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
So he has been doing the underwater treadmill in PT. He's not a big fan but with lots of treats he's successful. The first walk on it was one minute on/one minute rest/one minute on. Last week was two minutes on/one minute rest/one minute on. The goal is 5 straight minutes.
PT Doc said for some dogs they have them go up to 20 minutes but they won't for Otis. Just trying to build up stamina.
After each walk on the treadmill they do a laser therapy for soar muscles and pain. I give him a Gabapentin at the end of each session and he typically sleeps all afternoon. Then he is back to his old self after that.
Question-We are about 9 weeks post op. He typically spends all his time in the house in bed. He will get up and move around, especially if we are in the kitchen prepping food, but he doesn't stay long. He runs back to his bed after a short bit. It's clear he doesn't like to "sit" too much anymore. It's standing or laying down but again, not for long. Always heads back to his bed. Is this just his new normal?
Hi Colleen and Otis!
I'm sorry, your picture didn't come up. Are you uploading from your own computer or did you start a blog for pictures and upload it there first?
I'm not a vet, and Huck kitty didn't have cancer but i will take a blind stab at it 😊
I'm sure others with better experience will chime in!
I think that he's still recovering, and trying to get his strength up is kind of like us working out for the first time in forever. He also had cancer, correct?
So maybe your boy is still adjusting to his new normal. I think Huck, who was a young healthy, in awesome shape kitty took about a month and a half before he was fully recuperated enjoying his new normal.
As he gets his treatments and pt, i think you will start to see him get stronger and more like his old self. Some take a bit longer and he is much larger which also plays a role. Do does age.
It sounds like you guys are doing great!! That is just my humble honest line of thinking. As i said, I'm sure others will chime in and give you better input.
Big hugs to all of you! If you go to the technical forum they can help you get your pics uploaded ❤️
Jackie and Huck ❤️❤️❤️
Hugs,
Jackie, Bo, Andy, Oscar, Phoebe, and the coolest feral tripawd kitty Huckleberry 
Oh and another question. Had a great visit with a holistic doctor. I went to see him since we aren't doing chemo and was wondering if there was anything else I could do from a "health" standpoint. After our discussion about Otis's journey and the oncologists request to have him come back every 3 months for X rays the holistic vet asked why I would do that?
"You have made your decision at this point for no chemo so why would you xray him? Is it because you just want to know if it's metastasized? You aren't doing chemo now so why would you do it if metastasizes. At that point it's too late."
These were all questions he asked me and he got me thinking...why am I doing the xrays?
So I ask you brilliant people here. Is there any advantage to doing the xrays in the future?
While TriPug Maggie was recovering from her rear amp she spent most of 6 weeks in her bed. And she did not spend much time standing. When she stood her one rear leg would start to wobble and she would sit down. I would guess for front amps that sitting propped up on the one front leg is tiring, and like Maggie standing for a long time isn't yet comfortable.
Did the PT give you any exercises for his core or legs? Are you doing any type of balance exercises. I work with my current rear amp Elly on core and balance nearly every day through food puzzles, games, tricks and obedience training and exercises on balance equipment. We do different things every day so as not to overdo. Sometimes I get busy or obsessed with something like Nose Work and skip the core strength exercises (the ones on the balance equipment) and after a couple weeks I can see that she has more trouble balancing and will spend more time sitting than standing.
As far as the xrays- Maggie had mast cell cancer and the testing for her was an abdominal ultrasound. The approach I tried to take with Maggie was to stop doing testing once I decided that I would do further treatment. In other words- if something was to show up on the US I would not intervene, so if I wasn't going to intervene then I didn't really need to know. She had survived much longer than expected, was starting to show her age and develop other health issues and she really hated vet visits.
One other thing to consider- some people need to know what is going on so even if they don't plan on changing treatments based on what xrays show the stress of not knowing is worse for them. If he is having no signs of cancer return then maybe you skip the routine xrays. If he is showing some type of symptoms maybe you do xrays to make sure there isn't something unrelated to cancer going on that you can treat.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
1 Guest(s)
