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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My wife and I just had to make the decision to amputate our 13 week old puppy's rear leg. Dakota is a beautiful golden retriever full of love and joy and he's actually undergoing surgery right now. I'm trying to learn more about what I need to do next. Where should I go to learn more about what I can do to help him in his recovery process, what I can do to help him be as strong, fast, and capable as possible, what's different about raising him now, etc? I know there's a lot of information out there but I would greatly appreciate some guidance from those with experience on the best resources to find what I'm looking for.
dakota0425 said
Where should I go to learn more about what I can do to help him ...
Welcome, your futue forum posts will not require moderation. Best wishes for Dakota's speedy recovery. As a pup, he should adapt quickly and manage well on three legs. Let everyone know why he's having the amputation so we can provide relative advice.
You'll find lots of recovery and care tips in Jerry's Required Reading List, and for immediate answers to the most common dog amputation questions download the new Tripawds e-book Three Legs and A Spare.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
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Welcome to Tripawds.
Sorry to hear your pup is in surgery. On the bright side of losing a leg so young is that three legs will pretty much be his norm. And I'm going to guess that at 13 weeks you are not dealing with cancer.
I bet Dakota will heal up quickly, the young pups seem to sail through recovery, but the first to weeks or so can be full of ups and downs.
You should read up on the rehab and strenghtining information on this site. I'm on my iPad right now so making links is hard- but look through the Featured Blogs. You want to be sure you build both strength and endurance as Dakota heals and grows.
Let us know how the surgery goes, and when he comes home.
Karen and the pugapalooza
Aww Dakota is the same age as our girl Kayla was when she had her amp. The biggest problem we had was trying to keep her calm, we actually had to take her off the pain meds after a few days cause she thought she was 10ft tall and bullet proof. 4 days after surgery she started digging in the garden again!!! (she lost her front right leg) Hopefully yous have the same sort of problems with recovery, with Dakota being so young aswell, as they are good problems!!
If you have slippery floors try to cover them with rugs (our kitchen looked like a multicolour mixture) to help with traction also raised food and water bowls can be helpfull too. After amputation dogs can't walk as far as they used too but slowly build up their stamina with shorter walk once they are fully healed up (stitches out etc).
Best of luck and hope the surgery goes well. Keep us updated about how Dakota is going and ask any questions you have.
Sarah
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