A tripod dog is a dog with three legs. The loss of a leg can be due to many reasons including cancer, leg trauma (car accident), or congenital deformities (born with a deformity).
I am privileged to share my life with a three legged Siberian Husky, called Shania. She had a congenital deformity called radial head luxation, i.e., the bones on her left front leg were misaligned, and she was unable to put weight on it. This condition is rare, especially for a Siberian Husky, and the cause for it is unclear.
We speculate that it may have been from birth trauma, since she was a c-section puppy. We had hoped to correct the problem with orthopedic surgery, but unfortunately, there was too much cartilage damage in the joint, and the surgeon recommended amputation.
It was a shock when she came home with three legs, and a BIG bandage around her torso. However, Shania recovered quickly from the surgery and is now a happy, bouncy, and somewhat spoiled member of the family.
Here are some things to look out for when living with a three legged dog –
1. Keep a tripod dog slim.
The most common health issue with three legged dogs is that they may develop arthritis earlier than other dogs. Because they are missing a leg, more stress is placed on their remaining joints, and there is more wear and tear. Therefore, it is very important to keep them slim, so that they do not have to deal with additional joint stresses from excess weight.
Feed a three legged dog a healthy and balanced diet, but do not overfeed her.
2. Keep our dog’s foot-pads clean and healthy.
Proper foot care is very important for a three legged dog.
They may develop cracked foot-pads because of the additional weight placed upon each paw. I now apply DermaPaw cream to Shania’s footpads to help keep them protected.
Previously I was using Tuf-Foot by Bonaseptic, but I find that the DermaPaw cream brings better results, is easier to apply, and stays on for much longer than Tuf-Foot. However, Shania will often try to lick the cream up, so I apply it right before she takes a nap (e.g. when we come home from our walk), and I supervise until she settles down.
I also keep Shania’s nails short, and trim the fur at the bottom of her feet. This allows her to walk comfortably, and without slipping.
3. Watch out for Elbow Hygroma.
An Elbow Hygroma is a fluid-filled swelling around the dog’s elbow. It occurs, when the elbow bone causes trauma to the soft tissue around it. This usually happens in younger dogs who are constantly lying down, or falling down on a hard surface. It may also happen when a dog leans, or consistently places too much weight on one elbow.
As a dog matures, a callus will form to protect the elbow and prevent this condition. Dog beds may help, but some dogs prefer to sleep on cooler, hard surfaces.
Young three legged dogs are especially susceptible to elbow hygroma, because their elbow calluses have yet to form, and their activity level is high. Shania developed this condition when she was less than a year old. However, the swelling was small, and our vet advised us to let it heal on its own. In more serious cases, where there is an enormous amount of swelling and/or infection, surgery may be needed.
We now have a cool bed for Shania in her crate. It helps to keep her cool during the summer, and provides her with a nice soft surface to lie on. Remember to regularly clean and air out the water bed, so that mold does not accumulate on its wet undersides.
For outside the house, we use the Coolaroo outdoor dog bed. It is durable, provides a soft surface, and is elevated from the floor. The elevation allows free air-flow during hot days, and prevents water from accumulating during rainy days.
4. Manage slippery surfaces
Make sure that there are not too many slippery surfaces in the house.
Three legged dogs have less balance, and can easily slip on hard surfaces like wood, tile, linoleum, or marble. This is especially true when they are running or playing.
If there are many hard, slippery floors in the house, it may be time to go rug shopping! Rugs also provide a nice, soft surface for a dog to rest on.
I get natural hand-knotted rugs, that can stand more wear and tear from the dogs. Consider getting a light, earth-tone colored rug, that can hide dirt and dog hair more easily.
In addition, I check the backyard, and make sure there are no deep holes. Shania can trip on uneven surfaces and hurt herself. I also clear away large piles of sticks and leaves. Larger sticks may sometimes catch on a dog’s nails and cause damage.
It helps to get raised water bowls, so that our tripod dog can drink without having to bend down too much.
5. Let a 3 legged dog be a dog
When we share our life with a tripod dog, we naturally want to protect her from as many things as possible. It is important, though, to let a dog be a dog.
If a three legged dog is kept from doing all the things that dogs love to do, she will have lived an unfulfilled life.
“A life lived in fear is a life half lived” ~ [Spanish proverb]
Very informative hub. Your dog is beautiful and lucky to have you as her human.
hi all,
Just thought id ask you guys what i should do about my new rescue… ive only had 7 month old, Meisie for about two weeks (note my story above) and she is doing great. we got her home soon after her rear leg amputation and she has soon built up her strength and is now running round like a loony toon!
Im really pleased with how well she has adpted in such a short time but now i fear she is getting a little too daring. she runs into the kitchen at full pelt and just slides on the floor. it is carpet so its not even that slidy!! she seems to love it and wont listen when i tell her to slow down. should i keep her out of there or let her have fun?
I know i sound like a wittling mother but she really is my baby and although i want her to lead a life as any four legged dog would i dont want her to get hurt.
What do you guys do?
Oh and i am also pleased to report, that i have taught her to sit. She now sits for everything because she knows shes going to get lots of fuss!! hehe.
YAY! Way to go!
Hard to say without being there and seeing things. With a 3 legged dog it is always a difficult line to walk between safety and living a full life. I do my best to ensure that Shania doesn’t take extreme risks – e.g. playing on the stairs, but other times I let play in her hyper style. 😀
Shania will sometimes slide on the rugs too, but unlike the tile floor, it is a controlled slide and she doesn’t lose her balance and fall. I observe her closely to make sure what she is comfortable with, what I am comfortable with, and try to strike a balance.
Glad to hear that Meisie is doing so well! Give her a cookie from me for being so clever with her training!
Thank you for this site! We adopted Mabel yesterday. She’s a 4 year old greyhound/dalmatian mix. Right rear leg gone for 1.5 years after an auto accident. We’re trying to adapt her 35 pound frame to her 95 pound younger, hyper brother. I’m going out at lunch to buy an outdoor rug for our sidewalk which was slick this morning and she tumbled playing. Thanks so much for all the wonderful advise. My shopping list has glucosamine, harness, foot cream, and more rugs!!
Congratulations on your adoption! 🙂 She sounds like a really beautiful girl.
And yeah you can never really have enough rugs – lol. My girl is also very hyper. She is either on or off – no in-between settings needed. Just make sure not to let them play while going up and down the stairs. When Shania is on the stairs I make sure my Shiba doesn’t bother her.
Hugs and kisses to Mabel!
We have just adopted Meisie after a painful 4 weeks. she was taken into the rescue centre as a stray who had been hit by a car and broke her right hind leg. She had a cast put on by the wardens vet and was cage bound for 3 weeks. The first time we saw her we fell in love, and visited her every day. she got quieter and quieter, until she didnt even lift up her head when we arrived. After all that time another vet checked her. The leg had been fused in the wrong place and her skin had rotted. She had an open wound over 2inches long! The vet amputated her leg and we went to collect her two days later. she was up wagging her tail and i dont think it has stopped since!!
1 week on she is doing great. she is playing with toys again running round the back garden and playing with other dogs. She is our special little girl and we will give her all the love her little heart can take.
There was no doubt in our heads that we were still going to adopt her despite the amputation and sites like this really do help.
You may be able to help with a few questions though….
she doesnt seem to like going out on walks – she stops all the time. at first i thought she was tired… so after a while i picked her up and carried her home BUT when she gets home she runs round on the back garden like a loopy loo! any ideas?
How to teach her to sit? she doesnt seem to like it… should we bother?
Congratulations on your new dog. I am always so happy to see people like you who are not only willing to rescue a dog in need, but also a dog with special needs.
Re Walks – Meisie may feel a bit unsure of herself when she is outside. One thing you can try is to take some really yummy food with you. Then during the walk, try playing the Find-It game with her. Take out a yummy treat and throw it a very short distance away from her and say “Find-It”, when she gets it – get really happy, praise her well, and repeat. Once she understands the game, you can try throwing it a bit farther away. Later on, you can even throw in a Recall. This will make walking seem more like fun, and she will quickly forget about her fears.
You can also try playing games with her outside using her favorite toys. This way she will start to associate positive things with her walk.
Also make the walks shorter initially, and let her stop and smell bushes and such whenever she wants to.
Re Sit – Hmmm I am not sure about this one. Shania is missing one of her front legs so she does not have problems doing a Sit. If Meisie has issues with it – I would say forget about it and just get her to do other commands that she can more comfortably and happily perform. Down is always a good one to have, and I find that Rolling onto their Side is also a very good one especially during grooming 🙂
Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes and hugs to Meisie.
Hi,
Meisie and I started puppy training class last thursday and did realy well. i was so pleased that meisie showd all the four legged dogs that she was as good (if not better) than them. However the trainer kept on saying ‘Meisie doesnt have to do this if she cant manage it’ ‘You just sit this one out’ it really annoyed me, especially as Meisie as we have worked hard teaching her all the basic commands and i had informed the instructor of this before attending the class.
At the end of the session the instructor took one more step to annoy me by saying that we are doing too much with her. Now its made me worry!
We have only taught her basic positions (sit, down, stay, leave, drop) and take her on two walks a day – one in the morning 15mins and one at night about 30 mins. Is this too much? she said that we were putting her at high risk of a hip replacement. I really dont want her to experience the pain she has in the past and definately dont want it to be because of us ‘pushing her too much’
When we initially saw the vet post op he said to let her lead the way (only go as far as she felt comfortable) doing the ammount we are doing at the moment she still gets back and goes ‘loopy loo’ in the garden so blatently not tired.
What do you think? should we reduce her walks and do less with her? she is on her own in the day time so dont want her to have too much unused energy while we are not there (not saying i want her to sleep all day!)
Thanks in advance
Laura
Personally, I think you are doing the right thing.
Shania is out walking for about 1.5-2 hours total every day. Dogs need their exercise and they need to be out and about to explore the environment. If they have to stay home all of the time, they would get bored very quickly and not enjoy life very much.
As for the joints, your trainer is right in that three legged dogs do place more weight and therefore more stress on their joints. They will probably get arthritis and other joint issues earlier than other dogs because of this.
However, if dogs are not walked, they will have pent up energy and will need to release that doing running around at home anyway.
There are probably some things that we can do to reduce joint stress – e.g. walk on even, flat terrain, and don’t let her jump too much. However, at some point, dogs should get to enjoy their lives.
Shania likes rough-housing, running around, and going out on walks just as much as the next dog. I let her do these things, but just make the environment safe for her with rugs, no holes, no stick piles, no playing on stairs, etc. I also make sure not to overtire her and to give her lots of rest breaks.
Your vet can probably give you the best advice on this issue since he knows Meisie’s full medical history.
Hope this helps 🙂
Hi there shibashake,
thought i would let you know that i have been searching for a site with insite on 3 legged dogs and yours has been by far the most helpful!
My 1 1/2 yr old white female boxer chica had her left leg amputated.. she is such a beautiful puppy, so sad this happened. She was playing in our yard with her little brother 6 months old, and some how tumbled so badly she broke her left elbow in 4 spots. 3 different vets and a specialist told us to amputate, it was so severe they thought she had been hit by a car.
Finally we found a vet willing to do the surgery but during the surgery we got a call today that he found multiple hair line fractures and nerve damage and a chance the leg might die after he tries to put it back together because of blood flow.. she is my best friend and i dont know what its going to be like when we get her ina few days.. I am so worried, what if she breaks her other leg? our puppy chopper is so hyper and might knock her over.. I just pray everything will be alright, your page has gave me so much informationand hope.
Very grateful new tripod owner,
Trina
Hi Trina,
Thanks for visiting and sharing your story with us. I am sure Chica will recover well – she is young and will bounce back so quickly you won’t be able to believe it 🙂
Just separate the dogs until the stitches come off – which is usually in 2 weeks. That was what I did with my two dogs. I set up a dog pen and had Shania stay inside so that Sephy couldn’t bug her, and so that she wouldn’t be tempted to play before she was fully recovered.
Let us know how things go with Chica in the next few weeks. Many hugs to the both of your dogs.
Hi. Thank you for your helpful and encouraging site. Our 9 year old siberian was just diagnosed with osteosarcoma and had an amputation. She is 5 weeks from the surgery and adjusting well on most fronts. She is a spirited and sweet thing who loves to romp in the field next to our house with her cat friends, Oliver, Caroline and Minnie. For years now, every morning, her “mama” calls her into the bed for snuggles.The “snugglepuppy” ritual is very special to Nikki and to her family, but since the surgery she cannot get into the bed. We’ve purchased doggie stairs, 16inx18in, and with some coaxing and guiding she made it up them twice. But she refuses to do it now, and resists when we try to guide her. She uses a ramp to get in the car, and that works fine, but the bed would be too steep for a ramp. Can you give us any advice about beds and/or doggie stairs so that we can restore our joyful morning ritual?
Many thanks, Nikki and her family
lol – I like the “snugglepuppy” ritual. My Siberian is also tentative about new objects, especially objects that have to do with footwork.
How high is your bed? The easiest thing would be to consider getting a new, lower bed frame.
How high are the stairs? Another thing you could do, is let her learn to navigate the stairs in her own time. Just place some yummy treats on the steps, and a really good one on the bed, and let her get to them in her own time.
**ONLY do this though if you are totally confident that she can’t hurt herself on the stairs. If the stairs are too high, and she can fall off and hurt herself, then I would NOT attempt this. Just go with the lower bed.
I have an 80lb Alaskan Malmute/Norwegian Elkhound who broke her front left leg between the shoulder and elbow. We think she slipped on the slippery garage floor. Surgery was performed on it but somehow the plate moved and the break is just as worse. Surgery again is not an option. She is suffering just leaving it as it is and our only other options are amputation or putting her down. She is a big dog and I worry that she can break her other leg just as easily. We also live on acreage and her safety and quality of life are a concern. She loves to run, dig holes, try to catch mice and hold her bones to chew on them. If we amputate she will not be able to do the things she loves. Your input would be great for we have yet to make a decision on the fate of our dog.
I am sorry to hear about your dog’s accident.
Amputation or not is a very difficult and painful decision. With regards to quality of life, I can only share what I have observed from Shania.
Shania can still run very well. If she doesn’t have to turn, she can actually run faster than my Shiba Inu!
Shania also loves to dig holes. There are many of them in our backyard 🙂 Her holes are long and narrower because she can only use one leg, but some of them are quite large.
Shania is a great hunter. She does a great job at keeping out the voles in our backyard. My Shiba Inu is pretty useless when it comes to hunting. I think he doesn’t want to dirty himself – lol
Shania doesn’t get any real bones, but she gets the plastic Nylabones. She is quite adept at manipulating them and chewing them. True, it is not as simple as a 4-legged dog, but she manages quite well on her own.
Shania is also great at working on interactive toys and she plays very well with my Shiba. She probably gives him more than he gives her. I know that he is one always doing the squealing 🙂
However, there are changes that we had to make around the house, during outings, and during walks to accomodate Shania. Shania has a hard time negotiating on slippery surfaces, so we covered up all the tile floors with rugs and runner rugs so that she can always walk on a rug surface. We are also careful with our backyard. We covered up our drainage ditch and made sure there are no large holes around.
Hope that this is of some help to you. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Thanks for the information and advice. I just adopted a 6 mth old beagle and I noticed he was favoring his front left left and lifts it up when he first starts to run. He had a bad landing today when he tried to be a puppy and jammed his bad leg.
After an emergency vet visit and some xrays the vet told me that his puppy plate in the elbow had been previously damaged and that the elbow is arthritic and eventually an amputation might be needed, pain dictating if/when this would happen.
The funny thing about this is that I have a fused left ankle so I understand the pain, fusion and thoughts of eventual removal of the limb.
I have an appointment with his vet tomorrow but I am researching leg removals to be prepared for the eventual.
Yeah Shania was the same way. When she was a puppy, she would frequently put too much pressure on her front leg while playing with my other dog and hurt herself. She was never able to put weight on her crooked leg, and was mainly using it for balance, as far as I could tell.
Strangely, things got a lot better after the amputation. She quickly got used to having three legs and didn’t have to deal with accidentally hurting herself. She actually became a lot more confident and started playing a lot more actively with my other dog.
Hugs and kisses to your little guy and please us know how he is doing.
Hi,
My 6 year old springer spaniel, Abbey, was just diagnosed with cancer and needs to have her left hind leg removed. I’ve seen an ad for a no cone collar for wound protection,to prevent her from licking her stiches. has anyone tried this?
I have never tried using a no-cone collar before, but based on what I have read, it seems that it only prevents biting on very particular parts of the body, whereas the regular e-collar is a lot more comprehensive.
After surgery, Shania had a fairly large sized area with stitches, so I am not sure if a no-cone collar would offer enough protection. Your vet would probably be able to give you the best advice.
During Shania’s surgery I also considered the soft e-collar, but my vet was against it because he said that dogs can chew on and bite off parts of the soft material. I ended up just using the regular e-collar.
You can also repost your question on the tripawds forum. There are many members there who have gone through cancer and amputation with their dogs.
http://www.tripawds.com/forums/
Hope this helps. Hugs and kisses to Abbey. Let us know how it goes.
Hi, I have a wonderful tripod named Max. he is 5 years old. He does not know how to play catch, fetch, tug o war or anything like that. I try to teach him but he just doesn’t seem interested. Are there other dogs like this? Also he is part lab and border collie, he doesn’t like bathes but looks like he would love to jump into a lake near our home. but it appears that he might be afraid because he is not sure how he would get out. One other thing – do you ever consider a dog shoe to protect their feet from stickers or foxtails? We live in the country and I cannot possibly clear all the land. He is nursing a paw now that loks like it is festering. He is going to the vet Monday. Things i am just cruious about. he is missing his left front leg and hurt his rear right paw. He is managing ok though. I just love him so much and he works as a therapy dog – everyone loves Max. Thank you.
Max sounds wonderful! I am always so impressed with therapy dogs.
Re games: Different dogs have different preferences when it comes to games. Sometimes, they are just unsure what you want them to do. As a lab/b.collie it seems that he would really love catch and fetch. I would start doing it in small steps. First teach him the take-it and drop-it commands on the ball. Put peanut butter on it if he needs more motivation :). Then you can try throwing it a short distance away, go to it and say Take-it. Just go slowly and in small steps. Both my dogs are not really into ball games. They both really enjoy the flirt pole though.
Re lake: You could just start with a small dog wading pool, just to see if he enjoys that. Then you can consider letting him into a small pool so that you can go in there with him and help him. I am not sure what would be involved in this, as I have not done it before myself. The things I would be most concerned about are that the steps and area around the pool may be really slippery, especially for a tripod.
Re dog shoes: Yes I have actually looked into this option. In addition to burrs and stuff, tripods put a lot more weight on their pads, and this causes more wear and tear. Shoes would help for both of these situations. According to the reviews, the big issue with dog shoes is that they frequently come off during play and other rigorous activity. Since my dogs play a lot together, it would not have worked out in my case.
The tripawds forum is also a good place to get more information:
http://www.tripawds.com/forums/
Hope this helps. Extra hugs and kisses to Max. Let us know how it goes at the vet.Â