Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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About 9 weeks post op. We're counting weeks now not days.
Well I don't know about Nick the Newf Ambassador. My husband was performing at a historical festival yesterday, at which Nick had behaved perfectly last year. So we get out of the car. I'm walking him on a leash down the block.... when suddenly there are two huge animals which should be in a pasture. They are walking down the middle of the street! They are pulling a big wheeled cart with helpless little children on it! Nicky goes loping down the street with his leash flapping, barking in his big voice!! They were huge mules, over 16 hands I think, kind of like escaped cows which we herd back into to the fields... Nicky returned. He had made his point, but surprise! Everyone was mad at him. The mules paid no attention to him but the people put him back in the car to cool down. Later on he watched the mules passing a few feet away without a peep. Very interesting animals.
Today at the dog park, someone who comes only on Sundays remarked that Nick's movements are smoother than last week. His playtimes with other dogs are shorter than pre op, but lots of fun. We're continuing our early morning adventures daily and he's getting stronger. That front leg is getting massive.I tried some videos but the result was not great. I'll try again this week.
The cytoxan arrived yesterday. Thanks so much for the information in your post above. Based on the video, I am going to halve OSU's prescription and give the 19 mg cytoxan pill to Nick every other morning, and give him some morning chicken broth water, gentler on his bladder. He's a guy who saves his pee longer than he should for marking purposes. I've been giving him a half dose of the rimadyl since July 31 because OSU said to start early and he seems to tolerate it very well. I'm going to schedule a CAT scan and blood draw in a month, no intermittant draws. Nick's therapist doesn't encourage my not following OSU's advice, but she says if I were doing something dangerous or illegal they would take action. Otherwise I've found they kind of humor me. Since the statistical "results" are simply retroactive probabilities anyway, I'm wiling to take the chance that lowering the dosage won't be as effective in exchange for an excellent, uninterrupted quality of life for Nicholas. It fits the dog he is. We're having housefuls of relatives for the next week, so I'll start the two week schedule when they leave.
I can't find the information mentioned briefly above about the efficacy of metronomic therapy with amputation and no other chemo. Do you know where that is? That's our category, plus Yale vaccine. Thanks again for the post.
[Image Can Not Be Found]
Our four year old grandson made this sweet picture of me and Nicky. See his wings? Now he can move around better/
(NICE four year old invented spelling!)
[Image Can Not Be Found] I went to the library and copied the URL of this image and opened the image widget and pasted it in. What did I do wrong?
https://nicholasnewftripawdscom.tripawds.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=627&action=edit
I think you copied the url of the page you used to upload the image rather than the url of the image itself.
Yes, thanks, so now here is the URL of the image. How can I delete the empty post above?
Our grandson made this sweet picture of Nicky (nic-e). He has wings so he can fly and three eyes so he can see all around
We walked along the river yesterday and two deer jumped onto the path quite near us. One leaped over the dog park fence and Nicky chased the other about 75 yards and back into the blackberry bushes. Nick found a path through the woods and came back very happy.
He had his blood draw for Yale, which I was a little scared about, but the tech who did it has known him since he came to his vet visits in a stroller, just a little huge guy. He loves her. She said he laid his big head in her lap and she drew the blood. Didn't faze him at all. He still loves her. So maybe she can do some of the metronomic blood draws. She suggested getting through to the OSU oncologist and seeing if their weekly protocol could be adapted.
Coming soon! a picture of the giant Newf stairs my husband made. They are 24" deep so a Newf can walk up them, not hop and the first time was easy for him. Nick ate dinner up in the kitchen last night. He's been whining before dinner down in his room lately and I thought he was bored and hungry, but he just wanted to be with the people. Very happy last night.
Oh, what a cute drawing! It's so sweet of your grandson to give him wings and an extra eye!
I look forward to seeing Nick's custom newf stairs. They sound awesome!
Finally, I'm not sure if you can delete your own post. If you can it would be under the post settings, which is the icon with the little cog wheel on it. Do you want me to delete your earlier 2 and my response?
It's OK, dont' worry about deleting those posts, we don't mind. You can't delete your post once someone has replied to it. Don't ask me why, no idea.
LOVE the drawing! Nice indeed! 
I can't find the information mentioned briefly above about the efficacy of metronomic therapy with amputation and no other chemo. Do you know where that is?
Honestly I'm pretty sure that info isn't out there. I do know that when we asked about the same treatment for our Jerry, all the vets could tell us back then was that IV chemo was much more effective than oral. I do not know if further studies have been done since metronomics has fallen out of favor as even a secondary treatment. It's a good question for an oncologist though.
We love these stories about Nick getting his mojo back! Tripawds can pretty much get away with anything, especially if you say the C-word! 
Hope your visiting family is simply amazed by how well he's doing.
Here are some videos to Nicky loping along. They are slowed down as you can see by his friend Ollie trotting beside him.
This was just before the deer jumped out so he speeded up even more.
Here's another. We are almost two and a half months post op. We were looking at his gait and I can't seem to get the Settings to speed it up to normal. Anyway his movements are flatter when chasing deer. He and Ophelia have great ear motion! That's the 4 year old artist in the yellow raincoat.
We also saw llamas walking along the path this morning. I shoved Nick back in the car. Llamas are another giant animal that does not belong on a public pathway. People, dogs, scooters, bikes, skateboards YES, Mules, Deer Llamas, (cows) NO. Nicholas has his standards.
Oh Nicholas, you ate poetry in motion. For a great big dog with!
Thanks for the delightful ears that fly, Nicky runs with grace 😎
And that little drawing the child did is absolutely precious. A keepsake forever with with a lovely sentiment♥️
I love that he has his buddy Ollie to trot along beside him, A very handsome fella'.
And oh my goodness, a very interesting trail that seems to attack a wide variety of critters'
Thanks for the videos. They definitely show a very Happy boy👍
Hugs
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!
He is amazing! He seems to be in great shape. Was it wet out in that video? I would be paranoid he would slip but it looked like he had solid footing. Swimming seems like it would be such a perfect exercise. I wish it was something Honor (or my dog with orthopedic issues ) was interested in, but they definitely aren’t water dogs.
Here are Nicky's stairs. Basically three stacked boxes of 3/4" plywood progressively smaller, with the "lids" extending over the old stair. The usual people stair rise is fine for giant dogs, the 42" width is nice, but most important, these stairs are 24" deep so he can get front and one back foot on them and walk, not leap, up the stairs.. Less impact on that front leg. Deeper would be OK too. Cardboard protects the house baseboard and stair wood. We were fortunate in having a stair light in the right place for this and a heavy railing for people. Because we had the landing at the bottom of the stairs, no nails in the woodwork at all, otherwise you would need to stabilize the bottom stair front edge. The two smaller stairs are stabilized with a strip of wood and 3 nails. I got rubber backed mats from Tractor Supply which seem very stable, alternated the colours since dogs have poor near depth perception, blue and yellow for dog visibility. I love these stairs too! Now I can carry coffee outside without spilling it.
The stairs are making such a big difference to Nick. He can come and go to the main floor level as he pleases (Kitchen, greet guests at the door, front porch, our office). He stands at the bottom of the steep family room stairs and looks wistful. We say Use your stairs, go around, and he's getting it. He's arriving in the kitchen just in time for canning season, a hairy black speed bump, even if now only 122 pounds, is something to move hot jars around! He's full of life and having fun, going to a barbeque tonight which should be hard on his diet.
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