Hi and welcome to you and Gideon,

We have had many members ask about using onesies on rear leg amputees. Please let us know if it works for you and Gideon. I agree it's tricky, and if it does cover the amp site well enough, you would have to pull up or off to go potty. I have not seen this video interesting they put it on backward 🤔 I still see a potty issue.

I am sorry to read about the accident and glad Gideon was a candidate for amputation. I don't think this is talked about enough accidents can and do happen in the home. We have had several kitties join for this reason. We lost a senior kitty from an accident in the house; he fell off the kitchen table (compound fracture); he was not a candidate for surgery; we had to let him go.

If you have not already and can take the shelf down & after recovery, provide safe perch's for Gideon; add some steps to assist him in getting his needed height.

Brilliant Gideon is comfortable eating, going potty!!! Meds will be needed after the patch. Imagine us, humans, three days after an amputation; it is no different for our animals. What oral pain meds did they send you home with? 

We have all kinds of information to help you with pain indicators in cats. In addition, cats are masters at disguising pain; these should help you.

Acute Pain Cat Carer Guide - Recognizing and managing acute pain in cats

Feline Grimace Scale to Assess Acute Pain 

They now have an app you can download

Feline Acute Pain Scale 

BEAP Pain Scale for Cats

Keep us posted, please.

Rest is best, Gideon. 

Hugs, Holly & Purrkins 💝💝💝

Your welcome & thank you😘 don't it was tragic, and the last thing I thought as we rushed Garfield to the er. I did not know what would happen, but I was sure he was coming back home. 💔 You are fortunate Gideon was a candidate for surgery. It is never fortunate we have to lose a limb, but it is better than a life.

I'm not surprised Gideon is trying to jump the baby gate ; we stacked them three high, and they still wanted to jump them. The only solution is an enclosed room or crate/kennle as you are doing. We had instructions to restrict movement for 2 weeks, and we did that by staying in a spare room. No fun; Purrkins & I both were over it, but it was the only way to keep his movement restricted. I can only imagine a 2-year old yes, you will have your hands full. The meds will help slow him down.

Excellent on the meds that's what Purrkins was sent home with Buprenorphine and Gabapentin; we had instructions to space the gabapentin and buprenorphine one hour apart and not give at the same time. Please do discuss this with your vet. I highly recommend both meds; the gaba will help with any nerve pain. The buprenorphine will take the place of the patch. Great on no pain signals so far!

As for the fridge, yes, it's a tough spot. We had steps in front of the fridge for Purrkins. Oh yes. Our permanent solution we ended up putting a door on our kitchen! We close the kitchen off when we are not home and at night to prevent Purrkins from getting up and down there on his own. Maybe you can look into a cat tree to give him a different safe lookout in the future. They love to be up high and see all angles.

Steps are to protect the remaining limbs as much as possible. You want to think long-term on three legs and reduce the impact on those wherever you can. Purrkins took right to his we placed them in front of his favorite lookout spots, and at our bed anywhere he had to jump down. We put treats on each step to show him the way that's all it took. I know not all cats are agreeable, but they are trainable.

You are right; Gideon will adjust beautifully to three & you will be amazed! Never under estimate a three legged cat;)

I hope the onesie works for you both. 🤞🏻

Keep us posted, please!

Hugs and scratches to Gideon!
Holly & Purrkins 💝💝💝

Hehe 😁 We all learn as we go. We only know about the baby gates as we have tried and failed with three gates🙄 And not all cats or animals are the same; we know good luck keeping a cat from jumping up and over. Four gates stacked might do it? We only tried the 3.

Oh yes, the bedroom would be better; wants out that is causing more harm than good. Ugh, no, Gideon no pulling staples already! What did the vet suggest?

Don't let him get under your bed if at all possible. We put our mattress on the floor. You will need to access him for his meds and monitor the pulling of the staples.

Great questions! We do things better safe than sorry here for the above reason.(garfiield) If we can prevent an accident, we are going to. We want to preserve those 3 legs and keep them in the best shape possible. Minus a limb, regardless of which one is affected, takes more force. Here is a good visual of how weight is distributed on normal, front leg amputee, rear leg amputee.

We want our tripawds to grow old as gracefully as possible being down a leg already puts them at increased risk for arthritis. It's all about protecting what we have left. We don't want to see injury to another limb then what? Things we should consider.

We all do things a little differently here, but I think we can all agree that we want our tripawds happy and healthy for as long as possible—adding steps, adding traction (via rug runners or yoga mats, and watching their weight are all important.

If you ask me on the bed my answer is yes. Ask a rear legger member and I'm not sure what they will tell you? I know some have said their cats won't use the steps. We have never had that experience Purrkin's brother even uses his steps. It is what a pet parent does for senior animals help them get where they are going; we do it sooner on 3 legs.

No, you do not want to encourage them to go to areas you don't want them to go. But if they are determined to go you can add a safer option, like a cat tree for Gideon, and encourage him to use that. Then move that to the desired human location later.

We did not figure Purrkins would be jumping right back to his favorite lookout on the kitchen cupboards a little over two weeks after surgery, we were WRONG! Sure enough, he did, so we added the steps to help him get down. Rather than me climbing up and physically removing him. Then, as time went on it was a pain in the arse moving steps; we had to come up with another solution; we added a cat tree that helped him safely get his needed height. Then we moved the cat tree to an ideal spot for the humans and then added a door to the kitchen to close it off altogether. It's a screen partition. We added brackets and hung it, and added a latch to close it.

Purrkins dad was assigned to the permanent door, but that never happened;) This works regardless.

When Purrkins first lost his leg we started out with three sets of steps and moved those around as needed as we learned we had problem areas and added to. We have modified all areas for Purrkins thru the years; we call the house Purrkins palace because it is set up for him on three. We have moved furniture closer together for tiers too.

To give you an idea of what we do and places we put.
We have different height steps
A two steps measure 16 inches tall
A three steps measure 20 inches tall
A four steps measure 24 inches tall

Making a way to go up and down easier is the goal with steps, furniture, boxes, whatever works and you can make happen.

See how things go and reaccess, as time goes on, is my best advice—being mindful of Gideon's three legs. You already are by asking the questions, so kudos to you!

Happy to help in any way we can.
Holly & Purrkins
🫂💝💝💝