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
Hi everyone, I hope this is OK to post here and that it might prove helpful for someone. I have a Get-A-Grip harness that we only used once or twice—we ended up opting not to get surgery for our three-legger’s partially-torn CCL, and so we didn’t need to use it. (Good news: he recovered beautifully after months of very careful mobility management, plus acupuncture and laser therapy, and is hopping around well again.)
The harness is a medium, 11” across the length of the body. (We did have a tailor modify the groin by about half an inch to make more room for our guy’s apparently-more-forward-located-than-most privates. So there’s a little extra space there.) Thought I’d see if anyone here could put it to good use.
Would love to be able to help out another tripawd who needs a lift.
I posted this on the Facebook page too in case you want to see a photo.
Thanks and again, please let me know if this isn’t ok to post!
sevenpaws said
...please let me know if this isn’t ok to post!
Of course it is OK to post items you wish to donate to others in need...it is exactly why we created the Tripawds Angel Exchange , and why we moved your topic here to this forum. Thank you!
Please reply with an update once the harness is taken, or no longer available.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
sevenpaws said
We paid full price for it, but I’m willing to consider any offers.
Please note that we have edited this out of your original post, since the only exchange of money allowed here may be to cover shipping costs. Please review the Angel Exchange Rules for complete details and let us know if you'd like us to delete your offer if you are not willing to donate the harness...thank you!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Really glad ro hear your pup avoided surgery!! Good job!
So...off topic. When you get a chance, do you mind posting a topic on what exactly his protocol was and how you were avle to avoid surgery? How much does he weight, how many helpers you had, the therapy required, how often, etc. Now that he has healed, what restrictions, if any, are required to continue to protect that limb?
Did an xray confirm partially torn?
Thank you very much! And again, soooo glad precious Charlie is doing well!! 🙂
With appreciation,
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
t
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 Sally! We did get an X-ray that confirmed there was a tear, though the extent was unclear. The injury happened on December 6, and we went to various vets and specialists and scheduled TPLO surgery for early January, since we were leaving town for the holidays. We ended up postponing it a few times and eventually canceling it.
What we did: he's a 45-pound dog, who's been missing one of his rear legs since he was hit by a car as a puppy; he was 11 at the time of his injury. We simply restricted his movement heavily. For the first month or two, no walks--he only went outside to potty, and we carried him up and down ALL steps, even if there was just one. Then, we started letting him walk a couple hundred yards down the block. After a couple months of that, we let him do half a block. And so on. We found that doing a few very short walks per day was much better than taking one longer one. He needed to rest the injury but he also needed to maintain his muscle mass. We cut back his food a little bit so he wouldn't gain weight with the reduced activity. We also gave him tons of supplements: Arthroplex, DevCor, Glycoflex, high-quality fish oil, and powdered elk antler from Canada. ACUPUNCTURE was also key, and we still get him acupuncture and laser therapy every two weeks.
This was really helpful: http://www.tigg.....m/id3.html
Eventually the scar tissue built up around the tear and stabilized the joint. Our vet saw him six months after the injury, felt the scar tissue, and was amazed at how well he'd recovered. She said it was great we didn't put him through the surgery (not to mention our bank accounts, though of course we'd spend anything to keep him well.)
Two years later, Sylvan is 13 (almost 14) and hopping around like a champ. We still carry him up and down stairs and onto the bed. He can't do long hikes by the river anymore, but he happily walks a few blocks around the neighborhood. He's slower now because he's old, and he has some arthritis, but wow has he come a long way from that awful, terrifying period where we were facing down a major surgery and months of hard recovery.
Thank you so much for taking time to reply with such powerful information and links! I am soooo thrilled to hear Sylvan is still doing so well! A senior, a tripawd...Sylvan is wuite the MIRACLE CHAMP!! And he has some mighty devoted humans to help him thrive.
Al.ost six weeks ago did have cruciate repair surgery on my tripawd Frankie. It was a full tear and he was trying to walk on two legs that were starting to collapse on him (front legger amp) He's almost 70 lbs and it's just my old self to try and manage his recovery and I was pretty useless. Somewhere in my mind, I felt like that was the way to go. (Although the link you shared would certainly be something to co sider should I ever be faced with this awful scenario again with other dogs.) It also helped that I was very, very fortunate in that funds were raised to do the surgery and to provide some Rehab. So very fortunate.
What's so interesting from the info and link you shared is that virtually everything about the "techniques of recovery" are the same whether surgery or non-surgery. Needless to say, the recovery from the surgery itself is hard to go through and clearly very painful for the dog. Actually, there a couple of Rehab things that are being done that I want to reconsider. You helped me greatly in that I wasn't given nearly that type of in-depth info from the Vet. The insight into how the scar tissue needs to form and, even though there outwardly appears to be improvement, was so valuable!
EVERYTHING you shared was INVALUABLE and I thank you again for your time and insight.
Wishing you and sweet Sylvan the best. He is quite an inspiration for any tripawd faced with this dilemma. Extr treat for him tonight from Frankie! 🙂
Qith appreciation
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 there. Do you still have the harness? My shepherd lab rear tripaw ziggy, adopted post surgery when he was 1-2 years old, would love it. At 5-6 years old now he's still very active but is beginning to reach his limit more often and with this harness we could help him out when he needs it. Please let me know the cost of shipping to Canada.
thanks, Liz
1 Guest(s)
