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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Thinking of you and Sessy this morning Gayle. Pawsitive, healing vibes being sent your way!
Nancy- mom to the FABULOUS Fionn. He rescued me in 2015 when he was 6.
Right front leg amputation at age 7 for osteosarcoma 10/6/16. Taken too soon 6/12/17. Read about our journey here:
http://fionnsjo.....pawds.com/
Hi Gayle, we met in the chat room last nite....thinking of you and Sessy today, sending pawsitive vibes for a successful surgery. As mentioned, the first couple weeks of recovery can be rough, but it does get better. You seem to be in a great place, emotionally, which is huge. Looking forward to updates, and helping you with your journey. Welcome to the family.
Paula and Nitro
Nitro 11 1/2 yr old Doberman; right front amp June 2014. Had 6 doses carboplatin, followed by metronomic therapy. Rocked it on 3 legs for over 3 years! My Warrior beat cancer, but couldn't beat old age. He crossed the Bridge peacefully on July 25, 2017, with dignity and on his terms. Follow his blog entitled "Doberman's journey"
"Be good, mama loves you".....run free my beautiful Warrior
Thinking of you and Sessy and sending hugs and every pawsitive vibe.
Meg, Clare and Elsie Pie xxx
Ruby, Staffy, born June 2022, became a Tripawd, November 2023, adopted January 2024.
Also Angel Tripawd Meg (aka The Megastar), who died in April 2023, aged 14, after seven glorious years on three, and Angel Staffies Elsie Pie and Bille. In the pawprints of giants...
Ditto Gayle. Sorry I missed you in the chat this morning. I'll try to stay there most of today if you want to talk. xoxo
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hello all........Sessy's surgery went well...... just getting home cuz wanted to stick around long enough for her to wake up. Actually got to peak in on her since she was still out of it to much to react to me.
Love from Sessy and me💕💕
Gayle - mom of beautiful greyhound Sessy. Sessy diagnosed with osteosarcoma on 12/26/16, left back leg amputated on 1/2/17. Feline siblings Mooshe, Tinkerdude, Odie and Bean
YAAAAAY!!!! Sooooo glad to hear this!!! Way to go Sessy!!!
And looooove the avatar picture! What a sweetie!! 🙂
I remember when NANCY' posted about "meeting; you....meeting you in a Universe energy field sort of way!! 🙂 So glad you found your way here.
I LITERALLY stayed in the waiting room (aka worry room) the entire day for Happy Hannh's surgery day. My other BFF dog vuddy stayed with me the whole time too. Finally, about 8:00 that night they told me surgery went well znd I could go see her. She, of course was completely zonked out. I lay on the floor with her,and spoke to her and told her how much I loved her and what a good girl she was. Bodie came over (he was avout 14 lbs, she was 125 lbs), sniffed her, nuzzled her neck, znd then we left for home. Sorry, TMI! Just letting you know I understand the need to stay and see them with your own eyes!
Get a really good sleep tonight!! Sessy will be resting really well too
Lots of love!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
WOO HOO Sessy! SO glad to hear the surgery went well. I know you were worried about anesthesia since greyhounds are more sensitive. Ditto getting a good night's sleep while you can. Did they say how long she would stay?
Nancy- mom to the FABULOUS Fionn. He rescued me in 2015 when he was 6.
Right front leg amputation at age 7 for osteosarcoma 10/6/16. Taken too soon 6/12/17. Read about our journey here:
http://fionnsjo.....pawds.com/
They said maybe tomorrow, but I'm pushing for her to stay 2 nights. Of course instead of getting my rest, I called the hospital to see how she was. Sessy is dopey but ate her first meal.... and entertained people with her cute little dropping of food on the floor because of the no teeth. Now that I know she ate I can go to sleep.
Nite
Gayle - mom of beautiful greyhound Sessy. Sessy diagnosed with osteosarcoma on 12/26/16, left back leg amputated on 1/2/17. Feline siblings Mooshe, Tinkerdude, Odie and Bean
Get lots of rest- Sessy is in good hands.
So glad the surgery went well!
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Great news! Glad she did well, and eating is a good sign!
Otis - 106 pound lab/Dane mix, lost his right front leg to osteosarcoma on Febuary 9, 2016. Four rounds of carboplatin completed in April, 2016. Lung mets August 25, 2016. Said goodbye too soon on September 4, 2016. Lost his adopted sister, Tess, suddenly on October 9, 2016. likely due to hemangiosarcoma.
Wherever they are, they are together.
Go Sessy, go Sessy!! Great that she's eating and the dopey part is to be expected. I'm sure she's wormed her way into everyone's hearts with her cute self. I hope you got an extra day. While I'm not sure it would have mattered all that much with Fionn, coming home the day after such a major surgery sure seems crazy. But, they are less stressed at home so who knows?
Nancy- mom to the FABULOUS Fionn. He rescued me in 2015 when he was 6.
Right front leg amputation at age 7 for osteosarcoma 10/6/16. Taken too soon 6/12/17. Read about our journey here:
http://fionnsjo.....pawds.com/
That's wonderful news. Eating is an excellent sign. Hope you get a good night's rest.
Meg, Clare and Elsie Pie xxx
Ruby, Staffy, born June 2022, became a Tripawd, November 2023, adopted January 2024.
Also Angel Tripawd Meg (aka The Megastar), who died in April 2023, aged 14, after seven glorious years on three, and Angel Staffies Elsie Pie and Bille. In the pawprints of giants...
Hi Gayle,
This is my first post, I have been using the site for support for a few weeks now which has been absolutely invaluable.
I am so glad to hear Sessy's surgery went well. She looks absolutely gorgeous, I had to chuckle at her dropping food on the floor due to no teeth - she sounds just like our girl.
Our girl Lilly is an 11 and a half year old greyhound and had her right rear leg amputated 4 weeks ago today. I don't want to take over your thread about our girl so am going to put up a separate post about Lilly's journey to becoming a tripawd but just wanted to share our experience post amputation. What I will say here is we were very unprepared for Lilly's amputation so had done no research or preparation for a tripawd prior to finding our Lilly in that situation.
Lilly is now 4 weeks into her life as a tripawd and is doing really well - I am a very very proud pawrent!
As people have said in many posts I've read, the first 2 weeks were really tough and I wondered whether we'd done the right thing on a number of occasions. It took Lilly nearly a week for her to start eating and about the same to have a poo. She mainly slept for the first 3 weeks and only got up when we asked her to to go to the toilet or have her food. She did find getting up quite difficult to start with but is finding it easier every day (she did not like the sling we got to help her in the first few days at all). She has quite a high pain threshold (unless she thinks somethings going to hurt her and then she cries) so we didn't have any problems with phantom pain which I know some dogs have. We went with Lilly's pace and took the signals from her as to when we felt she was ready to start having short walks, try the stairs etc. She is quite an independent dog so we had to leave her to do some things on her own as she wouldn't do it if we tried to help her.
4 weeks post surgery she is back to pestering me when its time for her meals, including waiting in the kitchen for her bowl to be filled up . She has just started to play over the last couple of days (although she did manage to open her presents on Christmas day 
) and has started to wag her tail again
!! The only thing she is not doing that she did prior to her amputation is the stairs, she can come down them ok but can't go up them so we're having to carry her. She was never very good going upstairs pre amputation so I am not surprised she is struggling with this.
All in all, Lilly is doing amazingly and I am sure Sessy will too once she's had time to recover and adjust to life on 3 legs.
I think our main problem now is me! I still find it difficult at times to let her just get on with things and still want to wrap her in cotton wool which I know I can't and shouldn't do as she needs to enjoy her life to the full, but my heart is still in my throat at times when I see her going downstairs or walking on the tiles rather then all the rugs we've put down. This is something I am really working on as I don't want to stop Lilly being Lilly and enjoying herself.
I hope Sessy has a settled night and is home soon. I hope you also manage to get some sleep, if you're anything like me you'll be awake watching her all night when she does eventually come home.
Take care and keep us posted on Sessy's recovery
Gemma and Lilly
Gemma and Lilly, welcome. We're so glad you took time to share Lilly's story so that Sessy's maw can feel better! And we look forward to following Lilly's story in her own topic, thanks!
It sure sounds like she's doing great. Hoppy Four Week Ampuversary!
Oh and don't worry too much about her going upstairs at this point. She'll get there. Since dogs' bodies use the rear legs for propulsion, it will take time for her to get strong enough to do them alone, but it'll happen. Our Wyatt Ray was the same, he took a while to master going up any steps at all. He especially hesitated on open-backed steps for a long time. The handle on the top of the Webmaster harness is great for assisting going up and down stairs, if you don't have one already.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Welcome Gemma and Lilly. I am also a big fan of the Ruffwear Webmaster Plus harness. And my Otis didn't start doing the stairs until somewhere in month 2, maybe even almost month 3. (OK, I didn't open them up until then, and then he looked at them for a couple of days, but once he was up, it was no problem). Just give Lilly time and follow her lead.
Otis - 106 pound lab/Dane mix, lost his right front leg to osteosarcoma on Febuary 9, 2016. Four rounds of carboplatin completed in April, 2016. Lung mets August 25, 2016. Said goodbye too soon on September 4, 2016. Lost his adopted sister, Tess, suddenly on October 9, 2016. likely due to hemangiosarcoma.
Wherever they are, they are together.
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