Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hello everyone,
My sweet great dane, Mrs. Dickens, had her hind leg amputated late October. She's undergoing chemo and just had her third cycle. She's had some problems at the incision site. For some time, there would be wounds that just seemed to spontaneously open. As she had fallen a couple times, we had thought that was the cause. But then realized it wasn't. The vet thought she was having a reaction to the internal stitches that should be disolving, so he put her on antibiotics about a week and a half ago. Since then, they have been healing up nicely. However, she still has these sudden pains. She'll be walking happily around or often shifting positions, then suddenly cry out, lie down and start to fuss with the area. It quivers and the pain seems to last for a minute, but it's upsetting to her and obviously hurts a lot. It's definitely a sudden shooting type pain. Anyone have this? I'm thinking my next step is to request an x-ray to see if there is a bone spur or something.
Thanks in advance,
Teri
Hi Teri, Mrs Dickens might be experiencing phantom limb pain. Check out Jerry's blog about this issue. There are tips on how to help amputee alleviate the sudden shooting pain. Hope this helps.
Hugs.
Sounds like phantom pain . I would try Gabapentin to see if it helps. Was the entire leg removed at the hip? If the amputation was done mid-femur you might want to do the xray to make sure that the tumor hasn't recurred at the end of the bone.
Pam and Tazzie
Thank you both so much for responding. A couple people had mentioned the phantom pain , but I had dismissed it because she had the wounds. Perhaps she has two things going on. I had no idea you treated phantom pain with pain meds -- I will definitely explore this, and probably still go for the x-ray too. Thank you!
Teri & Mrs. Dickens
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