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
Well. . . . it will be one month post amputation for Guinness. It has been a long, hard, and STRESSFUL journey. Words can't begin to describe how difficult this has been but I'm confident that all of you understand. Other than trying to switch foods, things are going well. We decided not to do chemo but instead we are making his quality of life the best we can and we are attempting to improve his diet.
Guinness now takes me on very short walks and looks forward to them daily (even if only for a few minutes). Unfortunately, we are no longer able to play catch as he slips on the concrete. He's had a couple of hard falls due to the lack of grip, which he bounced back with no problem. It probably freaked me out and hurt me more than him. I need to schedule his chest x-ray this coming week and am concerned. I truly do hope that he is clean. Now I know what cancer patients go through and it is not fun.
Life is still not back to normal but slowly we’re getting there. Our cats are just beginning to roam the house without Guinness growling. And just the other day I found Guinness sleeping on our guest bed. Shame on him as he knows this is off limits. Oh well, I decided to leave him there. However, this is hard for my son as my mom just recently passed and my son found her in her room. We try to keep the door closed. Guinness still cannot climb stairs, which saddens me. He was use to sleeping with my son and they can no longer do that. My son and I have been taking turns sleeping downstairs so he has company. We have laminate floors and Guinness weighs 105lbs so I'm not exactly sure if he'll ever be able to go up and down our stairs. I've been looking at a harness and will purchase one once his wound is better. I hope that does the trick.
I want to thank everyone for all their support and advice through this difficult transition. I do not know what I would have done without this website. A big THANK YOU to Bob, Cherry's dad for speaking with me and referring me to this website. I will keep everyone posted once we know the results of the x-ray. Take care everyone and for those of you in NCAL, please try to keep cool. Woof.
Yay for one month, Guinness! That first few weeks is indeed stressful, but you are past the worst of it and only have good things in store. You and your son are obviously devoted to Guinness and that is heartwarming. Most dogs do reach the point that they can navigate stairs (in fact, Jerry recently posted a video demonstrating his technique so you may want to check that out for ideas). Zeus was small enough for us to carry so we never really let him try. However, if you are concerned about traction , go to a carpet store and ask for stair treads. They are temporary (meaning they won't damage the floor) patches of carpeting that can be put on each stair.
Good luck with the rest of recovery!
Lisa
Zeus was a Husky mix diagnosed with Osteosarcoma at age 11. A visible lung met and suspicious spot on his liver meant a poor prognosis-six weeks was our vet's best guess. We decided to fight for our boy and his right front leg was amputated on 12/1/11. We did six rounds of chemo, changed his diet and spoiled him completely rotten. We were blessed with 10 great months after diagnosis. Against the odds, the lung met remained a single met and grew very little over those months. A wonderful furbaby with the most gentle spirit, he fought with a strength that we never imagined he possessed. We have no regrets...
http://zeuspod......pawds.com/
Congrats on a month anniv Guinness! We have wood floors throughout our house except our bedroom and let me tell you- first we have a trail of rugs for her to get from one area to another, it's pretty funny cause the other dogs walk on these trails even though they can go anywhere:) She also has a few pairs of shoes- which makes a huge difference for her independence. We have harness's but we only use them to go for outside walks. Bunches of hugz & healing prayers coming your way.
Congratulations to Guiness for 1 month. That's wonderful. I hope things begin to get better for you now that Guiness is healing. If he still has trouble with the stairs then I think you would find a harness very useful.
I understand letting Guiness do things (stay on the guest bed) he wasn't allowed to do before. We let Magnum get away with a few more things. I decided life was too short for rules that don't really matter that much.
Karen and Spirit Magnum
Magnum: 30th May 2002 to 5th May 2012. Lost her back left leg to osteosarcoma on 5th Sep 2011. Lung mets found on 20th Mar 2012 but it was bone mets in the hip that ended her brave battle. Magnum's motto - "Dream as if you'll live for ever, live as if you'll die today" (James Dean). Loyal, loving, courageous and spirited to the end. My beloved heart dog, see her memoirs from Rainbow Bridge ...... http://princess.....pawds.com/
Hey Guinness and family, congratulations on making it past the one month mark!
I know that a lot of dogs sail through that first month and don't seem to have too many issues, but I would say that an equal amount have challenges that you are facing, so you're definitely not alone. Your family has been through a lot lately (my deepest condolences for the loss of your Mom), so nobody can blame you for feeling stressed.
Having a Tripawd does take a certain amount of adapting, for both the pup and the humans. If football can't be played, how about basketball? You'll see we are playing on the grass and trying to throw it really low so I dont' come down with too much force:
and as far as stairs go, here's how we did it. My folks never let me do the wood steps by myself, and avoided using them at all costs, but the back steps had traction so I didn't have a problem with them after a while:
You're so right, those little spills hurt the humans more than they hurt the dog. Things will get better and soon, you'll all be living a new normal again where you won't be so worried. Good luck with the x-rays, please keep us posted and let us know if we can do anything to make life easier for you OK?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
OMG, Jerry - the videos are amazing!!! I am blown away as to how well your beautiful baby was able to navigate the stairs.
I sure do hope the basketball you were playing with was of soft rubber material and not an actual basketball. 
Thank you so much for posting the videos - this sure does give me hope. Take care, Dani
colbasso said
OMG, Jerry - the videos are amazing!!! I am blown away as to how well your beautiful baby was able to navigate the stairs.I sure do hope the basketball you were playing with was of soft rubber material and not an actual basketball.
Paw shucks, thank you! The b-ball was an old, worn out ball that didn't hold air. It wasn't as hard as a regular basketball, that's for sure.
I'm glad this lifted your spirits!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
1 Guest(s)
