Hi Elliot,

Yoda had spells of whimpering that lasted about 15 seconds.  It either hit him while he was trying to get up, half way up in an almost sitting position, or he started to get up because of the pain, but he would seem to get stuck in that position.  After about 15 seconds, he was able to unfreeze and lay back down and the whimpering stopped.  Freaked me out though, because for a couple days it was happening 3-4 times a day, often in the middle of the night.  But it decreased instead of increasing and I don't think he had any incidents after the three week mark post amp, though maybe once.  This may have been some phantom limb pain (going by what people said here on the forums, though Yoda's vets didn't suggest that possibility).  The vets weren't concerned about it when I discussed it with them because Yoda's incision site was healing fine and wasn't painful to the touch, but they felt it was normal that he might feel a painful twinge now and then and advised me to wait and see if it got worse and then we could discuss adding pain meds to help.  But, you know, if you haven't spoken to your vet about these spells, I'm sure it's a good thing for them to know it's happened even if they don't feel you need to do anything differently yet.

Being slightly off his food is pretty normal for all recovering from an amputation from what I've read and been told.  I wouldn't worry yet, especially if he is willing to take at least some.  Yoda was on wet food and boiled chicken and rice for most of his three weeks of recovery both to help his constipation and increase his willingness to eat.  I think most, if not all of our tripawds needed extra incentive to eat during recovery.  And some days when Yoda didn't get up to eat his dinner, it seemed he was just feeling too tired, and if I brought it to him in bed he ate fairly eagerly.  Fortunately, none of this special treatment spoiled him in the long run and he didn't expect the hand feeding to continue or the boiled chicken.  In fact, since his amputation (probably because that nasty tumor was bothering him long before I knew it) he's had a much better appetite for his dry food than he used to.  He used to leave his breakfast sitting til hours later quite often - even into the evening sometimes - and now he eats his dry food as soon as I set it down every time.

Sorry you, your lab, and your family have to go through this, but glad you found this site! 

Upon re-reading, being off painkillers after 6 days does seem real fast, and the vet was saying not to give him any earlier than that even? Yoda was given a patch, which lasted him three days after the amputation, but he was on tramadol too after that... I think.  I'll dig up his old instructions.  It's been a few months for us, so I'm not sure I remember correctly.  I don't think Yoda was on painkillers as long as 2 weeks, like Mac, but I think he was on them at least a week.

I'm with everyone else here. Make sure your dog has enough pain medicine on board. Pain is clinically proven to hinder healing in people-why wouldn't it be so with animals. My only thought is that they can't tell us that it's anxiety or constipation or whatever, instead of pain. This makes it hard-as none of us on here (that I've read) are psychic and can actually know what our dog is going through! I weaned my girl slowly off the tramadol. She was getting 75 mg three times a day, then eventually -by the 3rd or 4th week-25 mg twice a day. She also still gets Rimadyl twice a day. I tried weaning her off that one, but she does better with the NSAIDS on board, and so I keep her on it. She is 7 weeks post -amputation. I still bring the tramadol with me when we have any bigger activities, and sometimes she needs one 25 mg dose to take the edge off. She stops panting and her eyes stop spinning in circles, her breathing slows, her heartrate slows and I know she's feeling better.

This just occured to me, as I realized last night that I do this subconciously and hadn't realized my husband did not know how. I always check her pulse-to see if it's racing. If she has had no major activity and it's bounding and racing I have a pretty good idea that it is pain related.

The first week after Caira Sue's amputation she did wake us with the whimper and cry. I remember taking care of a paraplegic once who told me that when paraplegic's dream, they can run and drive. When they wake up it sometimes scares them as they reacclimate. I got the (human) impression that maybe that's what my girl was going through. She seemed to calm pretty quickly. She does not do this anymore.

It's hard to know what the answer is, but hopefully with all of us giving you tidbits of what we went through you can get an idea of what will work for you and your dog. Good luck, and please! Tell that vet to give the boy some pain medicine!

Welcome Elliott and family,

Paris, our 4 yr old Lab had amputation in January. She was on Gabapentin for nerve pain and Tramadol for pain for the first 2 weeks. We had several days that were very rough, she would cry out all night long. It would break my heart, but she got through it!! Elliott will too, hang in there, you can lead him through this tough time.

I hope that he is doing better, especially if you got him on some meds. You have come to the right place for advice and support.

I wish a speedy time of healing for Elliott, Gineej & Paris