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.
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I'm starting this topic after all these years, because this is a very common question and I'd like to see feedback in one place that we can point people to.
I will add to this as I see comments in the forums about how a cat or dog handled chemotehrapy.
If you want to share how your Tripawd did or is doing with chemo, please post in this topic and share.
So with that, let's begin with some previous topics about how pets did with chemotherapy from years past:
Chemotherapy advice/experiences
Chemo or No Chemo
What is chemotherapy like for a dog?
Two months past diagnosis . To chemo or not to chemo
Why DIDN'T you do chemo?
Chemotherapy Session for Daisee Dog
Regrets about Chemotherapy
Should Rocky go through chem0
See all Tripawds News blog posts about chemotherapy, especially:
The Chemotherapy Decision: Joys and Regrets
Here's how Chisum the German Shepherd Tripawd did with chemo:
Jerry - he tolerated the chemo like a CHAMP! On the first round, they did CBCs every week to check the WBC on week 3 they dropped and had to have a round of antibiotics. So we did chemo every 4 weeks instead of 3 and dropped his dose down a bit. Other than that his remaining hind leg gets a little weak here and there, the little booty drops sometimes but we just made sure to get him resting more on those days!
thanks for starting this post Jerry. Isabelle, my 12.5 yo golden just had her first dose of chemo last tuesday. She had no appetite for 2 days but now she's pretty much back to normal. She will get CBC every week and theoretically chemo every 3 weeks pending results of CBC. So far so good!
Glad to hear that Isabelle is tolerating her chemo well! Koda will get her third chemo treatment next week. She’s also doing relatively well with it and her CBC is good. She has decreased appetite and low energy for a few days and then she bounces back. Anti-nausea meds the day of chemo and for 2 days after treatment seemed to help her appetite. We also switched to a fresh food diet which is also making the difference.
The decision to do chemo was not as difficult as the initial decision to amputate. Once we made the impossibly difficult decision to amputate, the decision to follow-up with chemo was relatively easy. We are blessed to have an extraordinary compassionate oncologist who told us that he will stop the treatments if he felt that she was not tolerating them well at all. This served as a reminder that all of our treatment decisions are for Koda’s sake-not for ours.
kodabear1 said
Glad to hear that Isabelle is tolerating her chemo well! Koda will get her third chemo treatment next week. She’s also doing relatively well with it and her CBC is good.
YAY! Really happy to know that Koda is doing so well. Thanks for sharing.
P.S. We'd love to hear more about her diet in Eating Healthy!
Arya was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma and had a rear leg amputation
we began chemo 2 weeks after surgery. She was recommended for 5 rounds of carboplatin every 3 weeks with a cbc draw before every round and planned X-ray mid treatment and at last treatment.
1st round had some difficulties but was determined to not be directly related to chemo. About 4-5 days after her treatment she developed severe diarrhea (no appetite changes). Ended up on flagyl and that cleared her diarrhea up within 24 hrs. We figured she may have picked up some sort of bug as we did have human and 2 dog guests over for the holidays.
2nd round the vet did drop the dosage slightly as a precaution due to the diarrhea from before. Her wbc had dropped slightly - could have been from the diarrhea or chemo. No issues or symptoms besides some fatigue the first 24 hrs!
3rd was great. Slightly more fatigued but that was Mostly from the sedative for the X-ray this visit.
4th great! Just some fatigue.
unfortunately we never got to celebrate the final dose. Her cbc before the final chemo was way off (red count dropped significantly from the last visit). Long story short we discovered her liver was failing and found tumors all over her liver. But I’m Sure her last dose would have went just as smoothly as before had we got it
overall, did not regret doing chemo. I truly believe the amputation and the chemo gave us more time together, time that was not uncomfortable or painful to her at all. Hope this helps anyone who may come across this in the future!
Jenny, very kind of you to chime in. We all fell in love with Ayra. By sharing her story here regarding chemo, she continues to inspire and help others.
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!
Westleigh started her chemo treatment a little over 3 weeks after amputation. It really was no hesitation with her age at the time 4 years and since it was a high grade sarcoma. She had 5 rounds of Doxorubicin every 3 weeks. It did affect her appetite and cause some diarrhea and vomiting usually about 4 days after each treatment. She received cerenia which helped with the nausea. Once we figured out chicken and rice helped she seemed to be alright. Her energy was always the same which was great, but she did lose probably 5 pounds over the course and lost her whiskers. I believe the chemo did end up causing acid reflux because about a week after finishing treatment she started vomiting occasionally on an empty stomach and this continued for the rest of her life.
Westleigh also was part of a clinical trial testing a low dose chemotherapy drug at Johns Hopkins. This chemo was 5 doses every other day. She had 2 of these treatments and never had any side effects. She actually gained her appetite back and even gained weight up until the lung mets worsened.
Thank you so much @gw0399. Westleigh's amazing story and legacy lives on! We appreciate your sharing how she did. You guys managed everything so well!
P.S. We have seen other dogs here develop acid reflux after going through chemo. Thanks for mentioning that important issue.
My dog, Winston, has had 6 doses of chemo (3-4 weeks apart) since his diagnosis, and apart from sleeping a little more and having a slightly runny tummy for a few days after, he handles it perfectly fine. He is due another dose on Thursday this week, this will be his first since having his leg amputated.
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