Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Last Thursday we went in to get his stitches removed from the amputation. I noticed a spot on his other side - on the ribs. The vet looked at it, said it did not appear to be cancer, just some sort of trauma. said to watch it; but it should heal fine.
It was kind of like a scab with his fur matted in it. when we got home I gently washed it with a wash cloth and a lot of the fur washed off. For the rest of Thursday and then on Friday it looked basically like road rash. We assumed that he mush have hurt himself when learning to walk or maybe even the sling had rubbed the area too much.
By Saturday evening it no longer looked like road rash (you know, kind of a fresh, raw pink look) instead the scab was black. I told myself it was just old blood/scab. Yesterday it looked worse and I told my husband I'd take Spencer to the vet first thing this morning.
We go in, the vet looks at it. Kind of ducks her head and says, "ugh. He is going to have to have surgery. We have to go in and debride this."
She wonders if it might be a spider bite. Or it might be from some sort of trauma and it got infected. What ever it is, it doesn't look good at all. so I drop him off first thing in the morning and he will have his 3rd surgery in a month.
At least it shouldn't be too bad. They went ahead and started a culture from it today to see what sort of infection it is. And he started cipro today too.
Ugh. Poor Spencer. he really needs to catch a break! Hopefully that will happen at the oncologist's office on Thursday. 
Jac and Angel Spencer. Spencer was 5.25 years old. He fought a grade 3 fibrosarcoma, started on his shoulder. Left front leg amputated in August 2011. 15 weeks of chemo finished 12/22/11 (mytox and adria). Lung mets found on x-rays 12/28/11. Started carboplatin 1/6/12. Went to Heaven on 2/27/12. I miss him like crazy every day. See his blog here: http://spencer.tripawds.com/
Poor Spencer. He really does need to catch a break!
Paws crossed that everything comes out okay -- both with the surgery today, and with the oncologist on Thursday!
Rio
 |
~ ~ Rio ~ ~ |
Ouch! Well at least you caught it in time before it gets out of control. I'll bet the cipro will take care of it. He may get nauseaus with the cipro, that's strong stuff, so keep an eye out for that. Poor kid!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Poor sweetie. I hope the surgery is easy peasy and he is feeling better soon.
Good luck at the oncologist office!!
All the best,
Jackie, 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!
yikes, that sounds very scary. sending our best 'et juju' to help spencer make this his last surgery for a while. hope they can identify the origin and get you guys back on the road to 'normal' soon.
charon & gayle
Life is good, so very, very good!!! Gayle enjoyed each and every moment of each and every wonderful day (naps included). She left this world December 12, 2011 – off on a new adventure.
Love Never Ends
Sending all our best from Cometland!
Let's hope the antibiotics kick in and help knock it out! I hate spiders!
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.
just a little update. Spencer is home. Seems tired. He is once again on restricted activity, which means I'm once again sleeping on the couch. It sure was nice to sleep in my own bed for 4 nights. haha (I slept down here with him last night because I didn't want him bumping the huge, weeping sore on the banister if he had to go out in the middle of the night). They were able to remove all of the sore and some tissue around it and then stitch him back together; but they had to pull his skin really tight to do it, so they seem even more worried about him doing the restricted activity than even after the amputation (when obviously getting used to the missing leg would make him limit himself at least a little).
So he is home, on cipro and an NSAID and we are off to the oncologist on Thursday.
Jac and Angel Spencer. Spencer was 5.25 years old. He fought a grade 3 fibrosarcoma, started on his shoulder. Left front leg amputated in August 2011. 15 weeks of chemo finished 12/22/11 (mytox and adria). Lung mets found on x-rays 12/28/11. Started carboplatin 1/6/12. Went to Heaven on 2/27/12. I miss him like crazy every day. See his blog here: http://spencer.tripawds.com/
That's excellent news he is home.
Did they say what it was?
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.
So sorry Spencer is having problems..and you are having to sleep on the couch again...Spencer will love having company for the night....
Keep us posted on the test results.
cometdog said:
That's excellent news he is home.
Did they say what it was?
they said that every person in the et office has a different theory.
Doesn't sound like we will ever know for sure. It is very possible, even probable, that it was a brown recluse spider bite. But it is also possible that it was a bee sting that got REALLY infected. Another theory is that it was some sort of burn or abrasion that got really infected. What ever it was, there was a bad infection and some of the tissue was dying. they cut out all of the dead tissue/infected area, and then a little more. hopefully between that and the cipro we are DONE with this problem! I think it will up to 2 weeks for the culture results to come back for us to know what kind of bacteria is causing the infection.
Jac and Angel Spencer. Spencer was 5.25 years old. He fought a grade 3 fibrosarcoma, started on his shoulder. Left front leg amputated in August 2011. 15 weeks of chemo finished 12/22/11 (mytox and adria). Lung mets found on x-rays 12/28/11. Started carboplatin 1/6/12. Went to Heaven on 2/27/12. I miss him like crazy every day. See his blog here: http://spencer.tripawds.com/
Oh, rotten luck Spencer! Get well soon. Lots of pawsitive thoughts for you and your pack 
Gerry has been a tripawd since 12/16/2009.
He was a shelter dog with a mysterious past and an irrepairable knee injury.
Videos and pics of Gerry's pawesomeness can be found at: http://gerry.tripawds.com
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