was not in favor of tramadol, unless needed for breakthrough pain (fortunately, neither was the surgeon). Isabelle had a fentanyl patch for 5 days, eliminating the the peaks & valleys & instead providing steady pain control. I didn't want to waste valuable recovery time chasing pain or nausea, nor did I want her in an artificial narcotic sleep, only to wake up when the drug wore off, in pain I restarted her metacam, I believe, on POD#3. She also had acupuncture POD#2 & 4.
Everyone recovers differently, but so much of your dog's reaction is dependant on your own. It may be hard to see them struggle, but you'll all get through it faster than you think.
burkbr said:
When we do the surgery and get Sierra home, what recommendations do you all have?
Generally, what we have seen is:
- Tripawd comes home from surgery
- Tripawd is happy, excited to be out of pain.
- Tripawd feels great, then overdoes it because s/he's doped up and pain meds are still in system.
- Tripawd crashes hard about 2 days after coming home, sleeps a lot, then within another week to two weeks, is getting around fairly well, consdiering.
It's important to not let her overdo it, and confinement is good if she can handle it. If she's crate trained, that's super! Have her spend more time in her crate. Give her lots of post-surgery fun brain games to do.
If she's not crate trained and confinement might upset her, then you will need to play it by ear. It's good to keep them as contained as possible, but not to the point of stressing them out. Your goal is to return to a sense of "normalcy" as soon as pawsible so that Sierra is able to fend for herself and get strong. If you baby her, bring her food/water, and constantly hover over her, she will feel weak, worried and take longer to recover.
Here are some great post-surgery tips from our friends at California Animal Rehabilitation.
Play it by ear. She may or may not need help pottying those first few days, it really depends on a dog's individual physical condition and pawsonality. Have a canvas bag with the sides cut open, ready to use as an impromptu sling if she needs help pottying, but don't force it if she seems to be getting around OK. Floors should be a slip-proof as possible to avoid falls. And as for walks, keep them short. Overdoing it and too much activity can lead to fluid build-up and leakage during those first 2 weeks.
After about 2 weeks, when she is strong and able to do a lot more by herself, then you can start thinking about rehab activities, etc. Until then, take it one step at a time and see how she does.
And of course, keep us posted OK?
Good luck!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thanks for all your experiences and thoughts. Sierra is crate trained and loves spending time in it so that is will be helpful. I saw some other posts about potential agression and other dogs. We have a sweet Akita mix that is her bestest buddy who can be agressive so will definitely keep an eye out for that.
I am actually beginning to look forward to this thanks to you all. Looks like we will get it done next week. We will keep you posted!
Happy New Year everyone!
So here we sit, the night before Sierra gets her right front leg ampawtated to remove what is strongly supspected to be osteosarcoma (initial biopsy show suspicious cells and pathologist recommended second biopsy). I can't really explain the delay for treatment since she was diagnosed several weeks ago other than we got caught up in a whirlwind of questions and back and forth with several vets trying to sort out our final plan of attack. Have been reading all we can to get us up to speed so we are prepared as well.
In typical labradork fashion, she continues to bounce off the walls and run around the yard guarding her territory from the on slaught of ground squirrels and rabbits wishing to invade her territory. I guess they will be getting a reprieve of the next couple of weeks during her recovery. I will do my best to protect her territory while she heals!
Between being the sweetest, goofiest, most loving, and spoiled rotten little princess of a dog and the kindness and graciousness of all of you here, we are hitting the ground running on three paws now! We still are not sure what sort of chemotherapy options we might have because we will not know for certain until the final biopsy comes back after the ampawtation. What we have done, though, is start her on some herbs for now. We are thinking about mixing in vitamin c IV therapies with the chemo but not sure yet. I understand that the oncologist may not like the idea since the whole purpose of chemo is to lower the antioxidants in the body.
Can any of you share any experiences or point me to an old post some where that might have talked about vitamin c or herbs? I am also trying to catch up on chemo posts to learn as much as we can.
Thanks for the update, and best wishes for a speedy, trouble-free Labradork recovery! Please be sure to discuss giving supplements during chemotherapy with your oncologist.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
My thoughts are with you as you face the amputation, it is indeed the second scariest day to this point. You will make it through, but not without doubt. I wasn't sure we had done the right thing until the day we picked Trouble up after surgery for the trip home. The moment I saw her I knew it was the right thing to do.
You have a couple of weeks to research and ask questions about chemo. The general recommendation is to start within 2 weeks of the surgery. Some begin immediately, Bob's Cherry started immediatly following surgery. Our chemo was 2 years ago, and we had 5 rounds of carboplatin. This drug generally has milder effects than some of the others. You can do your research while you go through recovery hell - about 2 weeks before they are off the pain meds and have the stitches/staples removed. Trouble had the most beautiful incision ever - no external stitching or staples - just like a plastic surgeon had done it, but I think she's the only one of the group to have this.
Please try to rest while you can, your natural tendency when Sierra gets home will be to stay awake and watch her sleep (night and day). Take it from one who knows, it is much better for you and for her to rest while she rests. If she wakes and needs you, you WILL hear her. It is just like having a new baby - the slightest movement or noise will wake you.
Sending good thoughts for a speedy recovery.
Shanna & Spirit Trouble ~ Trouble gained her wings 3/16/2011, a 27 1/2 month cancer survivor, tail wagging. RIP sweetheart, you are my heart and soul. Run free at Rainbow Bridge.
The November Five - Spirits Max, Cherry, Tika, Trouble & Nova. 11/2008 - 3/2013 An era ends as Queen Nova crossed the Bridge.
Just got back from dropping off Sierra to get rid of that spare. 
Thanks for the link and info about talking with oncologist. We did stop the herbs the day before surgery to avoid any potential 'issues' at the recommendation of the vet. We will figure out over the next several days and couple of weeks what sort of mix if anything we should give her based on talking with with both vets. Both of them seem to work together rather frequently so at least there is some dialog in the professional community about the different options out there. The technology is just simply amazing out there but tracking down information can get a little over bearing at times. We will keep you posted.
Sounds like Sierra is in good hands. We'll be thinking of you both...
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
I also wanted to suggest an x-pen. I have a 45lb Border Collie and she loves her crate, but it was much more difficult for her to get into and turn around so she could lay on her good side in the crate. I made my x-pen into a circle so the cone couldn't get caught in the corners if I wasn't home. We set it up in the living room and I slept on the couch or on the floor in the pen with Kess.
By the end of 2 weeks she was doing great. Her whole attitude is much improved. Everyone agrees she's much happier now that she's pain free.
Hi Burkbr,
We are now 10 days past Io having his front leg removed and so thought I would add our experiences.
Io was in the vets for 3 days after the operation and the vets actually did the first work with getting him on his feet.
Once we got him home, the first 24 hours after getting him home were the hardest for us all - he was still very shaky from the drugs and was all over the place menatlly and physically but he was able to get around (for a drugged up dog that had a leg amputated 3 days before he couldn't hop out of the vets fast enough when we went to get him !). He did seem to be very thirsty when we got him home - he emptied 3 large bowls of water in a short time which then seemed to give him stomach ache, all of which made for a very unpleasent hour or so before he settled down.
48 hours after coming home he was in much better shape, I honestly think his major problem was actually us being too keen to physically support him rather than let him work on finding his new balance. He was up and ready for his dinner and had worked out all his balance for toilet functions (we had expected a couple of "accidents" but in fact we had none at all).
We have hard floors and so purchased some large foam interlocking tiles that have covered our living room floor and we restricted him to this room at first but we are now letting him take his first tentative steps elsewhere. I should say that keeping them in our living room was easy for us as this is where they have their beds. Someone did sleep downstairs for the first two nights as he was very restless but after that we left him to it at night.
The rate at which he has adapated is really quite amazing particulary since we were warned that it will be harder for him as a large dog to adapt.
Io did suffer with a few muscle spams in the last week which caused him some yelping but there is some brilliant information on here about how to help with this. The only real problem with his movement seemed to be once he was healing and then went to lie down, he seemed to forget that he didn't have a leg/shoulder on that side and so would go down with a bit of a thump and a yelp but he seems to be working that out now.
Even in these difficult times there are some bright moments - Io has now adapated his way of asking to go to the toilet if he needs to go during the night, when he had 4 legs he would gently kick the door, obviously not an option with 3 legs so he now seems to do a kind of 3 legged tap dance to get our attention !!
We have not taken Io out for excercise at the moment (bored Dog ) and restricted his exercise to the garden. He will shortly be going out for the first time, we are not going for a walk as such but are planning to take him to a local park and let him get used to being out and about in public and build up his tripawd stamina slowly. maybe will take some piccies and post later
Good luck !
Io and co
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