Tripawd Life!

Digby is now a tripawd and absolutely loving it!!

It is one week post op and the difference between him dragging his dead leg around and hopping around on 3 is incredible. He was back to himself probably not even two days after the amputation. Our biggest issue now is trying to keep him from over exercising and pulling his stitches.  While our post op recovery has been smooth sailing before the operation was pretty trying times.

Digby underwent his surgery on a Tuesday and the Friday before this I came home from work to discover that Digby had badly chewed his dead leg. According to google and the emergency vet self mutilation is very common amongst cases like these.  The commonality did not stop me from having a heart attack –  he was missing two of his toenails I believe and his whole foot was completely destroyed and dripping blood, with the vet unable work with any remaining skin to staple it together.

Unfortunately this was on Friday night at approximately 2am and it was impossible to get an amputation surgery done on the weekend so we had to wait all the way till Tuesday and it was the longest three days of my life.  All while Digby was consistently removing his bandaging or bleeding through it.  There seemed to be so much blood I was worried that he would have complications during the surgery leading to several emotional breakdowns on the Monday from sheer worry.

However the surgery went without a hitch and while it was incredibly confronting to see Digby without a leg for the first day or two – the vet seemed to think bandaging the shoulder was unnecessary – both he and I have adapted to the situation quite quickly.

We started off with little walks for toilet only but know we can make it till the end of of the street and back and still have energy for a quick zoomie around the front yard. I know I know he shouldn’t be running but he is seriously cooped up, it’s been over a month with no proper exercise the poor kid.

I have ordered a ezy dog convert harness with the tripawd side labels for our walks, which hopefully we can do in the near future. I just need to look into exercises to get his strength and endurance up again. He seems to have it easier running then walking!

Digby the day after his operation.

538193ab-06e6-41de-8438-4c1f38a2509b

The Beginning

One week post accident:

 

Digby got involved in an accident with a car and thankfully he is doing okay and had no life threatening injuries. Unfortunately, he suffered radial nerve damage to his brachius plexus (I think that is how you spell it) and currently has no feeling in his front leg.  The poor thing has been hopping around and is really out of sorts and with no signs of any feeling returning in his legs 4 days post accident I thought I would start doing some research on having a dog with 3 legs.

Digby is approximately a 2 year old Bull Arab mix who we adopted from a rescue at 14 weeks. He has always been a quiet and sensitive dog but has an overwhelming zest for life. He loves to run around at the dog park, chasing his friends and his ball and jumping all over the place.  We’ve always said he is all leg as he is quite tall and very skinny weighing in at only 30kg.  Everyone believes he has a bit of greyhound in him, he was almost born to run. Nothing makes me happier to see him stretch his legs.

The day before his accident I took him to the dog park in the rain with one of his best friends, they ran around for ages having a blast. I worry that he will never be able to do this again.

He has been primarily sleeping his crate for the past week which he has adjusted to very well, for a dog that is used to sleeping on my bed from week 1.  However, he still has not regained effective control over his bladder and while he can go when he wants to while relaxing or sleeping he just lets it out.

Since day 1 he has progressed quite well and is now able to walk, or should i say hop, a fair distance without requiring rest. As he has no feeling he does drag his front leg along the ground but it is all wrapped up to prevent damage.

 

Has anyone else’s dog experienced this same injury? The vet has allocated a timeline of 6 weeks before making the call whether amputation is the best option for Digby. I hate this waiting I would rather deal with amputation immediately than being left unknowing. Unfortunately it is impossible to tell whether he completely severed the nerve or whether he strained and is able to return it to partial or even full function.

Hello Tripawds!

Add an excerpt to your posts to provide a summary for readers in many blog themes!

Read this for important information!

Welcome to Tripawds. Please read on for important tips. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging. Don’t miss our helpful WordPress tutorial videos if you need help getting started with your new Tripawds blog.

Do not reply to this post!

Please publish a new post (or edit this one) to share your story. The Tripawds community is only notified of new blog posts in the Recent Posts widgets found throughout the News blog and discussion forum pages. Members will not be notified of any comments made on this default first post. You can also choose to edit or delete your sample page.

Publish a blog post or your site may be deleted!

Please be sure to publish at least one blog post to let us know you that you may use your blog. NOTE: Failure to do so may result in your site being deleted. If you upload photos to your Media Library, but fail to publish a post, we’ll never know they are there and they may be gone forever!

Another way to ensure your site does not get deleted, is to upgrade it with a Tripawds Supporter subscription.

By default your site will be indexed so Tripawds members will be notified of your update in the Recent Posts lists throughout this community. If you change your Privacy settings to discourage search engines, your posts will not be indexed! 

To limit the amount of spam you receive, any first comment a reader makes on your blog will require moderation. Be sure to “Spam” any inappropriate comments, and approve those from your readers so their future comments appear immediately. You can change your comment options from the Settings -> Discussion tab in your dashboard.

Tripawds Blogs shall NOT be used for fundraising purposes.

Direct appeals for financial assistance to help cover care expenses will be deleted without notice. Everypawdy in the Tripawds community faces their own share of high expenses related to surgery, recovery and care. Veterinary financial aid resources can be found in the Tripawds News blog. Please see the Tripawds Fundraising Appeals Policy for more information. Thank you for your understanding.

Thank you for sharing your story, and happy blogging!