Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Any suggestions on how to bribe a very finicky little boy, Benny to drink his water? I have tried cold, room temperature, mixed 50/50 with chicken broth, holding the bowl, glass bowl, metal bowl, plastic bowl......
What works for everyone?
He had front leg complete amputation 6 days ago due to Malignant Nerve Sheath Tumor (soft tissue cancer). He is only on Gabapentin, Loxicom and his antibiotic. He's doing good now, on these meds with the pain. He is still only eating chicken & rice (that I put a lot of chicken broth in to get fluids in him) but only with my husband or I sitting next to him.Â
Any suggestions please???
Thanks,
Cindy & Benny
Welcome to the Fourm side of the site! Your future posts will not have to wait for approval.
Sounds like overall Benny is doing OK- that's a good thing!
Has Benny always been picky with drinking and eating or is this just since the surgery? If only since the surgery I would maybe think again about his pain level as those can be signs of pain. If you think he is not in pain then it may just be a lack of apatite which is not uncommon after a big surgery.
How about tuna water? My dogs also love green bean water- the no salt added kind of course.
You are on the right track adding extra liquid to his food.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Â
        Maggie's Story          Amputation and Chemo
Great avatar picture!
While my Happy Hannah never missed a meal during recovery, she developed an aversion to drinking water for the first two weeks of recovery. I also tried chicken broth, etc. Then I found the solution Happy Hannah-style!   ICE CREAM and a"special" way to "present the ice cream into the water.
I would scoop out some ice cream in a spoon....have her take a lick or two as I slowly dropped it into her water dish. She would start licking the scoop that was in the water. I would swirl another scoop in and. GULP! GULP!!
For now, whatever it takes. Hand feeding, a little ice cream in water, tuna water...whatever it takes. Â
Let us know how it goes.
Hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
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!
Benny is just adorable. When our Bubba had his front leg amputated we had fed him and held the water dish for him to drink for the first week. Maybe try making ice cubes with your chicken broth. As Karen and Sally suggested, try anything that may tempt him to drink, ice cream, tuna, none broth, just whatever you think he likes. Good luck to Benny-we are all cheering him on...
oxoxoxo
Barb and Bubba
krun15 said
Welcome to the Fourm side of the site! Your future posts will not have to wait for approval.Sounds like overall Benny is doing OK- that's a good thing!
Has Benny always been picky with drinking and eating or is this just since the surgery? If only since the surgery I would maybe think again about his pain level as those can be signs of pain. If you think he is not in pain then it may just be a lack of apatite which is not uncommon after a big surgery.
How about tuna water? My dogs also love green bean water- the no salt added kind of course.
You are on the right track adding extra liquid to his food.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls Â
Karen, great suggestions. Yes, Benny has mostly been a picky eater but we have never had problems with him drinking water. I'm sure when he gets back to normal he will love his plain water again! I never thought of veggie water..... gonna try that!
Thanks 
Cindy & Benny
benny55 said
Great avatar picture!While my Happy Hannah never missed a meal during recovery, she developed an aversion to drinking water for the first two weeks of recovery. I also tried chicken broth, etc. Then I found the solution Happy Hannah-style!   ICE CREAM and a"special" way to "present the ice cream into the water.
I would scoop out some ice cream in a spoon....have her take a lick or two as I slowly dropped it into her water dish. She would start licking the scoop that was in the water. I would swirl another scoop in and. GULP! GULP!!
For now, whatever it takes. Hand feeding, a little ice cream in water, tuna water...whatever it takes. Â
Let us know how it goes.
Hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too! Â
Sally, thank you for the suggestion of trying Ice Cream. Who doesn't love Ice Cream?! I will add that to my grocery list
Cindy & Benny
babs2018 said
Benny is just adorable. When our Bubba had his front leg amputated we had fed him and held the water dish for him to drink for the first week. Maybe try making ice cubes with your chicken broth. As Karen and Sally suggested, try anything that may tempt him to drink, ice cream, tuna, none broth, just whatever you think he likes. Good luck to Benny-we are all cheering him on...oxoxoxo
Barb and Bubba Â
Thank you, Barb. What we do for your babies 
I never thought of freezing the broth. He might like that. Did you use straight broth or mix it 50/50? I've been mixing it. I even took a medicine syringe, filled it with broth and he licked from the end of that like from a baby bottle. Thank God this stage of healing is a short one! I feel like I have a newborn again. LOL
Cindy & Benny
Hi Cindy,
I buy bone broth from our local natural heath store and/or Vitamin shop which has a variety of it for $5.99 a bottle. I do not dilute this because it's more natural and next to no sodium like the kind we buy in the grocery store. Also, when we were anxious about Bubba drinking water, he would drink less. I really think it was because he was skeptical about it because we kept shoving it in his face, lol. Â
You are correct, the first few weeks is trying and yes, it's like having a new born again. We all took turns sleeping down stair with him for the first week. Each day he got stronger and our nerves eased with each time he ate, drank, went potty, and wagged his tail. Â
It does get better and you will be so amazed how Benny adapts and gets around as if he never had four legs. I don't know if he has a drain, but a t-shirt works really well for catching any blood drainage. You Benny is much smaller than our Bubba. who is 106#, so most likely a very small t-shirt would work for him. I would fold the t-shirt up towards his shoulder so he wouldn't get tangled up in it or pee on it. Â
Bubba had his amputation this past Dec. 19. He really seemed to have had an uneventful recovery. I started massaging him twice a day everyday and I still continue this. Their muscles get tired and sore from compensating the loss of the leg and now only having three legs. Â
You will find that everyone here is amazing, supportive, and community based. I am so thankful I found this website. I am looking forward to watching Benny's progress and here if you need anything.
Barb
Otis used to drink buckets of water ... and he also developed an aversion to drinking water during recovery. We figured out that he was battling an infection and once we got him on the right antibiotics his water habits seemed to return to normal. In the interim, we mixed chicken broth directly into his water bowl. On the worst days, when he wouldn't get out of bed, we brought it to him. He couldn't resist the broth, so it really only took a splash in his otherwise large water bowl. Otis will eat anything though...one of the other things that kept me from.worrying about Otis' dehydration was that I made a big batch of food from the Feed Your Dog Better book, and that had a lot of water and liquids in it...so keep the food part in mind too!Â
Like Barb says, we're all rooting for Benny!
Camille & Otis
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