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!
This weekend we adopted Dougie from the local Pit Rescue. He came as a tripawd, whose hind left leg was amputated about 2 weeks ago. His stitches came out on Friday. He's 5-6 months old. We aren't sure How much exercise to encourage. Right now we are trying to follow his lead and let him rest when he wants to, but we have 3 girls who want to play with him 😁. We are looking for guidance on this for now, but I'm sure we will have other questions!
Welcome and best wishes for Dougie!
It is still relatively early in his recovery. You will find plenty of starter exercises and rehab tips in the Tripawds Blogs and Loving Life On Three Legs . Hint: Walks do not build strength, only endurance.
We always strongly recommend consulting with a certified rehab tech for professional evaluation and specific exercises for your dog that you can do at home. Visit a CCRT or CCRP and the Tripawds Foundation can even pay for your first visit from the Maggie Moo Fund for Tripawd Rehab.
Please keep us posted, your future forum posts will not require moderation.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
We emailed our certified rehab therapist tonight after learning about them through this site. Thanks!
Hello and welcome.
Congrats on your new pack member! Do you know why he lost his leg?
My current Tripawd is a little pug mix named Elly. She lost her right rear leg after being hit by a car when she was 7 months old. She is over 3 years old now and can do pretty much anything a dog her size and age can do. I do have to regulate her activity a little- not as much now as when I first adopted her at 10 months old. Since she will spend her whole life on three I have to balance what she wants to do (you know, be a dog!) with her long term joint heath.
Once the stitches are out he should be able to start playing a little, but build up time and activity slowly. And since Dougie is so young you want to be sure his body is matured before there it too much impact stuff. I know it's hard with the youngsters- Elly was 2.5 months past her surgery when I adopted her and completely healed, but not very strong. She would walk way farther than was good for her if I let her, she was jumping up on everything she could get near, and flying up and down our stairs. I've worked hard on her core strength through food puzzles and games, obedience and trick training, and balance exercises. For the past year or so we have been obsessed with the sport of Nose Work which is an excellent activity for Tripawds.
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
Dougie just won the Puppy Lottery!! Clearly he's going to love a @ife of loving and spoiling with the family HE PICKED!! 🙂
You'll pretty much frind everything you need to know in all the links and advice in above posts
Dougie's avatar picture is ADORABLE! Can't wait to see more!
.Hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
krun15 said
Hello and welcome.Congrats on your new pack member! Do you know why he lost his leg?
My current Tripawd is a little pug mix named Elly. She lost her right rear leg after being hit by a car when she was 7 months old. She is over 3 years old now and can do pretty much anything a dog her size and age can do. I do have to regulate her activity a little- not as much now as when I first adopted her at 10 months old. Since she will spend her whole life on three I have to balance what she wants to do (you know, be a dog!) with her long term joint heath.
Once the stitches are out he should be able to start playing a little, but build up time and activity slowly. And since Dougie is so young you want to be sure his body is matured before there it too much impact stuff. I know it's hard with the youngsters- Elly was 2.5 months past her surgery when I adopted her and completely healed, but not very strong. She would walk way farther than was good for her if I let her, she was jumping up on everything she could get near, and flying up and down our stairs. I've worked hard on her core strength through food puzzles and games, obedience and trick training, and balance exercises. For the past year or so we have been obsessed with the sport of Nose Work which is an excellent activity for Tripawds.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
He showed up at the shelter with an old injury, it's suspected that he was kicked 🙁 Because the injury wasn't fresh, they couldn't do any reconstruction and had to amputate. Thanks for the advice! I'm learning a lot!
1 Guest(s)
