Gracie’s doing great! Once her hair grows out people will probably just wonder why she walks a bit funny till they look closer. Pretty amazing how quickly animals adjust. Her remaining back leg seems to veer more towards the middle & she holds her tail a bit off to the side, all to help balance I’m assuming. When she walks slowly her limp is quite noticeable but when running you really can’t tell. Of course it’s pitiful to see her try to scratch on the side w/ the missing leg – she hasn’t figured out that doesn’t work. What do they end up learning to do to take care of an itch on the missing side? Maybe rubbing the ear/head on the ground???
She still wants to dance & twirl & jump up on her back leg like she use to w/ 2. She’s gone sprawling a few times. Makes me nervous. I just ordered the boots & liners to hopefully give her a bit more traction on our hardwood floors. Hope she’ll get use to wearing ’em.
She still seems to get tired quicker than before. But we’ve been going thru a looonnnng spell of high temps that’s draining everyone so not sure how much her lack of stamina is due to adapting to tripawdedness, or temps or combo…
she’s still on: benedryl, 1/2 25 mg tab 2x/day; 1 pepcid daily; 1 1/2 5 mg tabs of prednisone daily. Apparently she’ll be on those meds long-term. I’m assuming the prednisone is increasing her appetite. Sometimes she acts like she’s starving. I’ve always kept dry food available for her whenever she wants. She’s never over-indulged in eating that. At dinner I mix a bit of chicken in w/ some of the dry. But now every once in awhile she’ll go in & gobble it up. I don’t keep a lg quantity in her bowl but wonder if I should cut back on it. One day I was fixing salads & she was acting like it was time for dinner (it was earlier than when she usually eats) & I tossed her a carrot. When one son visits w/ his dog, his dog LOVES carrots & bananas & other such items but up till now Gracie totally ignores such foods. But this time she tried it & seemed to like it. I don’t want her to gain weight. Less activity now could be a problem, & extra weight isn’t good for anyone/animal & don’t think the 3 legs need to do more work than necessary.
I’ll say she hasn’t regretted any of the extra spoiling this past month has brought on. Spoiled little precious mutt!! Love her!
Good for Gracie!
Tate’s had a ravenous appetite recently, too. We watch his weight closely, feel for his ribs and look at his waist. Then we cut back or add accordingly.
P.S. Admin had a forum post recently on how to fix your page formatting…I had the same problem.
we agree with tate – best to keep the weight off initially, and not have to diet later on. so glad to hear gracie is doing so well – keep spoiling her (but not with food), she deserves it!!
charon & gayle
Glad she is doing better! Keep spoiling her, she has definitely earned it!
It was so good to see her last week and see how well she is doing — still her old, friendly, playful self! ( :
Yep, predisone makes us crazy hungry so taking away the freefeedin’ bowls is definitely a good idea. Let her have all the carrots she wants though, now that’s good for everypawdy!