Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi everyone,
Story: Our puppy, Aurum, is a 5 month old Belgian Mallinois mix. When we adopted her, she had a prior break in her front right leg that had heal improperly and involved the joint. She had the limb amputated on July 17 and all that remains is the shoulder blade. She spent the night at the vet, and we were able to take her home the next day. She is on antibiotics and Previcox. Considering she never had much use out of the limb anyway (she was found at 3 months old with the leg broken and healed incorrectly) she is doing great without it already. 
Our problem: When Aurum wakes up from a nap she immediately begins crying/whining. It really seems as though she is waking up from a bad dream. We calm her down by petting her and calming telling her "everything is okay." After that she lays down beside us or bites on one of her toys. It doesn't seem as though the crying is caused by hunger, pain, or needing to go out. We are in the same room when she wakes up. After her last nap, she attempted to run into another room with her tail between her legs, whining.
Has anyone else experienced this?
Thank you all so much for having this community.
Hello and welcome, your future posts won't require approval.
Aurum is adorable! Thank you for adopting her and giving her a great home. It sounds to me like this could be the result of not enough pain medication. Is she on anything besides the NSAID? If not, please call your vet and ask for something stronger like Tramadol, or ideally Tramadol and Gabapentin, a drug used specifically to alleviate nerve pain. Keep in mind that dogs are very good at hiding their pain (especially a breed like the Mallonois), and they do their best to hide it.
For just being a couple of days out of surgery, she is likely feeling the result of severed nerves, which is known as phantom limb pain. What you are describing sounds a lot like it. We have lots of information about phantom limb pain available throughout our community, here's a few places you can start:
- Tripawds News Blog : Post-Amputation Side Effects in Dogs
- Tripawds News Blog : One Vet’s Canine Amputation Surgery and Recovery Tips
- Tripawds News Blog : great phantom limb pain tips here
- Tripawds Downloads Blog : EMFs and Phantom Limb Pain Discussion
Most dogs are on pain medication at least until the stitches come out so it's something to consider. Have a convo with your vet and let us know how she's doing tomorrow OK? We are here to help.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
I have a 7 year old Great Dane named Bailey that had front amp in Feb. of this year. Just finished 5 rounds of chemo (Carboplatin.)
I can tell you my Bailey never had separation anxiety but now she does. I sleep with her and if we go to the door to leave she just cries. She never was like this her and her sister would take a dog treat and go to their beds and lay down.
I'm thinking ours is from the surgery and being in the ICU for 3 days, she didn't do real well with the surgery.
If you're on a lot of pain meds or tramadol. I know tramadol can have effects like crying, confusion etc.
My Leland was a hind leg amp but I can't say he really cried out/whined after the amputation. Leland had been on Tramadol before and didn't do real well. He flat out refused to take the meds and fought both my husband and I when we tried to get the Tramadol in him. So when the clinic that did his amp wanted to put him on Tramadol we refused it. He was however on the Gabapentin and did well on that medication.
Every dog is different and you just have to work with your vet on finding the right combination for Aurum.
As Jerry said it sounds like the pain meds may need some adjusting and perhaps Gabapentin and/or Tramadol being added to the Previcox.
Good luck and let us know how things progress!
Sending Aurum positive thoughts for a safe and speedy recovery!
Sahana and her Angel Leland
November 17, 2009 - June 30, 2014
May you finally be healthy and running free at the Rainbow Bridge. Until we meet again my sweet boy!
Online
YOUR PUPIS ADORABLE!!! AURUM's luck changed once you became his forever home!
Yeah, ditto everyth i ng Jerry said!!! Can you imagined a human having such a major surgery and being sent home with just basically an anti inflammatory??? I bet if that Vet had major surgery like this he would be begging for painkillers!!!!!
AND, Aurum is at the point now where all the hospital meds are out of.his system so he's really feeling that nerve pain. Talk to your vet and get him on some Tramadol or.Gabalentin..or both. Yeah, drugs can make them a little loopy sometimes until you get the proper balance...but I'll take loopy.anyday over pain!!!!!
Update.when you can. Oh, and please post more photos! Aurum is soooooo cute!
Hugs to all!
Sally.and Happy Hannah
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!
Thanks for all the advice. We took Aurum back to the vet today and adjusted her pain medications. The vet added Tramadol to the Previcox. Hopefully this combination will let her rest easily!
I'm new to the blog thing, so hopefully I will learn how to post more pictures of our fur-baby soon.
Oh good glad to hear there's some tramadol in that mix now. If she starts acting anxious, panting or pacing, keep in mind that could be the tramadol. Just let your vet know and you can fine tune the dosage.
Here's basic instructions on adding photos, with more details here.
Once you have your photos uploaded to a photo sharing site like Photobucket, Flickr or Facebook, something like that:
- right click on the picture you want to share
- select "copy image location" from the menu
- return here to the Forums, reply to this topic to open your post editing box.
- choose the little text box icon above the reply box (6th icon from the right, with the mountain shape in the box)
- paste the URL from your clipboard into the box field that says "Source"
- Click OK
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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