Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

First off, I would like to say thank you all once again for all of your help in coping with my girls struggles. You rock!!

Miss Maizy had her first round of Carboplatin on March 1st. She did so good. Was scared to be there yet again but layed there and took it like a champion. It would have been impossible without me there unless she was sedated and we did not want to have to do that. I waited for the stuff to erupt from both ends for days but it never happened. That must be because I was prepared for it lol. She was a bit tired on the day of chemo but didn't lose her appetite. Not really surprised with that because she is a walking hopping stomach 🙂

She had her white cell count checked this week and it's normal so we will be checking it again before her next planned chemo on the 22nd.

She saw the holistic vet on the 8th. She suggested that we change Maizys diet to a home cooked protein veggie diet with no carbs and no sugars. Maizys vet agrees. She was on a grain free premium brand already but am in the process of switching her over now. I made up a months worth of it already and portioned it out and put it in the  freezer. Miss Maizy was like... what the? Hey!!!

The holistic vet also wants to start her on Chemo blood support, hoxsey/boneset, Himematsutake, Milk thistle, Vitamin C and DHA. Not all at once but added gradually. I am on the fence with some of them and so is our regular vet so am researching them before and if  I introduce them to her.

She has still not nailed the tripod hop yet. Its quite concerning because she is still trying to use the invisible leg. She goes to step with it and its not there so she ends up going down really low with her one back leg and has to pick herself back up. Its ok when she is moving quickly but she likes to stop and smell the roses and thats where she is having the issues. She also does it in the house when she is making a turn and the leg isn't there and she ends up stumbling. In the last week Miss Maizy has been panting and whimpering in the evenings. She seems reluctant to get up and follow me as much. I was thinking that it might be phantom pain . I massage her all the time and noticed she is quite painful in the hock area. I started to panic with the thought of the cancer setting up shop in her good leg, made me want to puke. I took her in to see her Dr and she examined it and said that it felt "off". We xrayed it for piece of mind and its not cancer but there is some soft tissue swelling around her tendons. Our course of action is to give her a few down days and I shaved the area and am applying Voltaren cream  to it and I am giving her a low dose Gabapentin in the evening. Hopefully we can get this under control.

She did have a couple incidences last week. Some dipshit had an aggressive dog that charged at Miss Maizy and Maizy tried to get out of the way and went down pretty hard. She also played in the snow and caught the scent of a deer and went into prey drive and ran pretty hard before I got her under control. So hopefully thats why her tendons are strained and not something she is going to have to deal with on an ongoing basis.

I'm going out to the shop today to make her a balance board to help strengthen her core. I will get her on that once her hock inflammation settles down.

Sorry for the long winded post. I really do need to post more often so you all don't have to read a book length post. I also want post a picture or 2 of the Bad Little Puppy so I need to read up on how to do that.