Page 8 | Hand hold please. Beloved Labrador hit by car and losing her leg

SnowSnow · 2025-01-22T23:55:51+00:00

Hand hold please. Our lovely girl was hit tonight when we were crossing a road and her leg is not salvageable. It was obvious straight away that the leg would not survive. The vets are going to operate tomorrow when she is hopefully fully stabilised. I’ve just come to bed to try and sleep but am just lying here thinking her legs been ripped off over and over in my mind. I know long term she will manage as long as she recovers well but my poor girl.

Original poster

SnowSnow · 30/01/2025 19:47

Thank you, she is resting on her bed now and we have a takeaway on the way as dinner got waylaid.

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VioletIndigoBlueGreen · 30/01/2025 20:00

Your poor Luna @SnowSnow. I saw your thread earlier in the week and it popped up again just now in Active.

My dog has also been known to shake dramatically and violently all over with pain as the cause, so I just wanted to mention that it's apparently a fairly common thing according to our vet.

I've been convinced a few times that she must have something terribly wrong in her recovery (it's usually been after a corn surgery - she's a retired racing greyhound), but the right pain killer has sorted her out in no time.

Very best wishes to your Luna for her recovery. Our hound is a Luna too!

oakleaffy · 30/01/2025 20:08

SnowSnow · 30/01/2025 15:44

Thanks @oakleaffy for the messages. Glad to hear the dog is doing well. Definitely a good sign when the bossiness came back 😁

I am thinking hydrotherapy would be a good idea. She loves going in water so hopefully she would enjoy it as well as getting the benefits from it.

We are finding mats on the laminate useful at the moment. Seems to help he confidence a bit as well.

She has a light up collar and her harness and lead she was wearing were fluorescent orange (now binned due to damage in the accident). It was still daylight when it happened so she didn’t have the light up collar on. We are currently using an old yellow harness for vet appointments but will be getting her a new harness and matching lead for when she can start going for walks again. We used to have a lovely purple one with reflective strips which we only replaced with the orange one a couple of months ago when it got a bit tatty. Will definitely look at the ruff wear brand as you mentioned as have heard they are good.

That’s so shocking that your lovely girl was wearing her fluorescent harness
The bike rider was grossly irresponsible They sound like they were going dangerously fast.

It’s wish I could share a pic of my friend’s dog as she now is- she has recovered far better than any of us could have thought possible-
The vets and nurses were wonderful, as yours sound.

Like with your dog, friend’s dog also had other injuries -
Friend used a harness ( a ruffwear one) for her dog to help steady dog until her strength came back
Dog is back in just a collar now.

The cone - It will be lovely to get that off.

Please update us!

Lots of love to your lovely Girl

FiveShelties · 31/01/2025 04:35

Wow @SnowSnow what a dreadful time for you all. Hopefully she will be well on the road to recovery soon.

QOD · 31/01/2025 15:20

Oh the little angel - heartbreaking isn’t it

i know it’s not the same but I had a knee replacement 3 weeks ago and my pain is worse today that it has been int the day up to now as nerves are re knitting
I’ve been doing ice packs but just cracked out the hot water bottle as it was a cold hard pain somehow and ice didn’t appeal

its a good sign I do think if she’s having a change in pain levels and there’s deffo no infection as it’s alllll repairing

(irrelevant but mum lives in our annexe with her dog and literally as I was having my knee replaced, her dog ruptured her cruciate ligament and is having surgery today 🙄
we’ve picked up a baby travel cot to keep her kinda contained safely - don’t know if a dog pen/baby play pen/travel cot could help? Even just just to keep Your toddler at bay)

spiderlight · 31/01/2025 15:57

Oh, poor Luna. I hope she's more settled now with the painkillers.

BeFluentNavyBee · 31/01/2025 19:57

Hope Luna is feeling a bit better today.

Original poster

SnowSnow · 01/02/2025 13:48

QOD · 31/01/2025 15:20

Oh the little angel - heartbreaking isn’t it

i know it’s not the same but I had a knee replacement 3 weeks ago and my pain is worse today that it has been int the day up to now as nerves are re knitting
I’ve been doing ice packs but just cracked out the hot water bottle as it was a cold hard pain somehow and ice didn’t appeal

its a good sign I do think if she’s having a change in pain levels and there’s deffo no infection as it’s alllll repairing

(irrelevant but mum lives in our annexe with her dog and literally as I was having my knee replaced, her dog ruptured her cruciate ligament and is having surgery today 🙄
we’ve picked up a baby travel cot to keep her kinda contained safely - don’t know if a dog pen/baby play pen/travel cot could help? Even just just to keep Your toddler at bay)

Hope your knee is not feeling too painful.

She is doing better with the extra pain relief and a bit more herself as in she watched me eat my lunch earlier. She is pretty much always sleeping other than if she needs the loo or we are giving her meds but sleep must be healing.

Hope your mums dog is doing ok after their surgery.

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Original poster

SnowSnow · 01/02/2025 13:50

Also we cleared the baby play pen thinking Luna could go in there but she couldn’t get in and our toddler suddenly thinks it’s great to play in and play with the door too so that kind of works out as a couple of times I have shut him in to nip to grab something.

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Floralnomad · 01/02/2025 13:55

SnowSnow · 01/02/2025 13:50

Also we cleared the baby play pen thinking Luna could go in there but she couldn’t get in and our toddler suddenly thinks it’s great to play in and play with the door too so that kind of works out as a couple of times I have shut him in to nip to grab something.

Every cloud as they say . I’m so pleased she’s feeling a bit better on the gabapentin , hopefully she will continue to improve and getting the cone off will probably help .

Original poster

SnowSnow · 01/02/2025 14:06

Floralnomad · 01/02/2025 13:55

Every cloud as they say . I’m so pleased she’s feeling a bit better on the gabapentin , hopefully she will continue to improve and getting the cone off will probably help .

Show quote history

Thank you, it’s definitely helping. All being well the cone is due to come off at her check up on Tuesday. I’m so excited for her for when it can come off.

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Floralnomad · 01/02/2025 14:08

I think it will definitely make her feel more normal

Alliscalmallisnotbright · 02/02/2025 09:26

@SnowSnow glad to hear the new meds have helped your beautiful Luna settle a bit.
my beloved black lab sends his most fervent bum wiggle greetings x

Original poster

SnowSnow · 03/02/2025 12:19

Alliscalmallisnotbright · 02/02/2025 09:26

@SnowSnow glad to hear the new meds have helped your beautiful Luna settle a bit.
my beloved black lab sends his most fervent bum wiggle greetings x

Fervent bum wiggle greetings are the best 😊

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Original poster

SnowSnow · 03/02/2025 12:20

Luna’s eaten a v small dinner last night and brekkie again this morning which must be a good sign as she’s been off her meals mostly.

She has her next check up first thing tomorrow.

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Floralnomad · 03/02/2025 13:21

Sounds like she’s really on the mend , how is she managing on the 3 legs ?

Original poster

SnowSnow · 03/02/2025 14:10

She’s quite speedy. She will run to the back door when she wants to go out. She seems a bit steadier than she was and I think once the cone is off she will do even better 😊

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Fleetheart · 03/02/2025 20:48

Oh I am so pleased to see she is improving. What a lovely girl and she will adapt so quickly. Look forward to her come coming off- it will be so much better!

Original poster

SnowSnow · 04/02/2025 10:51

She had her check up this morning and the amputation wound is 90 per cent healed. She has skinned her remaining back paw in the accident and it’s not healed yet, we can wash it and apply Vaseline so we will do that.

Next week when her wound should be fully healed we can fill out the forms to arrange physio/hydrotherapy.

When she is ready we can start doing 5 min lead walks and then build up to 10 then 15 mins etc. After 8 weeks we can start doing 90 per cent on lead and 10 per cent off lead.

The cone can come off on Friday but meanwhile she can have short breaks from it under supervision so we will take it off for a bit tonight when we are all here and not working. At the moment we are keeping one of us with her at all times but I don’t think I could manage her with it off at the same time as a toddler who wants to try and climb anything he can 🤣

I am just looking to get her a couple of new lickimats as I think they would be good for when she has the cone off and perhaps feels up to more stimulation. We used to have some and the wobble bowl as well but I binned them when they started to fall apart and didn’t replace. I’m thinking to try the ‘tuff’ ones but if anyone has any specific recommendations I’d love to have them please. I won’t get the wobble at the moment as don’t want anything that will potentially run away from her.

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Floralnomad · 04/02/2025 10:56

That all sounds quite positive , is she staying on the gabapentin ?

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 04/02/2025 11:06

I think 90% healed when it is 2 weeks tomorrow is doing really good. How is the pain tho ?

Yes it's going to be a long journey with the lead / off lead walking but Luna ( and yourselves ) are doing great !

wandawaves · 04/02/2025 11:10

That's great! Sound like she is healing really well.

Original poster

SnowSnow · 04/02/2025 11:29

She had her last dose of Gabapentin this morning. The vet has said she may be more lively when this wears off as can make her sleepy. The vet has said if she needs it we can give human paracetamol twice per day.

So we will see how she goes. Obviously they are happy for us to call if needed.

She is currently snoozing on her bed with the sun streaming in the window on to her

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ByQuaintAzureWasp · 04/02/2025 12:25

We had a family dog with three legs, we adopted her. She was absolutely lovely, ran around like a lunatic and had a great life. Your dog will be just fine xx

Flustration · 04/02/2025 12:50

That's a very promising update. She'll love the hydrotherapy!

Mine was very sleepy and unsteady on gabapentin. In many ways it was easier when he was on it as when they took him off all his energy returned and it was then a challenge to contain him!

I hope she enjoys her cone-free time later.