Dolly
Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 7:34 pm
Dolly is a long-haired chihuahua puppy who could fit under Paralysis, Incontinence, Amputation, or Mobility. She was found on a sidewalk in California at 8 weeks old, unable to walk with her legs scraped from dragging. She was diagnosed as partially paralyzed, and it seems likely she was injured by being shut in a door or something similar, and dumped by an owner or breeder. She unfortunately lost one leg to gangrene, but good people gave her vet care and fostering. She was advertised on the Best Friends website and I adopted her March 7 because I already have a paralyzed chihuahua. The adoption experience was a very good one.
When I adopted her she was 7 months old and walked in a sitting position with her leg out in front, using her hands to bounce along on her bottom. She had a tendency to scrape the back of her leg while bouncing, so I did as I do with Katie and put vet wrap on it before letting her outside. After doing this for a while she began acting like her leg hurt when I removed the vet wrap. It seemed the unwinding motion tugged on her leg and it hurt. I also noticed that compared to Katie (same size, also paralyzed) her hip felt wobbly and I thought she must have a shallow socket. Her leg wasn't paralyzed, I had seen her use it when I threw a tennis ball in the yard. A couple of times I saw her put it down for 3 hops before pulling it back up. I had also seen her try to use it chasing the cat and yelp in pain, so I knew she at least had partial control of it.
She wears a diaper which doubles as padding for her bouncing. I took her to the vet to have her bladder x-rayed, as I could never find anything to express. I know of a case of a cat that was not expressable because the bladder was full but flaccid and I wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something. I also asked them to x-ray her hip at the same time. The results came back that her bladder was as small as it could be (I wasn't missing anything, she does not need to be expressed) but her hip had been broken and healed wrong with a chip grinding in the fracture. Therefore we got a referral for hip surgery for her comfort. We couldn't have her hurting and I wanted to be able to wrap her leg when needed.
Dolly had surgery and now she is going to physical therapy twice a week with Katie, and she does stretching exercises and goes on the underwater treadmill. She has reasonable flexion in her hock and a little flexion in the knee. Goniometry showed she had a 23 degree reverse flexion (from holding it up off the ground in front of her) and a 30 degree possible normal flexion. She does exercises at home between PT appointments.
I have noticed 2 things since the surgery. One is, she seems to hold her leg up off the ground in front of her better now. And the other is *Yay* she is now able to scratch the back of her head and the side of her neck. This was an unexpected benefit. I think of all the frustrations she would have felt being unable to scratch, and now all the satisfactions she will feel being able to, and I am just so happy for her.
Right now our biggest issue is getting her bowel regulated as she tends toward constipation. She has been here a little over 2 months, but during that time she had a change of diet, then surgery, then pain meds, etc. So we keep having to make adjustments. She will have another change of diet soon switching to adult food.
When I adopted her she was 7 months old and walked in a sitting position with her leg out in front, using her hands to bounce along on her bottom. She had a tendency to scrape the back of her leg while bouncing, so I did as I do with Katie and put vet wrap on it before letting her outside. After doing this for a while she began acting like her leg hurt when I removed the vet wrap. It seemed the unwinding motion tugged on her leg and it hurt. I also noticed that compared to Katie (same size, also paralyzed) her hip felt wobbly and I thought she must have a shallow socket. Her leg wasn't paralyzed, I had seen her use it when I threw a tennis ball in the yard. A couple of times I saw her put it down for 3 hops before pulling it back up. I had also seen her try to use it chasing the cat and yelp in pain, so I knew she at least had partial control of it.
She wears a diaper which doubles as padding for her bouncing. I took her to the vet to have her bladder x-rayed, as I could never find anything to express. I know of a case of a cat that was not expressable because the bladder was full but flaccid and I wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something. I also asked them to x-ray her hip at the same time. The results came back that her bladder was as small as it could be (I wasn't missing anything, she does not need to be expressed) but her hip had been broken and healed wrong with a chip grinding in the fracture. Therefore we got a referral for hip surgery for her comfort. We couldn't have her hurting and I wanted to be able to wrap her leg when needed.
Dolly had surgery and now she is going to physical therapy twice a week with Katie, and she does stretching exercises and goes on the underwater treadmill. She has reasonable flexion in her hock and a little flexion in the knee. Goniometry showed she had a 23 degree reverse flexion (from holding it up off the ground in front of her) and a 30 degree possible normal flexion. She does exercises at home between PT appointments.
I have noticed 2 things since the surgery. One is, she seems to hold her leg up off the ground in front of her better now. And the other is *Yay* she is now able to scratch the back of her head and the side of her neck. This was an unexpected benefit. I think of all the frustrations she would have felt being unable to scratch, and now all the satisfactions she will feel being able to, and I am just so happy for her.
Right now our biggest issue is getting her bowel regulated as she tends toward constipation. She has been here a little over 2 months, but during that time she had a change of diet, then surgery, then pain meds, etc. So we keep having to make adjustments. She will have another change of diet soon switching to adult food.