Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Welcome Ryder's family!
We are from Michigan too, so I thought I'd chime in regarding the snow. My dog Rocky is missing his front right leg too and I have found that his hopping through the snow is no big deal - it's the ice that causes most of the slipping issues. But he has taught himself to steer clear of the ice when ever possible and kind of treats it like hot lava. 🙂 It's kind of comical the way he will alter his path in order to stay away from ice by hopping on snowy patches in the yard. I also keep the nails on his remaining front leg a bit on the long side so he can use them for traction when needed.
As far as the slippery floors in the house, I make sure to trim the fur in between Rocky's pads on his 3 remaining paws. I don't know, maybe it's just Rocky, but he's got some LONG fur there! lol
I also want to add that I'm glad the kids seem to be coming around, and I think it will only get better once Ryder's home. 
Well, I can, unfortunately, chime in on the snow issue. We moved from the coast of North Carolina (literally, the beach) to the mountains of State College, PA. Zeus, being the southern gentleman that his southern mama raised him to be, tries not to complain too much about the snow but he just doesn't tolerate cold feet very well. He avoids the ice and tries to stay in the soft snow, but then his feet get cold and he starts holding them up one at a time and doing this funny little "dance", then he eventually just collapes down on his side and we have to carry him in. BUT, he did that even before the amputation. Now, he is a little more cautious if he is on a hill in the snow but he doesn't worry so much about level ground. Ryder will be fine if you are careful on the ice (the roughwear harness on this site could be very beneficial to help him across icy spots that cannot be avoided).
As for slippery floors, Zeus did have problems with those. As stated above, bathroom rugs work very well. Someone on this site recently laughed at me because I said it looks like a clown threw up in our house. We have different colored rugs all over the hardwood and tile (and very cold feet when we are in our bathrooms in the morning!)
Glad to hear the kids are doing better! Everyone WILL adjust to this. Good luck with recovery!
Zeus was a Husky mix diagnosed with Osteosarcoma at age 11. A visible lung met and suspicious spot on his liver meant a poor prognosis-six weeks was our vet's best guess. We decided to fight for our boy and his right front leg was amputated on 12/1/11. We did six rounds of chemo, changed his diet and spoiled him completely rotten. We were blessed with 10 great months after diagnosis. Against the odds, the lung met remained a single met and grew very little over those months. A wonderful furbaby with the most gentle spirit, he fought with a strength that we never imagined he possessed. We have no regrets...
http://zeuspod......pawds.com/
Now Zeus.... tell your mom I wasn't laughing AT her, I was laughing WITH her. We were a multi rug family too, I just really enjoyed the visual!
The two things that really helped Maggie were the Musher's Secret and keeping the fur trimmed between her toes and pads. No snow here- but keeping her pads supple really helped her traction . When her pads got dry and cracked she looked like she was on skates sometimes.
Karen and the pugapalooza
Karen that is great advice, Sammy having super long fur on his feet made him slip often, I am cutting his feet fur down all the time and it seems to help.
Sorry for Ryders start but he sounds like he is in very good hands. Thank goodness it isn't cancer, that is one less thing you have to worry about. With him being so young I think he will forget he ever had a leg there and will compensate for it nicely. Just make sure you keep his wieght down and he doesn't do too many stressful things on his body, or he will end up needing chiropractic work like my guy.
Best of luck,
Elizabeth and Sammy
Diagnosed with osteosarcoma in the right front leg 8/23/10,
leg fractured 8/27/10,
leg amputated 8/30/10
http://sammyand.....pawds.com/
I couldn't begin to say how special Sammy is to us. Living and laughing with and loving this wonderful boy is priceless.
Oh, yeah, definitely trim the hair on his feet! I forgot about that, but that seemed to help Zeus a lot.
And Karen, it's okay if you were laughing AT me. Lord knows the neighbors did when they came over and saw our rainbow colored floor!
Zeus was a Husky mix diagnosed with Osteosarcoma at age 11. A visible lung met and suspicious spot on his liver meant a poor prognosis-six weeks was our vet's best guess. We decided to fight for our boy and his right front leg was amputated on 12/1/11. We did six rounds of chemo, changed his diet and spoiled him completely rotten. We were blessed with 10 great months after diagnosis. Against the odds, the lung met remained a single met and grew very little over those months. A wonderful furbaby with the most gentle spirit, he fought with a strength that we never imagined he possessed. We have no regrets...
http://zeuspod......pawds.com/
Sammy was really good on the Wood floors until the last couple of months. Then, as he lost mobility, he got afraid. What really worked for us were carpet runnners cut and sold by the foot at Menards — not pretty, but effective.
Smilin' Sammy, March 16, 2004 – Dec. 5, 2011
Golden retriever, diagnosed with osteosarcoma in September 2010 — right front leg amputated November 2010. He fought valiantly to stay with us; but a second diagnosis of osteosarcoma, this time in his left front leg, was more than our golden warrior could overcome. He loved his pack — and everyone else he met.
We loved him even more.
Thanks for the pennies, Sammy. They helped.
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