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
So sorry, I just posted this in another thread but I want someone to see this as soon as possible :/ I'm very worried
This last week, Perdita has been strange. We stopped chemo after an incident where her white blood cell count dropped to 500 and she got incredibly sick, she hasn't had a chemo in a month and her white blood cell count went back to normal and her lungs were clear in an x-ray Thursday but now...I’m getting that dog mom instinct again. My instincts are always right and something is WRONG. She has some weird breathing issue (but again, lungs clear as of Thursday 12/8) and keeps doing something like a reverse cough and makes a snoring noise when she moves around, vet says it’s likely allergies. She was also kinda straining to poop and has been running deep into the woods and circling and spending 10 minutes circling and rustling around. She usually goes right outside the door and never wanders off into the woods. It's just odd behavior. She also can normally do the walk to the car no problem (it's a 5-10 minute walk) and today she wouldn't - maybe the snow or salt bugged her...
Well, we sorta resolved those above issueswith the vet (allergy meds and probiotics) and she took one normal bathroom today (yay!). Still breathing weirdly but I’m now mostly worried about the fact that she’s lightly shaking, yelping when picked up (never ever yelps, not a yelpy dog), and just overall seems off. I have the most overwhelming feeling that something is OFF. I am almost positive something is wrong or I don’t dare to say it but the you-know-what went somewhere else… I just know something is majorly wrong but the vet won’t be able to do much. There’s not much visibly wrong. I just KNOW something is wrong, she’s so off. Any help? Is shaking a sign of something?
Ok I don't want you to panic, because this could be ANYTHING and hopefully nothing! But I think you should listen to your gut feeling. Call your vet as soon as possible (make a list of symptoms so you don't forget what you shared here). Let them know what's going on. If you can send a video clip to them, even better. Since tomorrow is Thursday, you still have a shot at getting her seen before the weekend (Paws are CROSSED!).
Keep us posted.
Hi Jerry's pawrents. Thanks as always for your kind help, and I'm sorry for the double post and the panic. We ended up going to the ER (I've given up saving money at this point 😂) and it turns out her alkaline level was elevated which as I'm sure many members know is tied to osteosarcoma. Her level was elevated pre-diagnosis and they thought it was maybe a liver/kidney problem (I forget which one) but a urine sample came back clear and we later realized it was elevated because she had the osteosarcoma tumor in her leg. It's elevated again now which may mean she has liver/kidney issues, metastasis, or it could be nothing because it wasn't super elevated (should be 212, it was 270 so only 27% up). But yeah. If I'm being honest, I sort of suspect something is sneakily going on and starting that we can't see yet. She just seems uncomfortable lately - the vet said the shaking was likely discomfort. Or it could also be because she had a front limb amputation (vet said dogs put 60% of their weight on the front legs so front amputees have more bone/muscle aches sometimes) or because she fell down the stairs recently and probably is sore from that. It's unclear what the discomfort is about but I do strongly suspect something bad is going on because she isn't being herself and that's terrifying to me.
Anyway, thank you all for the love and support as always. I love this community. I'm keeping track of Perdita's journey and crossing off bucketlist items on her instagram @perditabucketlist It's mostly for close, in-person friends (my all of 5 followers hahaha 😂) but maybe others in the community would like to connect or be inspired to start their own bucketlists :)))
Apologies for this being quick, but something that really stood out to me in your post is that she had a recent fall. Without questions muscles can be tweaked so easily with a tripod. It wouldn't surprise me at all that some of her shaking and yelping Etc were because of that. Massage up and down her spine all around her neck and shoulders area. See if there is any tenseness that you notice or any flinching. Regardless give her lots of massages anyway to help keep those muscles loose. You might check with the vet about getting an anti-inflammatory in case she has framed a muscle or joint. We understand it's so hard not to panic with every little bump in the road. We get it. But I really do think you're just dealing with a bump in the road and not anything too serious. Remember to take some deep breaths, eat lots of chocolate and see if those massages help.
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'm so glad she was able to get seen. Did they give her any additional pain control?
I agree, the fall could be contributing to all of this. I know I'd be hurting from something like that. Poor Perdita!
Your Instagram profile is such a great idea, a bucketlist. Feel free to update us here too for folks who aren't on IG!
1 Guest(s)
