Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hello. Laila, our 9 year old greyhound, had her right rear leg amputated on Thursday. We brought her home on Friday and she is doing quite well. She goes out to potty with assistance (both #1 and #2, although #2 has been liquid so far) and seems itching to get out of the bedroom we have confined her to. She's also eating like a champ, meds and all.
There is considerable swelling in her left rear leg. It is just edema, not a seroma or blood pooling, and we were told to expect it. We have tried warm packs and cold packs, but neither helped.
Has anyone found a good way to treat this? How long should we expect it to last? The right leg did the same thing after her biopsy and it took about 6 days before it looked almost normal again (just in time to have it amputated!). But the sewlling wasn't as extensive as this.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice.
Kregg, Laura, Laila and Lex
Hi and welcome to the forum. Sounds like Laila is a real champ. Radar didn't have the swelling that Laila is having but, because the same thing happened after her biopsy - could it be a reaction to anesthesia? Sighthounds are extremely sensitive to them and to pain medications. If it is an allergic reaction of some sort it could be like that until she is off of pain meds.
The other thing is that she is using her remaining leg and muscles differently now and the strain of using muscles she really didn't use before could be causing the swelling. If so this will resolve as she gets stronger. Alternating cold and hot packs and limiting her activities a bit until she does get stronger may be in order. Short walks to strengthen the leg slowly building in length over a couple/3 weeks. It would not do Laila any good to strain a muscle in her remaining rear leg at this time.
As always - watch for fever and if you are concerned about anything - by all means - contact your vet.
Hugs to Laila
Connie & Radar
Hello! Horacia's remaining front leg got swollen post amputation and she even got a little fever. I was terrified.
But it was nothing so I could have saved the worry.
The vet said, that it could have been to much movement right after coming home. She was exited and surely overdid it.
Warm/cold compresses didn't work either, what helped was putting a cushion under the leg so that it was just a little higher than her body. And it wasn't that complicated, as she was almos immobile at the time. Anyway, also her surgery site got a bit "flooded" but it went away after a couple of days.
Hori also liked an upward massage of her leg starting at the toes and going up to her elbow. I don't know if that helped, but she liked it.
Hope Laila gets better soon.
Spirit Horacia, Castaño, Olympia + human family Cecilia, Georg and Julia - - - Hori first diagnosed 8/6/09, ampu 8/12/09, run over the bridge 9/10/09 – We miss you every day dear girl!
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