Loving life as a tripawd

It has been a month and 3 days since Sebastian’s amputation, and almost a week of normal activity for him.  He’s doing great, honestly, though there have been some hiccups with his diet, lack of balance, etc.  But he’s happy and being goofy like usual (and still a little angry, as usual).

Our surgeon’s recovery instructions were a lot different from everyone else’s that I’ve read about – we kept him in a dog crate for two weeks, no jumping or climbing for nearly 4 weeks, and no interaction with the other animals for nearly 4 weeks.  But let me tell you…best thing ever!

Before the amputation, Sebastian’s normal daily life consisted of the following:

  • Climbing on top of my tall office chair while I work and hanging out for the morning
  • Chasing a ball with a bell in it back and forth across the kitchen for hours, by himself
  • Chasing / getting chased up and down two flights of stairs
  • Climbing straight up a 6ft cat tree as if it were a real tree
  • Wrestling with at least one other cat (he usually loses)

So, needless to say, he’s not your typical sleep all day kind of cat.  And with the exception of the first week, he wanted to resume his very active, very social lifestyle.  Oh, and did I mention he was a klutz even when he had 4 legs?  Keeping him locked up was an excellent idea.

When he finally got out:

Stairs were an instant no-brainer.

It took him 3 tries (2 scare-the-crap-out-of-mom falls) to return to his morning office chair routine.  Now he’s a pro.

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He started running at mostly full speed after a couple days.  Sometimes he face plants when playing with toys.  Does it make me a bad person if I laugh?  I’ll take a video later.

He was afraid of the cat tree for a couple days but has slowly re-gained his confidence, and he’s learning that running full speed and jumping onto it is a bad idea.  For now, the hammock is sufficient:

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And he didn’t really have a choice in the matter of wrestling with his brothers.  They’re jerks.

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4 thoughts on “Loving life as a tripawd”

  1. I can’t believe its been over a month already!! Happy ampuversary Sebastian!!Keep loving life on 3 legs!

    Cody and Family

  2. Bhahahaha! Oh gosh this is adorable, I’m glad that he’s back to livin life on his terms (and not letting his bruddas push him around 😉

    Can’t wait to see more video too. Oh and do tell about the diet situation, I’m curious.

    Yay Sebastian!

    1. Well you might remember me having trouble with his diet after the surgery – he was eating at first, then refused to eat anything for days. I finally was able to get him to eat some baby food, occasionally some wet food, and eventually he started eating like 1/3-1/2 of his normal serving of food each day. I was happy with that because he wasn’t getting his usual amount of exercise. I could definitely tell he was losing weight – you could see it in his back. He looks fine in the picture because he’s a big boy (it’s all muscle, I swear). Then when he resumed normal activity, I thought he would be much happier and go back to eating normal – instead, he stopped eating again! He wouldn’t even eat wet food. Finally we figured out that he would eat his brother’s food but not his. He normally eats grain free food because of a skin condition. So we let him eat the other food for a couple days, his skin got all dry and he started over-grooming again, so I said he has to suck it up and eat his grain free food. And now he’s happy eating again. He has NEVER turned down ANY food before this. I have no idea what his deal is!! Silly cat.

  3. Handsome, adapting boy. His bros are cute too. (And I would laugh too when he takes an occasional biff it).

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