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.
Join The Tripawds Community
Learn how to help three legged dogs and cats in the forums below. Browse and search as a guest or register for free and get full member benefits:
Instant post approval.
Private messages to members.
Subscribe to favorite topics.
Live Chat and much more!
Register
Log In
Members
Add Topic
Offline
Hello TriFriends:
My daughter Lucy, blue nose pitty (will be 9yrs old in July) has just had her left back leg amputated on Tuesday! She doing good and each day gets better and better but I feel so lost and my head is still spinning as this all happened so quickly! Still waiting for results on the leg/tumor to confirm type of bone cancer. However, we did receive the results that her lungs are clear and blood work is great so do we need to do Chemo treatments? The thought of her being put thru more stress after being thru so much already ughh I don’t know if i can do it. I still can’t understand with today’s technology they can’t see or test to see if it spread (microscopic mets)! Any opinions on this would be helpful. So hard to see her like this but I’m sure it’s all my issues and she only cares about being a happy dog.
thank you for[Image Can Not Be Found] listening!! - J
Hi Lucy and family, welcome. Your future posts won't need to wait for approval so post away.
I'm so glad Lucy is doing well. As you can see, dogs handle it way better than humans! Lots of us here know exactly how you feel, it's such an emotional time for us. Meanwhile Lucy says "Hey I just want to go have fun again!"
However, we did receive the results that her lungs are clear and blood work is great so do we need to do Chemo treatments? The thought of her being put thru more stress after being thru so much already ughh I don’t know if i can do it. I still can’t understand with today’s technology they can’t see or test to see if it spread (microscopic mets)!
Chemotherapy is such a tough decision and there are no right or wrong answers. One thing to remember is that it's optional. Every situation, every dog is different. What's good for one dog is not necessarily good for another. While statistically chemo gives dogs a higher chance of living longer, we see the longevity of those who have had it go all sorts of directions, you just never know. Some dogs who have chemo live up to the prognosis and even beyond, while others don't live to the prognosis. There are no guarantees either way, and chemo is optional.
One thing to remember though is that if you want to see how Lucy handles chemo, you can try it and if you don't like how she does, you can always stop. Your vet wants her quality of life to be good too, so they will never force you into doing chemo if it's not in her favor.
As for the micro mets, they can certainly find them with a CT scan, not an xray machine. If you want to absolutely know for sure, a CT scan will tell you, but as you might have guessed, they are more expensive than an xray, and not available in most small practices. Let your vet know if that's something you want to pursue.
I hope this helps! Stay tuned for feedback from others and also check out this article about the chemotherapy decision for Tripawds.
PS
Sorry your picture didn't show up. This is how adding images to the Forums works.
- Upload pics to a photo sharing site like imgur.com or your own Tripawds blog. Pictures and video have to be hosted (live) somewhere other than in the forums.
- Once the photo is uploaded somewhere, right click and copy the Image URL or just copy the image if you’re on a phone
- Return to your Tripawds Forum post and paste the image URL (or the image itself) in your post. It should automatically appear.
If you’d like help figuring out the process let me know.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thank you Jerry, Im glad I asked! I do not remember a CT scan being mentioned to us however I clearly remember the Dr. saying dogs do not have testing and treatments like humans do and pretty much the same thing u said.. that there is never any guarantees even with chemo or scans. It definitely didn’t make us feel very good to know we have a 50/50 shot either way. I do have to share how well Lucys doing… it’s been 6 days since her leg was taken and she is almost fully healed, although she gets tired, Lucy is eating, drinking, pooping, playing, going up and down stairs and to our surprise she ran after a squirrel… twice! I’m sure the pain meds had a helping hand in most of this I guess seeing her improve gives us higher hopes! I am going to read more about the chemo treatments and read other posts and hopefully this will help in our decision. The Oncologist is going to ask us on Wednesday (when her staples are removed) what our next step will be. I need to be some what prepared with questions! If there is anything anyone feels we need to ask or any advice please feel free to share!
Thank you for the support!! - J
Yay for Lucy! I'm so happy she is getting around so well. Be sure to keep a close eye on her activity so she doesn't overdo things. Start slow and build up gradually.
Thats super cool you are seeing the onco. Gathering all the facts will help you feel good about whatever you decide the next steps will be. Here is a list of questions to ask your oncologist that can help you with the conversation. Keep us posted!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
1 Guest(s)
