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.
Join The Tripawds Community
Learn how to help three legged dogs and cats in the forums below. Browse and search as a guest or register for free and get full member benefits:
Instant post approval.
Private messages to members.
Subscribe to favorite topics.
Live Chat and much more!
Register
Log In
Members
Add Topic
Hello All!
I adopted a Great Dane mix a little over a year ago. We knew he was heart worm positive when we adopted him. The rescue helped us out with his treatment and he recovered wonderfully. 3 weeks ago he has a slight limp, I thought it was just a soft tissue injury until I notice it was really swollen about a week ago. Well on Sat he was diagnosed with bone cancer. It took allot of thought and we have decided to amputate his leg and give him a wonderful rest of his life. We will not be able to follow up with chemo as it is financially impossible after completing this surgery.
Instead we plan to make sure he is a happy puppy until the end. I felt guilty for a while, thoughts like "I don't want him to suffer just because I want him around", and "It has to be hard to only have 3 legs, maybe I shouldn't delay or stretch his pain out even more and say goodbye". After reading allot of these stories on this forum about happy puppies until the end we decided to have the surgery. This will also give us more time to prepare for that moment we have to say goodbye.
I have had Shiner for a year and 5 months. I hope he is happy the rest of his life. He is a happy boy, weighs about 105# and loves to please us. We live in Houston, TX and hopefully once he recovers we can try to meet some other Tripawed puppies.
Offline
Welcome and thanks for joining! We look forward to following Shiner's progress in his blog. Your future forum posts will not require moderation.
Try to free yourself of guilt. You have done well for Shiner by deciding to remove his pain. Many members have found the book Without Regret helpful in coping with the human emotions your feeling. And there are plenty of alternatives to chemotherapy. Check the Tripawds Nutrition blog for lots of canine cancer diet and supplement recommendations.
FYI: We chose not to do IV chemo for Jerry and he lived two years past his osteosarcoma amputation. We started him on metronomics and K9 Immunity after discovering his lung mets. Nova is a blind three-legged Great Dane who recently celebrated her 32 month ampuversary!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Welcome to Tripawds! Sorry to hear that your pup has to have surgery, but he'll be up & about in no time! He will amaze you with his ability to get around etc. The next 2 weeks are going to be tough, so make sure you get lots of rest. Please keep us posted on Shiner's recovery.
Sending you lots of golden hugs!
Cathy
he will cope on three legs better than you can imagine and probably much quicker than you expect but it will be hard for you and definitely sleep while you can. we had 3 sleepless nights after Dizzy had her amputation and then about a week of broken sleep as she was so restless due to the meds she was on. Good luck tomorrow
Dizzy diagnosed with osteosarcoma 24 may 2011 amputated same day doing fine hopping around on three legs giving the neighbourhood cats what for
Wishing you all the best for tomorrow!
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.
Shiner is lucky to have such a great family! We had the same reservations about Bo's surgery, but he is 7 weeks post-amp and doing pretty well. We are also not doing chemo and have chosen to focus on "quality of life" not "quantity of life". We changed his diet to a grain-free diet and added some good supplements too. He is swimming, rolling in the grass, and giving us puppy eyes for treats, just the same as he ever did.
Good luck with Shiner tomorrow! Keep us posted!
Good luck with the surgery. You'll be amazed how well he'll do, once he gets through that rough coupla weeks of recovery.
Definitely check out the supplements info that "admin" posted about. There are some options that don't break the bank, but whatever options you choose/don't choose, try to not have any regrets over what you 'could have done'. You're doing the best things you can for him and it all comes out of love. The biggest thing is that after the amp, the pain will be gone.
All the best.
Jackie, Abby's mom
Abby: Aug 1, 2009 – Jan 10, 2012. Our beautiful rescue pup lived LARGE with osteosarcoma for 15 months – half her way-too-short life. I think our "halflistic" approach (mixing traditional meds + supplements) helped her thrive. (PM me for details. I'm happy to help.) She had lung mets for over a year. They took her from us in the end, but they cannot take her spirit! She will live forever in our hearts. She loved the beach and giving kisses and going to In-N-Out for a Flying Dutchman. Tripawds blog, and a more detailed blog here. Please also check out my novel, What the Dog Ate. Now also in paperback! Purchase it at Amazon via Tripawds and help support Tripawds!
Thanks everyone. Anxiously waiting to hear from the vet! Its been lonely at home without him since last night.
To echo most of everyone's posts, the first few weeks are the toughest, but you'll be surprised how fast they adapt to being a tripawd! We also could not afford to do chemo, and are just focusing on living each day to the fullest. We have changed Chili's diet and he's on supplements. He just had his 2 month ampuversary and is doing well- running, rolling, being "beautiful", eagerly waiting for the temperatures down here to drop below 95 so he can stay outside longer 🙂
Diagnosed with OSA: 5/2/2011 Ampuversary: 5/11/2011 OSA returned in hip: 8/26/2011
Chili Dawg crossed the Rainbow Bridge on 8/30/2011 & is now pain free. He was my heart dog, and I miss him every day.
My dog Callie had her hind leg amputated last Thursday for bone cancer, so I know exactly what you are going through. We struggled with our decision too, but we decided to go ahead with it and give her a chance at a good life. My brother had a golden retriever whose leg was also amputated due to bone cancer and lived for 7 years afterwards!! She is our inspiration and a big part of our decision to go ahead with it. Callie has been doing great...she was up and walking around the day after surgery. The only problem is keeping her from licking her incision (it is not bandaged). We keep a lampshade collar on her most of the time, which she hates, but its for the best as she has already gotten at least one staple out of her incision. It's nice to see her walking around pain free again (for the most part right now anyway!)...she was like your dog limping for a few weeks and then not walking on the leg at all once it became extremely swollen. The first few nights were a little restless mostly because of her dislike for the collar, but she seems to be a little more comfortable now.
We are not doing chemo either for financial reasons, but we did switch to a grain free dry dog food and added some mushroom supplements after reading others' posts on this blog. We're hoping these changes will help to extend her life expectancy.
Good luck to you and Shiner!
We'll be thinking of you today and tomorrow. And hoping you don't have many stairs in your house...105 pounds...wow!
[I had to carry my 50 lb boxer up and down the stairs for about 10 days. But he's a big baby and really milked it for as long as possible.]
But seriously...best of luck with the surgery.
We are thinking of you. He is lucky to have you. You will be amazed at how quickly he responds to the surgery. It might be a bit bumpy for a week or two but hang in there. You are doing the right thing.
Surgery was completed and everything went fine. Hopefully we get to pick him up this afternoon! His bone will be sent in for a complete biopsy, they did an ultrasound and didn't notice anything other than 1 lower lumbar lymph node was 7.6mm instead of the normal 7.5mm, they said its texture looked normal so could just be enlarged from the stressed immune system. So far nothing noticeable in his chest or abdomen.
We plan on switching diets and adding some supplements as well. I need to do more research but that is the plan. I will get some pictures posted online of him, some before and afters.
1 Guest(s)
