Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hello All,
We've recently just had our 8 1/2 year old greyhound in for surgery on the 25th. Surgery went fine, but they did want to keep him two nights (25th and 26th). He came home with us today, and after a terrible car ride filled with absolute screaming and peeing halfway home then a fiasco getting inside, he continued howling in ?pain? for a half hour or so until he seemed to calm down then fall asleep.
Since then he's battled taking his pills/meds, and had two productive (peeing) trips outside with a few drinks of water. After that round, he again began absolutely screaming and twisting around his beds until we managed to get a trazadol down his throat. He finally seemed to fall asleep again (and has been sleeping).
This seems like phantom pain , but we're not sure if there's anything extra we can do. He's on tramadol, amincaproic acid, trazodone, gabapentin (300mg!), and cefpodoxime.
It's pretty nauseating to hear him howling in pain and I want to make sure we're doing everything we can.
We also noticed his pee was pretty dark orange, and I thought I read that's pretty normal given the amount of bruising. It doesn't seem bloody but it's hard to tell..
Hello there! I see you were in the Tripawds Chat room earlier. I'm in there now if you want to talk. More in a sec...
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
OK so just wanted to add, welcome! You're in the club nopawdy wants to join but we are glad you're here. Now, what's your pup's name?
I see you're in the Chat now, yay! Meanwhile when you are able, tell us; is he on a Fentanyl patch? Oftentimes that can make dogs craaaaazy wild. I'm guessing he's on some good pain medication based on the other meds you mentioned.
If the trazadone doesn't help let your vet know asap, it's not uncommon for pain meds to need adjusting.
OK I'm hopping back in the chat now...
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Whipped cream cheese for pills
give a bunch with no pills. Then with pills. Then without
Greyhounds and Lurchers don't have a lot of body fat and their systems have a harder time metabolizing and ridding the body of anesthesia. And I think a lot of them show more sensitivity to some meds like Fentanyl. Did he come home with a Fentanyl patch? Were they administering it via IV at the hospital? Fairly common and somewhat necessary, but Fentanyl in particular and some other opioids seem to cause dysphoria in a lot of pets. Since the Trazadol seemed to be effective in quieting him, I wonder if that is at play and if it won't improve as his body processes it out.
I would suggest talking to your vets about staggering the pain meds to get better coverage and possibly even changing the dosage of Gabapentin. 300 mg is not that much for post amp with a Grey - and the dosing range is wide. I remember thinking my boy needed less Gabapentin, but the solution was actually more. We increased to 400 for a while pre amp when pain was at its worst. My go to with meds was a "natural" peanut butter sweetened with honey instead of Xylitol or artificial sweetner. Jif Natural with Honey was perfect consistency for wrapping pills and popping in his mouth. He may also really have an upset stomach - gastroenteritis induced by the pre-op and post op fasting.
Sending best thoughts for improvement!
Lisa, Minneapolis
On October 27, 2016, nearly 6 months after amputation, and 18 months since his cancer likely started, we lost Pofi to a recurrence of Soft Tissue Sarcoma in his spine quite suddenly. His canine sister also succumbed to cancer on March 1, 2019 - we lavished her with our love in the interim, but life was never quite the same without her only real canine friend. Cliff kitty had to leave us, too, suddenly, in August 2019. Lucia kitty grieved all these losses, but helped us welcome two new Lurchers into our home and our lives, Shae and Barley.
Thanks all for the feedback! Our pup's name is Silas. He was on Fentanyl while at the hospital and was at least on it still the day after his surgery - he was really restless for them so they started him again. I don't know if he was still on it yesterday morning (day 2 1/2 post surgery), though.
It seems like the site is still causing him issues. Last night we got him out around 1-2am after a LOT of coaxing to get him up. He drank, went outside and peed, then came in and laid down on his amp site. He lasted about 15 minutes there before he started crying a bit until he finally relented and got up/let us (albeit forcefully) get him to lay down on his other side in which case he slept for a good 8+ hours without howling.
It's been extremely difficult to get him up, so we've been bringing a small bowl of water to him when he refuses to get up to keep him hydrated. He gladly sits up and drinks from it, but we limit it severely as he's gulping air as well and the last thing we want is a bloat risk! He did strong-paw me a little bit ago refusing to let me set him up on his front elbows to drink (stuck his paws straight out and went rigid!) until he realized it was water and not be trying to force him out.
We tried the cream cheese method (solid from the tub not the brick) but found he wanted to lick that more than eat a chunk of it. Out of desperation we tried deli turkey and he absolutely loved it. Even the tramadol sitting loosely in the turkey was no issue! Though we did take to placing the pull into the turkey with tweezers which seems to help massively.
At this point my current issue is not being able to get him to willingly get up, even for treats/snacks. Even now he's restless about an hour after all his meds (including the gabi and trazadone) so I'm pretty sure he needs to go out but is just moving around in bed instead of getting up. Any suggestions?
Is there a reason he is not on an anti inflammatory? The trazadone and Gabapentin and tramadol can be sedating and make him vocalize but because. We had to stop the opioids 5 days after surgery because our guy started to getting loopy from them. He was so much better on the Galliprant alone.
Yeah, thinking Silas is still processing the patch out of his system. As mentioned, that, along with the trazadone can definitely make him so woozy and dizzy and disoriented. I think once the trazadone and the patch get out of his system, he may be less vocal and less restless.
My guess is, while working with your Vet, tweaking some of the meds, eliminating, reducing, or increasing, etc may be helpful as you move forward.
The Gabapentin and Tramadol are good for pain, as well as an anri-inflammatory.
Of course, not a Vet and not giving Vet advice. So always keep your Vet in the loop before making any changes.
Other than getting up for potty, just let him continue to rest, rest, rest. Even if he pees at first in his bed, that's okay.
Good that he's drinking and YAY for Turkey slices!!! For now, wjatecer ot takes to keep him hydrated and food with his pills.
This early part of recovery is sooo hard! This is MAJOR SURGERY, all while Silas is trying to adapt to three legs. Patience , patience and more patience is the name of the game for the first couple of weeks. Slow and easy.
Keep us posted, okay?
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!
howard said
Is there a reason he is not on an anti inflammatory? The trazadone and Gabapentin and tramadol can be sedating and make him vocalize but because. We had to stop the opioids 5 days after surgery because our guy started to getting loopy from them. He was so much better on the Galliprant alone.
He had been on Rimadyl as an anti-inflammatory before his surgery for about a week. He had hurt himself at some point a few weekends ago and started limping - we thought it may be a hip issue due to some pain in his lower abdomen so the x-rays were done just to check which is when we found the unfortunate news of osteo in his leg - and had it amputated within a week. The vet found his creatinine was higher than they liked, so they had us stop to avoid kidney damage. At this point we're leaning on the Tramadol as an anti-inflammatory.
They've currently suggested we give Trazadone as needed, so he got a morning dose with all his other pills. We're going to try to withhold the night doze of Trazadone and either hold off entirely, or give it as late at night as possible to make it more comfortable for him to sleep through the night and get a scheduled rhythm back.
Thanks again for the support all!
I would 100% recommend getting pregablin or gabapentin on board ASAP. Both drugs are effective in reducing nerve pain in humans and animals. You can also fulfill those prescriptions at the local pharmacy (might be cheaper).
Trazadone (anti anxiety drug) will sedate him but do little to relieve nerve pain.
Hope he feels better!
Bender said
I would 100% recommend getting pregablin or gabapentin on board ASAP. Both drugs are effective in reducing nerve pain in humans and animals. You can also fulfill those prescriptions at the local pharmacy (might be cheaper).Trazadone (anti anxiety drug) will sedate him but do little to relieve nerve pain.
Hope he feels better!
He's been taking Gabapentin every ~8 hours.
How is he feeling?
For our guy, Gabapentin was not effective. Once we switched to Pregablin the change was almost immediate. Generally they don't prescribe Pregablin for animals but it worked wonders.
Thanks for reminding us about the Pregablin, I have to remember to do a special blog post about it so we can point people to it.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hi there, just seeing this thread.
I hope you've figured out his pain management already, but some more advice never hurt. If I'm not mistaken, the actual effectiveness of tramadol in relieving pain has been questioned recently.
I'm 12 days post op. My girl was sent home with galliprant and gabapentin. The combo worked well with her. Not a peep. The galliprant is a one-a-day and we did the gabapentin every 8 hours. She is now on half-dose of the gab as she has been feeling better.
Also, I've heard great things about cbd oil if you can get it. I'm currently waiting on a delivery of some and can't wait to try it.
I hope this helps. Good luck with your recovery! Hang in there and do whatever you can to manage his pain! It gets easier.
Also,
Mine has bad kidneys and the galliprant is supposed to be great at pain management and easier on the kidneys than other options. That's why she was given that instead of tramadol or rimadyl.
❤
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