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
Hi all,
I've shared Max's amputation journey on a different thread, but decided to create a new one around issues we're facing during his chemo treatment. He has osteosarcoma, we amputated his leg, and started him on carbo shortly after.
1st carbo treatment - he had lost his appetite for a few days and had some nausea.
2nd carbo treatment - he lost his appetite for about a week. He'd eat a fraction of his food for the day after a few days. Finally returned to normal after a week. Had pee dribbles for about a week as well. (Keep in mind he has to be sedated for his visit, so some dribbling is to be expected but we've never seen it last this long)
3rd carbo treatment (occurred yesterday) - he lost his appetite, he was essentially peeing himself, not just dribbling, vomitted the night he got back, and began having diarrhea this morning. He started off with a half solid, half liquid poop and has had liquid, mucousy diarrhea since. There is even blood in it. I took him to a grass patch and have seen him diarrhea 4 or 5 times in the last 30 minutes.
I talked to the oncologist nurse and she recommended I bring in a stool sample tomorrow morning. She wrote us a prescription for metronidazole so we'll give that to him tonight. Kind of freaking out now that I see blood in his poop. Is this to be expected? It seems that his side effects are getting worse each time they administer the carboplatin.
Thoughts? Thanks in advance!
Glad you're in touch with the unco and keeping them posted. Just a quick question. Has he had any adjustments in his treatments as far as lower doses or four weeks apart as opposed to three weeks apart? If not, you can just ask us that with the on Onco. When dogs have side effects from chemo, sometimes that is a path forward that seems to resolve the issue. There are times when the chemo is just too hard on the dog and then you need to reevaluate how you want to proceed. It's rare, but it does happen. Just make sure he's hydrated and see what the unco says in the morning.
And even if he does have to start chemo, assuming these issues are related, he has had three rounds and that can be effective. Hopefully you'll have some answers tomorrow after you drop off the stool sample and after you talk to the unco about possibly reducing the dose and spreading them further apart.
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!
Online
Hey there mickymax! Welcome back. Thanks for starting a new topic. I'm sorry it's because Max has been having issues after chemo.
So as we talked about in the Forums, changing his diet from kibble to homemade before the last treatment could be causing the upset belly. When you talk to your onco vet be sure to discuss the right diet for him to be on. Generally, oncos want us to keep things 100% the same during treatment. That way if side effects happen, it's easier to pinpoint the cause.
As for the dribbling, some members have reported that happening. Since has a history of it happening after sedation, that's not too concerning but worth mentioning to your vet.
You have done good by calling the clinic and getting the Rx. I hope the edible clay helps too! And like Sally mentioned, keep that boy hydrated. Lots of brothy (no sodium) things in his water dish, some Pedialyte or Gatorade mixed in to water can help too. Please keep us posted OK?
1 Guest(s)
