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
Hello. We just recently joined this site. It seems to be a great community and it has helped put us at ease with our decision to amp Char's right front leg. Here is a little back story. Char is a rescue, age is unknown but is estimated to be between 6-8 years old. We've had her for just under 3 years. Female, 65 lbs, a mix of lab, retriever and chow, but who really knows... LOL.
She began limping on Saturday July 27th, on sunday we woke up to an extremely swollen leg at her "ankle". She never had any issues with limping or pain in any of her legs prior to this. First thing on Monday (7/29) I took her to our local vet and they performed x-rays on her leg. Initial diagnosis was a possible sprain, but the vet said he'd have his radiologist take a look when she came in on Tuesday. Sure enough, she looked at the xrays and saw an "area of concern" and asked us to come back in to do xrays on her chest. We did those and they came back clean, but we were sent to the local oncologist (Blue Pearl) to do a biopsy. The biopsy took place on Wednesday (7/31). We had to wait 8 days for the results to come back...
We got the results on Thursday August 8th, as we suspected she was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in her right front leg, our oncologist recommend amputation and chemotherapy. We deliberated for a few hours and decided we wanted to give Char every chance to continue to be a special girl and went with the amputation. The surgery was scheduled for the following day, friday (8/9). Fast forward to today 8/13, char has been home and has been making great strides every day. She slept thru the night last night and is slowly becoming herself again.
Tomorrow we take off the fentanyl patch. I'm continuing to give her the tramadol and the deramaxx. She gets her sutures out in ~10 days and we have an appointment with the ONC on 8/26.
In the meantime, what can I do other than keep Char comfortable to give her the best chance at beating this nasty condition. I feel that we have caught it in it's most initial stages and have acted as quickly as possible to treat the condition.
Thanks for all the help and support. I'm sorry for all of us that we have to go thru this heartwrenching process.
Drew and Liz.
Drew and Liz, welcome to the club nopawdy wants to join. Your future posts will appear immediately.
First off all, thank you for adopting Char, I think anyone who adopts a mature dog is PAWESOME 
You sound like great pawrents who are decisive and diligent about care. That's half the battle right there. By quickly removing that terrible pain of osteosarcoma, you've already given Char a shot at a great life.
Have you seen Jerry's Required Reading List or our ebook library? We've got lots of great tips there to help you adapt to your new normal. Tips like slip-proofing your home, using raised feed bowls and keeping Char lean (she is part Labbie after all!) will all serve you well in the coming months. Prepare for a few ups and downs during recovery but boy it sure sounds to me like she's doing pretty darn good.
Perhaps the best advice I can give you is, take things one day at a time and try not to get overwhelmed. When it comes to treating cancer there are so many choices it can make your head spin. Don't try too much too soon and remember it's all about quality of life, not quantity. And while cancer often doesn't play by the rules, if you are calm and balanced, optimistic and hopeful though thick and thin, she will be too. A great attitude helps so much when you're faced with this overwhelming news.
Thanks again for joining, we're glad you're here.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Online
That Char is one pretty girl--and very lucky to have you two as pawparents!
As Jerry said, for now, one day at a time. Pace yourself as far as research goes, and make your main focus helping Char through recovery..
Another good book to buy through amazon...link here helps support tripawds....The Dog Cancer Book. It addresses conventional as well as holistic approaches, as well as utrition, supplements, etc. The authors do a woderful job of helping us through this emotional roller coaster ride and, for me,it's like having an "invisible" vet/surgeon/onco.. and a friend who understands. And this site has been the same for me too!
You will fid some here who did chemo (usually carboplatin for most osteo.) and semmed to get great results.....some wo followed the samre path and didn't get as good results. Some here did just holistic/complimentary and got great results......some who followed the same psth didn't.......Sme did both......you get the picture. Some did nothing......you get the picture. Soome did metronomics .....you get the picture.
Sooooooo, it really does come down to an individual decision based on you and what YOU feel is best for YOUR dog!
You will find tons of in formation on this site.
For me, I have chosen chemo (carboplatin) for Happy Hannah. She completed in fourth round on middle of May (most oncos seem to suggest five, not all). I have since then opted to go with metronomics ...Cytoxan and Piroxicam. She's only been on that two weeks....off for almost two weeks now though, due to possible UTI hiccup Plan on restartng that as soon as possible. For Happy Hannah, there were virtually no side effects from the chemo and that's one reasn I wanted to continue with this. You can always STOP any of these treatments.
Happy Hannah is almost six months post amp. and still countng! Every day with her is blissfully glorious! Pure joy and happiness!
There are NO wrong decisions here! Gee, if I had NOT done chemo, would I have gotten better results? Gee, if I HAD DONE chemo, would I have gotten better reults? It's a crap shoot!! Any decision made out of love is the right decision!
So glad recovery is going well for sweet Char! The very best advice I can give is----love, spoil and love and spoil some ore! Stay focused on the present. Dn't let worries rob you of this sacred time together!
Surroundng you with calm and supportive energy!
Sally and Happy Hannah
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!
hi Drew and Liz,
I see you said blue pearl, does that mean you are in NYC? We are in NYC as well, and my Jill was treated at AMC by Dr Ann Hohenhaus and her Resident Dr. Amber Tegtmeyer. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Jill had four chemo treatments after amputation (for osteosarcoma) and they were wonderful throughout the entire process. Please let me know if you have any questions at all. I'm happy to discuss further!
Jill is a 9-year-old tuxedo kitty. She was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in June 2012 on her toe in her right hind leg. Her leg was amputated on 12/12/12 and she completed four rounds of chemo (2 of Carbo, 2 of Doxy) in April 2013. "Like" Jill's facebook page: https://www.fac.....tty?ref=hl Proud member of the WINTER WARRIORS!!!! Her blog can be read at http://jillsjou.....ipawds.com. xoxo
rica55 said
hi Drew and Liz,
I see you said blue pearl, does that mean you are in NYC? We are in NYC as well, and my Jill was treated at AMC by Dr Ann Hohenhaus and her Resident Dr. Amber Tegtmeyer. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Jill had four chemo treatments after amputation (for osteosarcoma) and they were wonderful throughout the entire process. Please let me know if you have any questions at all. I'm happy to discuss further!
I believe that Blue Pearl has clinics across the US. We are in Kansas City. Char's surgeon was Dr. Trent Tuttle her ONC is Dr. Heeb.
My TJ's adventure was almost word for word like yours.
For the first two weeks keep Char on a very low activity level... some walking.. if you get a block stop and head back. No stairs and no jumping on/off things. The pain meds will fool Char into doing things that can be bad. Play with her, but no fetch... something to keep her mind active and her body rested.
After the first 2-3 weeks I found that TJ was ready for longer walk, but still ended up carrying him home almost every time because he was tired. Its a stamina issue and a learning curve while Char figures out balance, walking etc etc.
After the second month is when I let TJ climb the stairs (I still have to carry him down) but pretty much any other activity he wants is allowed.. just no going down stairs.
Biggest thing I think I did was that I was by his side for the first week. Slept on the floor with him and he never left my sight for 5 days. Pet her, keep checking her stitches... I think that letting a dog know that you are there for that first confusing week really puts them at ease.
You will still have up and down days... so be ready for the down ones and enjoy the up ones.
1 Guest(s)
