Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Thoughts and prayers going out for you and Kali. Hoping for the best for her and for your calmness to stick around.
Angel and Valentina Angel Dane
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Cali, Cheeto and all the other monkey butts wanted me to check on Kali and let you all know we are sending lots of positive energy!
Right now Kali is resting, not sleeping but at least laying down. She is doing the tripawd hop to get around and understandably so. Her pupils are still real tiny from being drugged up. If her plan was to steal attention from the tripawd it has worked so far. She's laying on the couch next to me while Roxy is blocked in the kitchen/dining room with our other monkey butt, Dakota. If they are together she wants to be up roaming around with them.
Thanks for the good thoughts, I think they're working!
Leslie
Tripawd Roxy
MonkeyButt Tri-Toe Kali
MonkeyButt Dakota (the only thing he's missing are his testicles and his dignity)
I have to admit, that signature line made me laugh out loud!
Glad to hear the surgery went well and that Kali is getting her fair share of the attention. Hope the recovery is quick!
Lisa and Zeus
Zeus was a Husky mix diagnosed with Osteosarcoma at age 11. A visible lung met and suspicious spot on his liver meant a poor prognosis-six weeks was our vet's best guess. We decided to fight for our boy and his right front leg was amputated on 12/1/11. We did six rounds of chemo, changed his diet and spoiled him completely rotten. We were blessed with 10 great months after diagnosis. Against the odds, the lung met remained a single met and grew very little over those months. A wonderful furbaby with the most gentle spirit, he fought with a strength that we never imagined he possessed. We have no regrets...
http://zeuspod......pawds.com/
Yes, I'm all for a tri-toes division. Our K had to have a toe amputated last year for a serious bone infection. It was the 2nd toe of her left front. She recovered super fast and was as active as before the amputation within a month or so. The only longer term effect that we saw was that she'd get a sore paw after walking and running on very rocky surfaces.
At the time, we were told that the pathology on her toe showed no cancer, just a serious bone infection. Oddly enough, the osa that struck a year later was slightly higher up the same leg.... but the vets say it's unrelated.
We have our paws all crossed for a "no cancer" pathology report for Kali! We are thinking of you.
K, an 8 year old chocolate lab, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the radius and ulna on 12/23/11. She had stereotactic radiation to kill the bone tumors, and 3 rounds of carboplatin. On 3/16/12, lung mets were found. We tried several different kinds of chemotherapy to slow the lung mets but none worked. Finally, mets appeared at other sites, including her spine. She earned her angel wings on July 15, 2012. K changed my life, and I'll never forget her. Our/my journey is chronicled at romp-roll-rockies.blogspot.com.
Pick a side Kali! Pick a side! I don't know what qualifies to be a tripawd, because Comet had her leg and they called her a tripawd so I'm very unclear what it takes to be one. All I know is I don't want to be one!
So, pick a side!
I'm sending lots of prayers and positive thoughts your way for a good biopsy report. We need to win a few of these bouts with cancer. Cancer really sucks big time.
Hugs to Kali.
— Beth and Spirit Smilin' Sammy
Smilin' Sammy, March 16, 2004 – Dec. 5, 2011
Golden retriever, diagnosed with osteosarcoma in September 2010 — right front leg amputated November 2010. He fought valiantly to stay with us; but a second diagnosis of osteosarcoma, this time in his left front leg, was more than our golden warrior could overcome. He loved his pack — and everyone else he met.
We loved him even more.
Thanks for the pennies, Sammy. They helped.
Praying for the best possible outcome! My dads dog had to recently have one of its toes amputated also. He is doing just fine too 🙂 Dogs adapt so much better than we humans do!
Great - now Monkeybutt Giant Toby is hiding from Baby. He figures this is a tripawd plot to try to make Monkeybutts more empathetic. Ha! - like that'll work!
Baby, on the other hand is happy (hmmm - verification of a plot?) that the surgery went well and hopes for only good news from here on out, even if he is still a Monkeybutt.
Wags, & Slobbers
Judy, Baby and MonkeyButt Giant Toby
All I can say is THANK GOD FOR FALSE ALARMS!!! Got the call today, Kali has ringworm. Yep, that's right, ringworm. There are so many thoughts that go along with this.
The first thing I said was "Oh thank you!" then I said "you mean I did this to my Kali dog for ringworm!?!" Dr. Hollis said we probabaly would have had to take her toe anyway because ringworm in the nailbed is a booger to treat. Part of me thinks that's ridiculous, but it's too late to question the actions we took.
Second is I now have to get all of the animals in my home tested for ringworm. 
It never ends. So...for the 6 pets we have we're looking at a couple hundred more dollars for screening, plus any treatments that may be necessary. I asked the vet if she had ideas of how Kali may have gotten this. She said it could be an environmental thing, or it could be one of our animals is a carrier. She said if it is an animal, cats are usually the carriers.
Third, ringworm can be passed to the humans in the home. I sleep with my dogs every night. My mom says ringworm can make you lose weight. I'm going to love on Kali continuously and never get tested!!! What a diet plan!
Ok, so that's the run down of what we're looking at. When I think about it I really want to kick my own rear because I allowed myself to be rushed into it. I went to the dr's office thinking we'll do a biopsy and xray, figure out what we're dealing with then act. But the dr seemed so certain it was cancer and the toe needed to come off that I thought fine, I'm not waiting this time (because I procrastinated and second guessed myself so much with Roxy). I think the thing I'm taking away from this is to follow my gut no matter what. Don't be pushed and rushed.
Thank you all for your support! Kali is doing very well. She's walking on that foot very well. It's bandaged all the time unless I have her laying down with the cone of shame on. As soon as she smells it she wants to lick it. I don't blame her. It doesn't stink exactly, but it doesn't smell good either. Probably a combination of the healing, blood, and being bound all the time, etc. Here's a picture I took yesterday front the top view. I don't have a good one of the front view. The front view is a little uglier anyway because of where it was taken from the padding and webbing. She has some raw looking places on top of her foot that I guess is just from the bandage rubbing.
Again, thank you all for your support!
Leslie
Thank goodness! Although ringworm isn't a great diagnosis, at least it's a treatable one.
But is she giving us the bird? 
Cadence Faye: Born 10/30/04, stepped into our hearts 12/23/2004. Rear leg tumor found 7/24/11 by mom and dad, Xray on 7/25/11, Osteosarcoma suspected 7/26/11, amputation 7/29/11, Carboplatin started 8/23. Met free so far!
trifod2004 said
But is she giving us the bird?
That's what I think it looks like. My dog is vulgar...I do apologize. 
Monkeybutt says, "Oh! How cool is that to have a toe missing!??"
Serious now. That rather sucks, doesn't it? With what we have endured with tripawds, we jump to the worst and "take quick action"! I'm sorry Kali didn't have a chance to see if would heal. Darn. And then to have spent the money on a toe amputation too! Darn. Darn. (Double Darn)
If it makes you feel any better Leslie, I get the dum-dum award for spending the most on a toe! I spent $750 to have Rocket's cracked toe nail clipped! It was in the quick. (broke it on a sprinkler head while running)
Even tho I insisted I'd hold him, while the vet clipped it - the vet wouldn't do it. Made it a big ta-do and put him under. And I knew it was going to cost $750 before I did it!
Comet - 1999 to 2011
She departed us unexpectedly January 23, 2011 at the age of 12 1/2.
She was born with a deformed front leg and a tripawd all of her life.
Glad to hear it isn't cancer, although the ring worm 'sitch doesn't sound too fun. It's hard to not fall into that "act quickly!" mode after dealing with cancer.
Anyway, all the other dogs will think she is a cool bad-a$$ with that missing toe!
Hope none of the rest of the gang has it!
Jackie, Angel Abby's mom
Abby: Aug 1, 2009 – Jan 10, 2012. Our beautiful rescue pup lived LARGE with osteosarcoma for 15 months – half her way-too-short life. I think our "halflistic" approach (mixing traditional meds + supplements) helped her thrive. (PM me for details. I'm happy to help.) She had lung mets for over a year. They took her from us in the end, but they cannot take her spirit! She will live forever in our hearts. She loved the beach and giving kisses and going to In-N-Out for a Flying Dutchman. Tripawds blog, and a more detailed blog here. Please also check out my novel, What the Dog Ate. Now also in paperback! Purchase it at Amazon via Tripawds and help support Tripawds!
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