Wheelchair Size

[cadaha]

Hi,

My wife and I have rescued a puppy Bull Mastif that fell from a 3 story apartment roof.

He injured his spine and lost the use of his rear legs. He damaged 4 vertebra, fracturing one and herniating at least 2 discs.

In the 4 weeks we have had him he has started to get hind leg movement (increasing all the time) which is very encouraging, but his hind leg muscles and ligaments are beginning to atrophy meaning that he hasn't enough strength to hold his weight and also because of the ligaments atrophying his leg stability is affected.

We are taking him in a swimming pool daily to help with his spine and also strengthen his forelegs and shoulders. He is beginning to have some movement of the hind legs but not enough for propulsion.

The next step, recommended by our vet, is to use a cart to relieve some of the weight on his rear legs so that he may be able to use them more and hopefully start to recover muscle tone and reverse the atrophy to his muscles and ligaments.

We do not believe, due to his injuries and the state we found him in, that he will reach full size. We would like some advice on the size of cart to order so that it will adjust as he grows. He is 13 weeks old at the moment and weighs 25lbs.

Any advice on helping us order the correct wheelchair would be most appreciated.

Here is our baby boy

[cadaha]

Just wanted to reply and say that I spoke to Nancy and we now have a wheelchair on order so hopefully our little boy will be terrorizing our German Shepherd within the next couple of weeks

The lifejacket will also make his time in the pool more enjoyable and allow him to spend more time in there as well (hopefully without the occasional brown submarine that escaped. He was suitably embarrased by that I could tell LOL).

I will post a picture of him when his Ferrari arrives

Once again I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to the team for all the assitance I received.

Regards

Carl

[critters]

Have you tried some pants to catch the "brown submarines?" Boys' boxers probably wouldn't be tight enough, but maybe jockeys? Put them on backwards and put his tail through the trap door. Or you could use one of the diaper-things that needs a liner, and use it minus the liner.

I agree he'll probably stay small; all of mine who were sick or severely disabled as little ones stay kind of runty and stunty.

My baby, who has megasevere cerebral palsy, LOVES to "swim." OK, she just sits in her lifejackets and bobs like a cork, but it's the freedom that counts!

[cadaha]

Thanks for the welcome. Great idea about pants, I may have some kicking around that aren't wafer thin LOL. I'll cut a hole for his tail. It will be great to see him splashing about instead of swiming 20 feet then sinking as his strength starts to give out. I hate the thought of him suffering any more than he already has in his short life.

He has dodged the bullet 3 times so far, before we managed to persuade the owner that we should take him off her hands.

Bullet 1. He was only one of 2 from a litter of 9 that survived until we got to him.
Bullet 2. He fell off the roof of a 3 story apartment block. (How in gods name anyone allowed him to get there I'll never know)
Bullet 3. The vet who saw him 5 days after his fall said that he was going to return on the following Monday and if he still couldn't walk was going to put him to sleep.

The day after the vet had seen him my wife and I saw him cowering under a set of concrete external stairs laying his own crap surrounded by flies and at least an inch of dirty water where the locals had just been emptying there buckets off the balconies. Night was coming on and the area was rife with rats as one of the adult dogs behind the apartment block had killed both of the ratting cats within the past week or so.

We stayed around until we could get a local to phone the owner and arrange for us to take him off her hands. All this before the poor boy was 8 weeks old.

We have now had him for 4 weeks and he is full of life and a great addition to our family. As you can see I am really excited about getting the wheelchair and lifejacket for him so that he can have more freedom and possibly a greater chance of rehabilitation. He has got a lot of movement in his rear legs now but the ligament atrophy has made his hind legs unstable so that they can't support his weight without buckling. We are hoping that with the cart and the lifejacket and perseverance that he may walk again. If not the wheelchair will give him some freedom as he grows.

Sorry that this turned into a life story of our boy but he really means that much to us even though he has only been with us a short time.

[Dianne]

You're one of us.

[cadaha]

One question I have that probably is not really appropriate for this thread is to do with his ligaments atrophying.

Basically he has a lot of hind leg movement at the moment. I have no idea if this is reflex or reconnecting of nerve tissue etc.

In the early stages of his time with us we could lift his rear end and stand him on his rear legs for a very short period of time. The amount of time did increase slowly but still could be counted in seconds rather than minutes. Now when we try to do this his hinds legs cannot support him at all, no idea how to say this properly but now his hind legs look strange when is stood up.

The vet informed me that his ligaments are atrophying so basically cannot hold the joints in a stable fashion which is obviously one of the reasons why he cannot bear weight on his hind legs.

Does anyone know of any therapy that we can do or bracing (don't know if this would help as we want to try and reverse the atrophy if possible) that would help.

As I said in an earlier post we have the wheelchair and a lifejacket on order, but obviously want to do as much as we possibly can. By the way we are british ex-pats living in the Dominican Repuplic so as you can imagine high quality veterinary care is basically non existant here so we are doing as much as we possibly can within the constraints of living here.

Many thanks for all your help

[Bobbie]

I was going to say, "Swimming" but you have that under control- that's the best exercise. For now you might do range-of-motion exercises, trying to get him to press against your hand, and keeping his ligaments stretched and joints limber. Swimming would still work if you can get into the water with him and support him.

The WW cart is a good idea for a growing dog even if you may end up needing a larger size- it still beats having to wait for him to be full-grown to get one. If he outgrows the first one you can sell it and get the giant size.

[cadaha]

Hi,

many thanks for the reply.

We are doing all the things mentioned so I suppose now it is just time and perseverance.

Nancy was great when I ordered the wheelchair and mentioned that as he grows we can purchase items to customize the chair and keep up with his growth. Hopefully as this one can take up to a 75lb dog we should be able either to put it into storage in case the German Shepherd or Digby need it as they get older or at least have a good amount of use from it before we need to get extra parts.

Great site for support here and it is good to know that if we have questions we have a like minded community who are knowledgable to point us in the right direction.

Once again, many thanks to all who have assisted and advised me.

Watch this space for pictures of Digby's great adventures in his pool and with his Ferrari

PS: anyone got go faster stripes on their's LOL

[critters]

I wonder if it's too early for him to have developed contractures? My Koi was shot in the spine, and his left foot contracted so that he always walks on the top of his foot rather than his pads. Finding shoes for him was a nightmare until Carol posted Tammy and Teddy's custom-made shoes. It took 2 tries to get an almost perfect fit, contractures and all!!