Coping with a tripawd pet
Doris is a black Lab. She lost her right hind leg following a fall in the garden when she was 14 weeks old. The vets tried to fix the fracture but it wasn’t to be, and despite 10 days in the hospital with intensive therapy, the decision was taken to amputate the leg to save her.
Unfortunately, she missed all her puppy classes and key socialisation time due to the injury. She is a lovely natured dog and enjoys meeting people, but tends to be wary with unfamiliar dogs, especially bouncy, large dogs.
She finds loose lead walking hard as she’s not as balanced as a four-legged dog, but we’re working on it and she is improving. The vet has advised us to keep her weight right down — easier said than done with a Labrador! We feed her carrots as a treat to fill her up but keep her lean. Rather than one long walk we take her on two shorter walks and mainly walk on fields and tracks to keep the impact on her remaining joints to a minimum. We also keep her warm and dry in cold, wet weather to protect her joints. We try to tire her out mentally rather than physically, with sniffing games and visits to the local pub where she interacts with lots of people and their pets.
After all her vet visits, she didn’t like going in the car so I spent many sessions tempting her in and getting her used to it. She now hops onto the back seat quite happily wearing a harness and seat belt.
Her hind paw developed a crack so we put petroleum jelly on before walking her, and have a boot for when it is tender.
On the whole she manages well on three legs but gets tired easily. She struggles to jump up too. She is a very happy dog and enjoys her walks and visits to the pub.
I’m a relatively new dog owner and now regularly read your magazine as it is both interesting and informative, but I would love to see an article/series of articles about how to adapt activities for dogs and owners in this situation. We have been finding our way through bit by bit, but would love any extra training tips, and general advice for helping dogs like Doris.
Ed’s note: If you are the owner of a tripawd dog, get in touch and share your experiences and advice on looking after a three-legged pet.
During the first lockdown, I had the misfortune to fracture my hip. There were many restrictions in the hospital including on the number and length of visits we were allowed.
By the weekend, I was feeling a bit low when I had a text from my daughter with a photo. It was a picture of our dog Toby, who had jumped into her car and settled himself down for an afternoon out. He loves my daughter and granddaughter and always makes a big fuss of them whenever they visit. Toby is a brown Patterdale Terrier, aged nine, and getting very grey. He has an expressive face and is a real character. He is also very fond of my carer and my daughter-in-law because they take him for walks — ‘walk’ being one of his favourite words along with ‘dinner’.
Thank you for the magazine; it has so many interesting articles — a good read every month.