Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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I have a 4 year old black Lab, Paris that had a right front leg amputation 9 days ago. The biopsy showed osteosarcoma, lungs, lymph node, abdominal ultrasound are all negative and that is great.
We are having trouble with her pain management , I am not sure this is normal, our vet and surgeon thought her pain should be better. She is crying out and her mood is depressed. She is eating, not happy and smiling though. This occurs while she is napping, she will awaken and cry out.
Any thoughts on what this may be, is this normal, whatever that is! She is still on large amounts of Tramadol, Gabapentin and Rimadyl!! Help
Grateful for every moment we had with Paris…..no regrets!
Honoring her life by opening our hearts & home to Addy!
The first couple of weeks of recovery usually is the toughest, once Paris gets over this hurdle, she will be cruising along nicely. That is really great news that her lungs and the rest of the tests came back negative!
It might be the side effects of the pain meds. Check with the vet to see if the pain meds dosage can be tapered off.
It sounds like she might be experiencing phantom limb pain as well. Check this out about phantom pain to see if that helps.
Have you read Jerry's top 10 FAQs?
Wish Paris have a speedy recovery. Please keep us posted.
Hugs.
gineej said:
.. our vet and surgeon thought her pain should be better. She is crying out and her mood is depressed.
What pain meds is Paris taking? You may be mistaking reactions / side effects for additional pain. I never howled after my surgery, and I was only given Tramadol.
We have heard from many who say their dog howls, paces, pants, or acts "depressed" thinking they are crying out in pain – when in reality they are often just reacting to the side effects of heavy pain medication.
Be sure to check out the links Genie provided, and best wishes for a speedy recovery. Thanks for joining the forums!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Right now she is on Tramadol 50mg 3 tabs every 5 hours, Rimadyl 75 mg twice daily and Gabapentin 200mg three times a day. I also feel like she is over drugged and these might be side effects. I would like to stop everything, but not sure I should all at once. I probably should start to wean her off them.
Thanks to all that have replied,
Paris and her Mom
Grateful for every moment we had with Paris…..no regrets!
Honoring her life by opening our hearts & home to Addy!
gineej said:
... Tramadol 50mg 3 tabs every 5 hours, Rimadyl 75 mg twice daily and Gabapentin 200mg three times a day....
WOW! I'd be howling too.
Please keep in mind that my people are not vets, but I certainly think this is a bit much, especially after nine days! You might want to DM tazziedog for advice (Just click on your Inbox above for Direct Messaging).
Or better yet, post this info and question in the Ask A Vet forum thread – it would be good to have an answer on record.
Like I said, we're not veterinarians and all dogs are different, but Tramadol should be fine at this point. That's all I ever had. Best of luck to you. 
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Paris' Mom,
Calamity screamed out in pain & contorted her body in the worst way after her surgery. She did this when she was awake & when she was asleep. When she contorted her body, it was gut wrenching to us. We determined it was phantom pain & added Gabapentin to her drug mix.
While some dogs here had reactions to their pain meds & needed weaned off, I feel Calamity needed her pain meds. We had to go back in for another morphene injection & fentanyl patch to get her over the hump of the recovery & phantom pain at the one week point. The difference with Calamity may be that she was taking tramadol off & on for almost a year. My gut told me she needed more pain relief. Maybe I had an advantage of knowing her needs from the past surgeries she had during the year, who knows?
My point here is each & every dog will need different level of pain management & you really will know what you feel in your gut. We all know how our dogs should react.
Personally, I would drop the dose of the Tramadol & see if that makes a difference. I gave Calamity one 50mg tablet twice a day.
I know it's posted in my blog, but at this point in her healing Calamity was getting 1 gabapentin & 1 tramadol in the AM & 1 tramadol & a dose of metacam in the PM. The metacam is a NASID similar to Rimadyl.
As for the “depression”, Calamity was like that for the 2 weeks after her amputation. When her staples come out was when we saw a HUGE change in her!
Imagine how you would feel if your arm had been amputated. You'd need a recovery period also.
Hang in there & take it day by day.
Janie & Calamity
Janie & Calamity http://www.trix.....gspot.com/
Thanks for the photo Ginny. Paris is looking good, how's she doing?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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