Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Cassie sailed passed 1 month ampuversary and now has 2 Carbo chemo under her belt and is doing great. She's back to doing nearly the same morning/evening walk routes as pre-surgery, and her recovery so far exceeded every expectation that I had about this whole process.
That's why it's even more perplexing that she seems to be having... I don't know what... episodes. She'd be laying down by our feet or on her bed peacefully one moment, then the next moment, she gives out loud yelp, jump up and bolt. Sometimes she runs to another room, sometimes she just runs to the other side of the room. This kind of episode also has happened when we were petting her head, putting her collar on, or when she's standing by herself with nobody hear her - in other words, it seems to happen completely randomly with no detectable pattern. Last weekend, she probably had 3 or 4 episodes like this in a day.
Once she stops after bolting, she may pant a bit but usually just settles down relatively quickly and gets back to sleeping/walking/being petted or whatever state she was in before the episode happening. It doesn't look like she is in major pain and there appears to be no negative aftereffect, but yelping is short but very loud and it scares daylight out of me every time. We mentioned this to onco at the last chemo but she didn't have any clue.
Has anyone ever had your tripawd behave this way? If we can do something to make it stop, that would be ideal, but even if it has to run its course, knowing that this is not a sign of major problem to come would ease our worry. Any insights would be much appreciated!
Mire, CassieWassie's Mom
My Hannah is only nine days out of surgery and has experienced a random yelp out of the blue and tucks her tail between her legs and tries to get up and move away from the pain. Her recovery has been very slow and she still has relatively steady pain but tthese moments where she tries to get up. and bolt are much more intense with a lot of panting. Don't know if this helps at all because the time frames from surgery differ so and her progress seems to have been great. Hannah,s still o. Tramadol and sometimes gabapentin----the gab a seems to help the most. I just try a gentle massage and reassurance.
Sorry this isn't much help but I doubt that there is anything to worry about as I've read here that phantom pain can come and go for awhile. Very best to you and Cassie's for a continued successful recovery....Loving her like you do will help her tremendously. Take care of yourself and know that all is well
Enjoy the tail wags,!! Happy Hannah and Sally
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!
I can' t help out much with this as Sassy didn't have phantom pains. But check with your vet about gabapentin (i think i spelled it incorrect here) but alot of people here use it.
Speedy recovery 
Sassy is a proud member of the Winter Warriors. Live long, & strong Winter Warriors.
sassysugarbear.tripawds.com
07/26/2006 - Sassy earned her wings 08/20/2013
05/04/2006 - Bosch, Sassy's pal, earned his wings 03/29/19 fought cancer for 4 months.
"You aren't doing it TO her, you are doing it FOR her. Give her a chance at life."
I'm so glad I saw your post. Willow has been having similar episodes and she is more than 2 yrs post amputation. Every so often, sometimes once a day, sometimes only once a week or even less frequently, she will jump up like someone or something stabbed her. She will run from where she was and stand and pant and sometimes she is so upset that she will paw the ground and snort. Then it leaves as quickly as it came and she goes back to what she was doing. I adopted Willow over a year after her amputation, so I don't know if she had any phantom pain episodes after surgery, or really how she behaves when she is in a great deal of pain. She already had severe arthritis when she came to live with me, but because I didn't know her without it, I didn't even realize her arthritis was as bad as it was until a new vet did x-rays and said she needed to be on Rimadyl. The episodes described above lessened after starting Rimadyl, but didn't go away. I asked the vet if it could be phamtom pain, and she didn't think it was, although she admitted that it did sound like a reaction to pain.
I'm interested to hear what other people have experienced with their pets and what advice they have gotten from their vets.
Carol
Mire & Cassie,
First off, congrats on having such a great recovery overall! Give Cassie a hug from all of us.
This definitely sounds like phantom pain in my non-medical opinion. Have you seen our posts about phantom limb pain?
http://tripawds.....pawd-dogs/
http://tripawds.....s-in-dogs/
http://tripawds.....very-tips/
You'll find lots of tips and suggestions there.
Phantom pain is definitely real, but it's usually only temporary until the nerves get retrained to realize there is no leg there. It can sure be scary though! If this continues you may want to ask your vet to prescribe gabapentin, a drug that is used in both humans and dogs to alleviate this type of condition. Gaba can make some dogs sleepy but usually they can tolerate it without any side effects. Like I said, usually it's only temporary and goes away within a few months.
Let us know what your vet says. Since this is a relatively new aspect of treating pain in dogs, if your vet has any questions you can point them to our information about it. Good luck!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
willowsmom,
My quad pug Tani has terrible arthritis and does something similar to what you describe with Willow. Tani wakes up out of solid sleep and acts like someone poked her. She does not yelp or pant, and after turning around a time or two she goes back to sleep. I used to think it was from her neurological problems, but now I am convinced it is her arthritis. Tani is now getting Adequin injections and is on gaba. The episodes have diminished but she still has them.
Mire- does Cassie have any arthritis or other joint issues? If not it could be phantom pain still- I know other members have brought it up weeks and even a couple months after surgery.
Good luck with figuring it out.
Karen
I'm convinced that tripods do experience phantom limb pain, but Sid is over five years post amp (like Willowsmom we adopted him as a tripod so have no knowledge of the early days) and he does this, too. Actually, Jeffie (quad) does it as well - he's eleven now, so he's a senior, but the only bit he's lost is an outside toe from one back foot. I suppose it could still be phantom pain from that, but my gut says no.
Both dogs do have some degree of arthritis. Jeffie has a bone spur in his spine that appears not to cause problems, but who knows, with a dog? They are just so good at masking 'ordinary' pain. Maybe he stretches in his sleep and it just catches him.
Sally, I'm sorry to hear that your Hannah is also going through a similar pain issue. Cassie actually had worse episodes of what I now firmly believe to be phantom pain immediately following her surgery. Back then, attacks came when she tried to do so certain things and it made her shriek loud in pain and agony. Hannah's episodes sound like a milder version of that, in that it may be directly associated with her trying to move the limb that's not there. If that's what Hannah is going through, take heart - these instances do disappear eventually as Hannah's brain gets used to not receiving feedback from from the missing limb and it becomes a new normal for her. I know it's tough to see your baby go through these moments of distress, but at least in Cassie's case, it lasted for about a week and it started to disappear. Getting her off tramadol helped a lot, I think.
What Cassie is going through now seem very close to what Carol, Karen and Jay described. I was hoping this was more of a temporary issue and would disappear over time, but it sounds like it does persist in some cases, even after years post-surgery. Silver lining is that it doesn't appear to be a sign of other serious issues, except for perhaps arthritis. As far as we know, Cassie does not yet have arthritis in any of her remaining limbs, but I am going to keep close eye on any signs for sure. We do have Gabapentin on hand and considered using it for Cassie, but I don't know if I want to make Gaba a permanent addition to all the meds she's already on. Maybe we just need to accept it as something that is going to be a part of Cassie for a longer haul...
Hi CassieWassie----Meant to thank you sooner for our comments...Yeah, it seems Hannah has a different situation than Ms. Cassie. Hate to see her almost a month after surgery and still having hours a time of pain, panting, restlessness. It the gaba does seem to make a difference. Just didn't think she would still have to be on daily pain meds this far out. And then here OK are two years later --and congratulations by the way! Thanks for. being such an interval part of this community. You are appreciated and valued.
Sally and Happy Hannah--------------And she really is continuing to approve and enjoys life and enjoys eating and thinking about eating when she's not eating and ejyenjoysbeing her clownish self
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!
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