Three Legged Dog Club
Cassie's Club Members
 
Chug

Hi,
Our three legged pug is Chug the Pug.

Chug was a rescue we got when he was 1 year old.
He had dermadac mange and was neglected.
We nursed him to health and he joined our other rescue,
Bruce (also a pug). They were a dynamic duo.

I had a baby this August and the night we brought him home,
Chug fell off the bed and broke his front left leg in 5 places.

We had it amputated b/c we were told it would be the best recovery
and with the stress of a new baby, I couldn't imagine multiple surgeries
to try to fix the leg, only to likely lose it.

The amputation went great and he was doing so well,
up until Thanksgiving ('07).

We boarded him with a friend and he must have done something
(or too much). Once we got him back, we noticed he wouldn't jump off the couch anymore and slowly his limp progressed until he could hardly walk two steps without falling.

He seemed to be doing a bunny hop and totally lost his balance.
His spirit was still great, as usual.

This is so upsetting and depressing because we had gotten to a point where he was walking up to 1.5 miles at a time with ease with 3 legs.
I want to get our walks back and see him dart across the dog park again. I am so depressed over his decline.

We have been to super specialty vet and they haven't seen anything on x-ray (no obvious herniated disc or broken bones).
His hips do have dysplasia, but they stated that it was not bad at all
and shouldn't be causing these problems.

I am curious to know if anyone else has had a similar experience,
or if anyone has any advice.

We have a follow up appt with neurology and ortho surgery tomorrow.

I had him on crate rest for 2 weeks and no real improvement.
He has been on anti-inflammatories, but not prednisone.
They may want to up his dosage.
I am seriously considering a "miracle worker" accupuncturist.
If anyone has any thoughts, please email us.

Leslie & Austin Moore
themoores3@mac.com
Thursday January 10, 2008

UPDATE:

A major devastating event occurred on Friday.
We took Chug to the specialty vets (neuro and ortho surgery).

During the exam, Chug squirmed out of two peoples hands
and they dropped him during the exam.
He broke his front leg (only leg).

It is fixable, but obviously the future is going to be tough.
He came thru surgery okay and is home now.
I am so depressed. It was a freak accident, because he was in the best of care (best vets around).

The surgery and all therapy (whirlpool underwater treadmills, etc.)
are free of charge, of course.

The only possible silver lining is that he wasn't walking well when I took him in and I could not have afforded to give him whirlpool and other physical therapy and now he is getting it for free.

My hope is that when all is said and done,
he will be walking better than he was when I took him in.

Say a prayer for our special guy.

Leslie
Thursday January 17, 2008

 
Harvey

Hi!
This is my gorgeous puppy, Harvey!
This past fall, we went to a farm to pick up our brand new puppy.

We originally wanted a little black pup,
but when we got there, we saw this little tan and white puppy
chasing his mom around.

When the mom growled at him (obviously tired of running from him),
instead of running away, the little puppy stood his ground and growled right back, and then started to wrestle her..

That right there changed our minds about which puppy we wanted.
This puppy was a tough one, and he won our hearts over!

On New Years Eve 2007/2008,
my little Harvey monster jumped off our bed and broke his leg.

It turned out it was broken so bad that they wouldn't be able to fix it.

We had two choices;
the first was to amputate his leg,
and the second was to have him put down.

There was no way we could have him put down,
so we chose to have his front right leg amputated.

At first, we weren't sure if we did the right thing;
we were worried that his quality of life would be greatly affected.

The day he went into surgery is the day I found this site.

Reading all your stories made me feel very relieved,
and I could only hope that Harvey would recover
and be half as happy as all the dogs on this site.

Well, it's now only a week and a half after the surgery,
and Harvey is doing splendidly!!!
He is still in a little bit of pain,
and he's pretty tired a lot of the time,
but he's already running around acting like his old self (if not cuter!!).

This morning when we woke up, Harvey heard us talking upstairs
and somehow managed to climb over our 3 ft. high baby gate
and run up two flights of stairs.

He couldn't even do that, when he had all four legs!

Harvey's as strong as ever; he's a tough one!

Lots of Love to all,

Harvey, Amanda and family!
Saturday January 12, 2008

 
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