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,
Its been a long time since I have last visted the board. But, everyone was so much help back in Nov 2010 when I was told my then 5 year old yellow lab Bella had Osteosarcoma. We decided to amputate front left leg followed by chemo, even though we were first told she was too big, overweight to manage on 3 legs. After the chemo end we went back to our old life, bella was happy and loving life.. swimming, running and chasing her sister around. Then about 2 weeks ago.. she started limping on her left back paw.. we bought her in and though it was her arthritis was acting up. She went on Rimadyl and Tramadol. The limp is gone but you can tell she has slown down tons, needs to take breaks just walking a few feet. She still manages to get up and down the stairs. But, two weeks ago she was running around the yard and now we let her out and she just sits there. We were told that the cancer would be back.. most within 9 months. She is 20 months and its not the lung mets but maybe her back legs just can't hack it anymore. She still seems happy and not in pain but the major decline I have seen in two weeks I am nervous. If anyone has had any similar issues, I would love to hear your story. Thanks for listening...Karen and Bella
Sorry to hear Bella is not feeling great. Some have come here with similar complaints and their pups have been helped by some massage or accupuncture therapy.
We never did those things w/ Abby, so I can't speak to them personally. Hopefully others will chime in.
I hope it's something that can be fixed up so you ahve more time with your girl. 20 months is wonderful - but of course there is never "enough" time with our wonderful pups.
Hang in there and keep us posted,
Jackie, Angel Abby's mom
Abby: Aug 1, 2009 – Jan 10, 2012. Our beautiful rescue pup lived LARGE with osteosarcoma for 15 months – half her way-too-short life. I think our "halflistic" approach (mixing traditional meds + supplements) helped her thrive. (PM me for details. I'm happy to help.) She had lung mets for over a year. They took her from us in the end, but they cannot take her spirit! She will live forever in our hearts. She loved the beach and giving kisses and going to In-N-Out for a Flying Dutchman. Tripawds blog, and a more detailed blog here. Please also check out my novel, What the Dog Ate. Now also in paperback! Purchase it at Amazon via Tripawds and help support Tripawds!
we really had great results from acupuncture for both jane and gayle. jane was 14, losing feeling in her hind legs - i know that acupuncture gave us an extra year, and a good year at that. gayle received acupuncture both for immunity and joint assistance, it helped her a great deal as well. i also started doing laser treatments on her nightly at home, under the direction of our acupuncture vet, which seemed to help keep her immune system strong until the melanoma metastasized. hope you can find a way to help bella be more comfortabe and be more involved in life.
charon & spirit gayle
Life is good, so very, very good!!! Gayle enjoyed each and every moment of each and every wonderful day (naps included). She left this world December 12, 2011 – off on a new adventure.
Love Never Ends
Karen,
It might be worthwhile to have your vet take a look, if you haven't already. At one point Zeus became very reluctant to move around and seemed to be having trouble with his back legs. It turned out to be a strained muscle in his back and he was walking poorly b/c of the pain and the spasming. Vet gave us pain meds and we did moist heat (those packs you can buy that are full of beads and you put it in the microwave to heat it). It took about three weeks but he fully recovered. Good luck!
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/
I'm sorry Bella isn't doing well. But that's terrific about the 20 months!!!!! I'm so glad you got to go on with life and it seemed normal.
I hope you figure out the source of her slow down and she is better soon.
Comet - 1999 to 2011
She departed us unexpectedly January 23, 2011 at the age of 12 1/2.
She was born with a deformed front leg and a tripawd all of her life.
If Bella doesn't seem to be in pain that's a great sign. Magnum slowed up but she was clearly in pain and in her case the cancer had spread to her hip. But, even with that she did benefit immensely from some massage of her spine by a trained animal physio. From what I've read here both massage and acupuncture can be very beneficial for some dogs.
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/
1 Guest(s)
