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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Double Stuff Patou! LOL 🙂
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Darling pictures of Patou! Love the costume! Our dogs are saints to let us do that to them!
Comet - 1999 to 2011
She departed us unexpectedly January 23, 2011 at the age of 12 1/2.
She was born with a deformed front leg and a tripawd all of her life.
Patou sure is a big handsome boy. Fortis loves to get all dressed up as well but there sure better be a reward for the effort 
Thanks for sharing the photos.
Fortis'Dad
Thanks for the compliments!! I took him on a haunted campground in one of our big State Parks here in Indiana in this get up and the kids just swarmed him. I was meeting a friend there and she said all she had to do was look for a swarm of children and she knew that Patou and I would be at the center of it!!!! It was a fun nite!!!! He enjoyed it as well!!!! 
Hi Janet and Patou -
Wow! I'm really late to the party, and I'm sorry about that. I wanted to weigh in on chemo and it's effects. My big boy, Lincoln (not as big as Patou, but 115 pre-amp) had his rear leg amputated last March. He, too, started chemo right away (carboplatin) and just sailed right through all of his treatments (although ours were $1000 a session, I guess I should have gone to Dr. Pam). He really didn't ever have any of the listed side effects. After he had finished all chemo treatments, we noted, but only after the fact, that he may have been a little lethargic, but by and large, he didn't show much change.
Good luck with treatment and recovery. Lincoln is doing fantastic at the ten month mark. He's still met free, and hasn't a care in the world except to make sure there is a squeaking dog toy or a tennis ball handy. Once you get past the worst of it, things sort of get back to normal, thank goodness.
I'm sure Patou's hair will have all grown back before you know it.
As an aside, I just adopted a dog who the shelter declared to be part Pyr, and after reading your description, I'm convinced it's true. She's a 90 pound love of a dog, without the slightest big of ball drive (she and Lincoln are a great pair, no ball battles when one doesn't care).
Good luck and please keep us all posted!
Rhonda and Lincoln
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall – Confucius
http://credocan.....pawds.com/
Hi Rhonda and Lincoln,
Glad to hear your Lincoln did SO well!! Do they really lose their hair?? I thought that was more of a person's side effect?
I have been perusing the posts. I am starting to get a little of the guilts. I was thinking back about the first time I noticed the limp and it was way back in July. It just kept getting worse and I didn't even get him back to the vets thinking that time would heal that ACL.... but it didn't because it was not an ACL. We had had a couple of horrible months at the hospital maxing out on our births on the OB and we were all exhausted working overtime and then it just hit me like a ton of bricks that I HAD to get him to the vet because something was terribly wrong. I hope that I did not wait too long and cost him a precious few months. He had a lung xray and it was clear at the time prior to the amputation. I was reading Cherry's mom's posts to the new greyhound.. I can't recall that baby's name, but she said that during recovery if they are up to it to get them back slowly into their favorite activites. All the water dogs... returned to the water... all the snow dogs.. returned to the snow...all the working livestock breeds returned to their animals... and all the rest... returned back to whatever made them happy... and ALL the dogs... returned back to loving and being a crucial part of their families!!!!!! I was just thinking... wouldn't it be SO nice if people were born into the jobs that they were supposed to be doing and it truly made them happy like Dogs are born into the work and roles that make them the happiest???? Hmmmm just food for thought.
Good luck with your Lincoln!!
Janet and Patou!
"Glad to hear your Lincoln did SO well!! Do they really lose their hair?? I thought that was more of a person's side effect?"
I just meant from the shaving for the amp. Their hair doesn't really fall out. Although now that you mention it, Lincoln's amp site hair didn't really grow back super great until after the chemo was over.
Also, no sense in feeling bad about when you brought Patou in. If only they could talk, it would be so easy, but they can't, so nothing to be gained in feeling guilty. I got so lucky with Lincoln because he had just had ACL surgery a few months before, so I brought him in because I thought something was wrong with the TPLO. Little did I know…And, it's only now that I can call it lucky, back then I was horrified at the number of surgeries I'd put my boy through.
And yes, Lincoln was back in the water the moment his sutures were out. Just be careful not to let Patou over extend himself while he is getting chemo. They do tire more easily (this is what I noticed later).
It would be nice in many ways if we could be more like dogs, don't you think? 🙂
Rhonda and Lincoln
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall – Confucius
http://credocan.....pawds.com/
oh... my bad!! My local vet asked me about hair loss with the chemo and I told her I thought it was more a human side effect but from what I read that chemo does affect hair follicle growth and if you think about it, your hair falls out daily normally and regrows daliy so why wouldn't chemo affect it.
I am sorry but the little avatar/pics are not showing up on my pc so I can't see what breed Lincoln is. Is he a water dog? Yes, I agree, I think this chemo is making Patou more tired and he is sleeping ALOT! I think the day out at the sheep lot AND the pig farrowing barn was a bit too much for him. He is growling in his sleep which he never did before now, although I don't think he is exhibiting and real signs of pain. I have two lab pups and they constantly growl and whimper in their sleep but they are just pups. (I call them puppy dreams!!) I also feel badly for my pups as I feel like I can't 'be' there more for them right now, as alot of my energy and time is spent on Patou because I just don't want to miss any extra time I would have with him.
We will get a CBC next week on Patou and I am curious to see what his white count is.
I agree Rhonda... dogs have it figured out and we can learn alot from them!!
Janet and Patou
pyrlover4ever said:
My local vet asked me about hair loss with the chemo...
I am sorry but the little avatar/pics are not showing up...
Your vet asked you? Here are a couple links where members have shared details about their pup's fur regrowth:
How long did your fur take to grow back after surgery?
FYI: Avatars have been temporarily turned on in the forums.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
This is Lincoln. He's a golden retriever. He rocks. And runs. And swims. No, I'm not proud of him at all!!
Cometdog sometimes calls him stinkypants, but I think she's just jealous of his long, flowing, golden, gossamer locks.
Hope Patou is doing well. I'm sure he'll be running soon.
Rhonda and Lincoln
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall – Confucius
http://credocan.....pawds.com/
Lincoln is gorgeous!!! great photo! He is a happy guy!
Jim.. yes I guess i am still confused as to whether I can expect some hair loss with this chemo.(my dog not me... but you know with all this recent stress I woulnd't be surprised if i got some grey hairs AND some hair loss!!) I didnt' think it affected them much but maybe it does. I guess my local vet (not my oncology guy) asked about the hair loss because she was unsure too. Guess we will find out.
janet and Patou
Stinkypants!
Comet - 1999 to 2011
She departed us unexpectedly January 23, 2011 at the age of 12 1/2.
She was born with a deformed front leg and a tripawd all of her life.
Hi Janet and Patou
Wow. I'm really late to this party. First, I want to say Patou is simply gorgeous. Love the pictures. Such a noble, sweet face. Pyrennes are beautiful!
Our Golden Retriever Catie (at the time 6 years old) had her right fore leg and shoulder amputated due to osteosarcoma almost a year ago now. Her chemo treatments were started about three weeks after surgery, and our oncologist used a protocol of alternating therapies: doxorubicin and carboplatin (every three weeks). Catie didn't have too many side effects from the carboplatin, except some loss of appetite and lethargy and mushy poops. The doxorubicin was significantly harsher on her, particularly the second treatment. We had initially planned on doing 6 treatments but stopped after 5. She was tired of it all; we were tired of it all. Each treatment, including blood work etc., cost between $650 and $700+.
You asked about hair loss. Catie did lose some fur; she lost all her facial whiskers and a lot of feathering on her tail. Although the whiskers came back months after treatment stopped, her tail hasn't regained its former thickness; not near as spindly looking now, but nowhere near what it once was. Not a big deal in the end, really, though . She doesn't seem to mind at all.
Hope Patou is doing well and continues to. Look forward to reading more of him and seeing more photos!
Carmen, Catie and Riley
Catie -
Birthday – November 4 2003
Amputation – January 13 2010
Crossed the Bridge – June 2 2011
Hi Patou and family,
Well, I see you have garnered a fair bit of attention since your first post! But then why wouldn't a pyrenees like Patou? My Tazzie was half Pyre and half collie (border collie probably, although I tried my best to avoid admitting it) to the best of my knowledge. I did not have any experience with pyre before him, so was always wondering what parts of his personality were pyre. The collie was pretty obvious. Your description of deep barks combined with a wagging tail, and also the 'no aggression but physically blocking any threat' was extremely familiar. If Tazzie did not want a vet to do something, there was no aggression. He simply would not budge or open his mouth, etc.
Anyway, it sounds like you are on carboplatin, which seems the easiest of the chemo drugs for these guys to handle and probably the most effective. My Tazzzie did lose hair in spots that were growing back after surgery, but it seems most dogs do not. He also lost that beautiful Pyre tail fur he had, so his big beautiful lush tail turned into a wimpy straggly tail (small worry considering!).
Don't get the guilts. Tazzie had been licking his arm for about 6-9 months before he started to limp and a few months before it was diagnosed. Many dogs are diagnosed incorrectly for many months or even a year. But even though having amputation gets rid of the bone pain, it does not necessarily slow the course of the disease. So at least on that front, you shouldn't worry too much. There seems to be a lot of luck in the lot they draw, despite minor contributions of variables such as being neutered or age.
I saw a description of a pyrenees on another website (was it on the bone cancer dogs website, maybe?) that was something like 6 years post-amputation. Cool!!!!! But we can't all be that lucky.
The main thing the people and dogs on this site can teach us is to enjoy the time we have. I am happy to have had four wonderful months with Tazzie post-amp, and they felt more like a couple of very sweet years. If things were different, we might not even have had that. And if it wasn't for this support group, what turned into a special time could have been rather horrible.
Best of luck to Patou in his journey!
from a fellow almost Pyre, Tazzie and Susan
Thanks guys, Tazzie, Susan, and Carmen, katie and Riley,
Wish my avatar pics would work so I can see pics of all these guys!! I bet the Border Collie/Pyr mix was interesting. Two great breeds!! Thanks for the info on the hair loss. OH.. I always HATE it when anything messes with their big beautiful tails!!! I had to take my PYrs to the groomers and finally just had them shaved last summer... their fur was a mess, but they had to cut out alot of tangles out of their tails which left them straggly! I hated that!!! I always tell any groomer PLEASE dont' mess with their big beautiful tails!! They are both pretty much back to normal coat wise, and they are in full winter coat at the moment. I love it when they have their winter coats on as they both look SO majestic and white!!!
thanks again
Janet and Patou
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