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.
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Hello, I joined the site a couple of months ago and have been a reader so far, thanks to everyone for the wonderful help and advice you give to other members. We have a beautiful 6.5 year old Rottie girl called Kaya, she was diagnosed with suspected osteosarcoma in March on her left front shoulder and had her amputation surgery on April 12th. Her wound took a long time to heal, she had a small dead flap of skin which did not heal over and she had to have a drain a week or so after her surgery but all healed now, she is coping well on 3 legs and otherwise eating and fine (apart from eye ulcers which are being treated separately).
We are in the UK and this is the 2nd time we have gone through this, our gorgeous boy Rottie , Conna, had the same osteosarcoma, same leg, 12 years ago - we are devastated to be going through this again, it is such an unfair and horrible disease.
I would like to ask for some advice, Kaya has had 2 doses of carboplatin with 2 more to go, the problem we are having is that she has no more patience with needles and being poked around with, she is an absolute sweetheart and so gentle and very well behaved but she is just fed up of being poked about with.
Our vets are not experienced oncologists but have done a great job with her surgery and post surgery care. They want to take bloods to check her white cell and platelets a few days before the chemo and again on the day of the chemo, we expect the bloods to be taken on the day of the chemo but in order for them to keep her still enough she now needs to be dosed up with Gabapentin and Trazodone before her visit and it is knocking her out very badly and she is losing a whole day not able to walk properly and sleeping all day, we do not want to do this more than necessary for the remaining chemo visits so do not want to do the mid cycle blood checks.
Does anyone have any thoughts or experience on this, the vets have said that if we do not have the pre check and then on the day her levels are too low to do the chemo we will have to pay for the chemo drug that will be wasted (approx £500 = $600), they checked her levels 10 days after her first chemo and they were low but not too low and then for the 2nd chemo her levels were also low but not too low to proceed so I am not sure of the risk if we decided not to do the pre check, the check on the day of the chemo will be done, it is just the extra one the few days before we want to stop. I wanted to ask if this is a common process as we did not have to do that for Conna and although it was a long time ago I expect the chemo drug used was the same
Any advice would be very welcome to help us make the decision.
Hi Louise and Kaya, welcome! We are sorry you had to join our club (and dealing with osteosarcoma again!) but very glad you found us.
It's really great that Kaya is getting around so well! People get really nervous about having to decide on amputation for a Rottweiler, so it's nice that others can see that even bigger dogs like her can do well on three.
The sedation you describe is pretty common these days for dogs who are otherwise nervous in a vet clinic. It's a new protocol that vets even here in the US have been using lately. But as you can see, it can pack a wallop on certain dogs who are extra sensitive to Trazadone and Gabapentin.
Unfortunately the labs need to be done prior to chemo. Without them, you'll never know if her body is able to handle the treatment next time around. If she had low white blood cell counts and got the chemo (probably carboplatin?), it could put her in a dangerous health situation.
So what I would suggest is to 1) ask your vet if there are other ways to sedate her without knocking her out completely. Maybe a medication like Amantadine could work? That's a medication that also makes dogs sleepy, but it doesn't knock them out as much as Traz.
Consider trying a basket muzzle with a calming cap. That worked pretty well for our German Shepherd, Wyatt Ray .
Also, consider searching for a vet clinic that uses Fear Free methods of dog handling. This is a pretty new concept in the vet world but it makes a huge difference for dogs and cats who are fearful at the clinic. I'm not sure if it's in the UK yet but you could reach out to the Fear Free people to ask.
You could also search for a mobile vet to come to your house, and take the blood draws at home, and see how that goes.
Would any of those things work for you and Kaya?
I can only speak from my experience, we did not have to do the extra bloodwork a few days prior to her chemo, just day of. With that said Ellie was in a clinical trial so for her first dose she was already getting weekly blood draws, but for her second and third there wasn't anything additional... and we stopped chemo after that due to spread.
I empathize with her being sick of being poked and prodded, I know Ellie was overrrrrr going to the vet, she still behaved and we didn't get to he point of needing trazadone (which also knocked her out forever!), but she stopped taking treats from them (which her world revolves around food so that was a big deal) and when she saw me she would come running and be pulling me to the door while I was chatting with the vet. Which Ellie is never in a hurry to go anywhere- she is the one in home depot who will lay in the middle of the aisle and ask for all the pets.
I'm happy to hear you only need to be doing 4! Halfway there Kaya, hang in there!
Ohhh interesting they didn't draw each time! Thanks for that enlightenment, so I guess it's not the same everywhere. Seems to me like you could maybe advocate for fewer draws then.
It is typical in most oncology practices to just do the blood the day of treatment especially with carboplatin which is fairly benign. It sounds like they do not want to keep the drug on hand but are just ordering it after the CBC but worst case scenario if she is too low they can still give the injection a few days later.
Perhaps they could lower the sedation a bit but those drugs are very safe.
Pam
Thanks everyone for your comments, it is very helpful to hear others expereinces and thoughts on this. I think it is because it is our regular vets and not an oncology referral vets that they want to do the additional check a few days before as well as on the day of the chemo, they do not have much experience and this is the first time they have used carboplatin and they have to buy the carboplatin in especially for Kaya and I beleive that once it is made up it has a short shelf life.
We have a couple of weeks before her next appointment so will give some thought whether to have the additional check or just ask the vets to do them on the day, it is a good idea to ask that if her bloods are too low on the day can they hold the carbo they have bought for a few extra days to try again.
Louise
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I didn't want to put in my two cents worth as it had been back in 2014 that I had to deal with this with Happy Hannah. I do recall however there was only ONE blood draw and I think it was the day of the carboplatin injection. And from the experience of others here, if there was a low blood count the dog would be put on an antibiotic before the next injection and the next test. Sometimes if the blood count wasn't back up to normal they could delay the injection another couple of weeks. So I guess the only thing I want to add is to make sure that you know that is an option if there is a too low blood count.
Glad you posted. It was a great question to ask and hopefully you feel you have more insight now on how to proceed.
And guessing the veterinarian has been Guided by an oncologist on this over the phone?
((((((((((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!
Hi Louise - I too have a rottie (my boy, Butch) who is just turning 8 this week. He had a rear leg amputation on April 1st and started chemo treatments in May originally scheduled for every 3 weeks. I take him into the oncology clinic first thing in the morning the day of the scheduled treatment where they do a blood panel before administering the carboplatin. He has only had two chemo treatments thus far because his white cell count is too low for them to administer the carboplatin. Thie oncologist has now changed his chemo treatment schedule to every 4 weeks because he apparently needs more time to recover after each one. I did have to take him in mid-cycle once to see what his levels were. However, the normal course is that they test on the day of and DO NOT charge me for the carboplatin UNLESS they administer it. This may be because it will not go to waste in an oncology clinic, where your vet may not be able to use it on another doggy. My boy also gets extremely nervous about being poked and prodded. For the first chemo treatment the oncologist called and said they would have to sedate him because he was freaking out. Since then I have given him 200 mg of Trazadone one hour before our appointment, and this has worked in calming him down enough for the doctors to do what they need to do. The combo of Gabapentin and Trazadone in my experience does wipe them out completely. Hope things go better for your baby. Cancer sucks!
Thanks again for all the comments, they are very helpful. I am tending towards just getting Kaya's bloods checked on the day of her chemo and not the additional one a few days before, I think it is just because our vets have to get the carboplatin in specially and are worried of the cost if they cannot proceed on the day but they have to take the bloods just before administering the treatment so I am not convinced that the additional check is really helping and is just putting Kaya through more stress.
They have send me her blood check results, from the first 2 sessions, I am going to try to work out what they are saying to see if I can judge just how low her levels were do see if she is really borderline to not proceed, I may need to ask the forum for help as I am not an expert but will see what I can work out.
I will try to load a photo of Kaya but am away with work for a few days, leaving Kaya in the very safe hands of my husband, so will try when I am back. She had a lovely day out yesterday, visiting friends who had 2 6 month old boxer rottie cross puppies - she had a lovely time with them and even with 3 legs took no nonsense from the bouncy puppies 
, it is having lovely days like that that make it all worthwhile.
Louise
Louise you are so welcome! Way to go on advocating for Kaya, it makes total sense on how you want to approach the labs. Let us know how it works out with the vet. They will be able to tell you if her levels are too low to proceed, hopefully that won't be the case.
It's nice that Kaya had a good weekend! You're so right, about a good days making amputation worthwhile. Things we once took for granted are now very special and extraordinary aren't they?! She has come a long way thanks to you, and may there be many more fun days like that ahead for all of you!
Have a good week.
Hi, sorry for my long delay in posting any update. Kaya had her third round of chemo just over two weeks ago, we decided to go ahead with just getting her bloods checked on the day of the chemo, we really didn’t want to put her through more sedation just to take the extra bloods mid cycle. It worked great, her blood levels were fine and she had her third dose of chemo with no problems. Kaya is coping really well with the chemo, she seems a little tired for a few days afterwards, but other than that there are no obvious side-effects, she is on carboplatin, which seems to be the usual for osteosarcoma.
Kaya has her last round of chemo scheduled for end of this week, it will be wonderful to have no more vet appointments in the diary. We have decided not to do any x-rays or scans of her chest. We will not do anymore after the amputation and the chemo, we are just focusing on making sure however long she has left is as happy and perfect as possible. We do not have access to any of the trials that seem to be available in the US, there is not really anything comparable in the UK at the moment, but in any case we will just keep an eye on her, we went through this 12 years ago with our other Rottie Connor, so will know when her time finally comes.
In the meantime I wanted to share that Kaya is doing amazing, for those who are going through this and worried about how larger dogs cope on three legs, Kaya is not as large as some she is about 40 kg (88lb), but three months after her amputation, she is pretty much back to her old ways, the same happy smile, playing with her toys, loving everyone she meets and doing much better than we thought for walking. We thought we would be severely limited to where we could take her, but she has amazed us with how well she’s doing, we are able to take her on reasonable walks with allowing her to rest when she wants, she is needing to rest less and less as the weeks go by, we took her to the beach and she was fine climbing up over the rocks and re-learned how to swim in one of the deep rock pools. I will try to add a few videos and photos
Louise, so glad to hear how great everything is going! I really empathize with not getting any scans- it makes a lot of sense and will allow you guys to really just enjoy this time with Kaya (which is hopefully very long and plentiful)!
I simply can't wait to see pictures and video, I have a really clear image of you guys on the beach and swimming in the rock pools
We thought we would be severely limited to where we could take her, but she has amazed us with how well she’s doing, we are able to take her on reasonable walks with allowing her to rest when she wants, she is needing to rest less and less as the weeks go by, we took her to the beach and she was fine climbing up over the rocks and re-learned how to swim in one of the deep rock pools
And this is why we dod what we do! Estatic to hear how well preciois Kaya is doing!!! Thank you so much for sharing this is aspect of uoir journey so newbies can see how quickly dogs return to living life large as a tripawd.
You have a wonderful path forward that let's Kaya be Kaya. Adapting to the Be More Dog, be more Kaya attitude is so freeing👍
And abs more pictures and more video!! We'll be waiting!!
Thanks again for check int. So good to hear from you.
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!
WOOHOO! No need to apologise for not updating, you and Kaya are living large and having FUN! I'm so happy to see this great news.
So many people are inspired by her, thank you for taking time to let us know things are good. Also, about your decision to take life one day at a time and how to proceed with treatment, that's also very helpful. No Tripawd story is exactly alike but all stories here help people feel better and more grounded.
Yes if you'd like help adding images just holler. We can't wait to see your amazing girl enjoying summer.
Hi Jerry, I may need some help with pictures and videos, I only have access to my iPad at the moment, I will try on the weekend when I get back to my main computer and if I still have problems, I will ask for some help, somehow I will make sure I get the Kaya videos and photos loaded by the end of the weekend, I hope they will help people having to make the most difficult decisions or just after the operation, which is the most difficult time, when you do question if you’ve done the right thing.
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