Three Legged Dog Club
Cassie's Club Members
 
Maverick

Hi, I had seen your site before and tried to email you to join the club, but got an email back saying something was wrong with the address! This was several months ago, when I was setting up Maverick's webpage, maybe even last year, sometime.

I would love to exchange links! I thought that I had added your page anyway, but I just checked and I guess I didn't, LOL!

That's cool that you found me through Oscar's page, he has a great story, and his mom is really nice! Do you have any kind of banner or link button you want me to use?

TripodMutt@aol.com I found Maverick when he was about 6 weeks old, somebody dumped him at my house. He was a very smart good puppy, and learned everything really fast. When he was 5 months old, he got out of the fence somehow and was missing.

He came back the next day, but his left back leg had been cut almost all the way off, and he had "pulled" the foot down about 3 inches.

I took him to the Emergency Vet because it was after regular office hours, and they wanted me to pay over $1000 just to clean the wound and bandage it, and tell me to go to my regular vet the next day.

I was very upset and crying, thinking that I should just have him euthanized, because I could not afford that. I ended up just getting him a pain shot there, then he was knocked out from the medication and stress, so I just let him sleep in a bed in the car overnight. I took him to the regular vet the next day, and carried him in, and the vet took one look at him and said the leg would have to come off, that he wouldn't charge me for cleaning and x-rays, etc.

He said he thought it looked like Mav had been caught in a trap, and had tried to pull his leg out, that's why the foot was pulled down. He went to get an estimate for me, and came back and told me it would be about $300.

I was so happy I could keep my puppy!! He took him into surgery immediately, and I came back to get him the next day. I was so heartbroken to see him in his cage, he was trying to stand up and I could see the muscles moving in the leg that wasn't there anymore. They cut the entire leg off, but left part of the bone at the top, and wrapped muscle around it so it would be a "pad" for him to sit on.

I helped him stand up, and we went outside to potty, he had a hard time learning how to "squat" with only one back leg, but he managed okay.

After I took him home, he was depressed at first, he couldn't run or jump very much, because his one back leg wasn't used to doing the work of both of them.

He would get tired after just going outside to potty, and didn't have much interest in his food or treats. I remember putting him on the couch once, then giving him a treat, and after he chewed on it for a minute, the treat fell on the floor.

Maverick just sighed and laid his head down, he knew that he couldn't jump down to get it and be able to jump back up again. It was so sad to see him like this!

(Of course I picked the treat up and gave it back to him!) I thought again about having him euthanized, I couldn't stand to see him so miserable, when he had been such a happy puppy before. But I told myself to wait until he was completely healed, and then I would see if he was happy or not.

After about a month, he was getting better, and I could see that he was much happier. His leg was much stronger, and he was able to jump up on the couch again, and run and play with the other dogs. The picture I'm sending is from this time, about one month after surgery, he was laying behind the counter with me at work.

He always went to work with me, ever since he was a tiny puppy, and once he was feeling better, I took him back, everyone was happy to see him, and now everyone knows about me and my "tripod" dog!

Now it has been over a year since he lost his leg, and he is just like any other dog, I'm so happy I was able to save him! He still can't do some things, I have to pick him up to put him in cars, because he can't jump up by himself, and I have to scratch his left side for him, because he has no back leg to scratch with!

He will come up to me and lay his head on my leg and turn so the left side is up, and that's how he tells me he needs a scratch! Sometimes he will lay on the floor on his left side, and just rub his head back and forth on the carpet to scratch.

People think it's funny to watch him pee on things when we go for a walk, he doesn't have a leg to lift, so he just leans his body to the side. I take him hiking with me, and sometimes I have to help him if we are doing any climbing, but most of the time he will find his own way! He's learned to rely on me for things like that, if he can't do it, he will just bark at me, and I know I have to go back and help him.

He will just stand there and let me pick him up (it was easier when he was a puppy, he's about 60 pounds now! LOL). He's such a sweetie, I don't know what life would be like without him! He's a very happy fat little dognow, being "disabled" doesn't mean anything to him! I worry about hip problems in the future, because he's always hopping on one leg, and that has to be stressful for the joints, especially when he gets older, but we will deal with that when we come to it! Nothing can keep him down!
 
Muffin

Muffin the Intrepid English Cocker Spaniel was a puppy mill 'survivor' whom I found in a "free to a good home" ad when he was 18 months old. He had Demodectic (or "red") mange, and he came with some 'medicine'. I knew nothing about Demodex then.

I do rescue, and placed him in what I *thought* would be a good home, but it turned out to be worse than the first one.

At 21 months, I confiscated him from this foolish woman -- she'd let his skin get SO bad he was literally bleeding and infected from every square inch of skin on his body.

He had sand burrs imbedded deeply in his skin -- he was so sore and so sick he had literally given up the will to live, and was ready to die.

Nope -- not an option with me!!

LONG story made short, I got him healing and embarked on a never-ceasing odyssey to get rid of the Demodex. Along the way, I learned a TON about Demodectic mange and how to either get rid of it (if the animal is still in the developmental stages) OR how to manage it completely without toxic dips and medicines like Mitaban or Ivermectin.

No -- I don't sell miracle drugs or dips or creams.
But Click HERE, and I'll give the info on how to boost their immune system and what to use to keep the skin clear and staph-free to anyone who wants it.

This isn't something someone should try to 'profit from'. There are dogs hurting out there!!!

In any event -- my intrepid buddy overcame Demodex, and we discovered en route that the thing that caused his to 'continue' was severe ear allergies that caused continuous hot spots and bacterial infections in his ears (which were genetically pre-disposed to be pits of infection -- thank you puppy mill!!).

He had to have his ears removed (a process called an ear ablation).

They literally surgically remove the inner, middle and 'outer' ear,
including the ear canal -- yes, he's 100% stone deaf.
That doesn't stop Muffin -- not at all.

He's learned about 35 'signs' that he responds to,
and I couldn't begin to tell you how much he lipreads.
No problem -- Muffin's motto is "if you gotta do it to survive -- no problem -- DO IT!!"

That's not the end -- In June, 2002 my worst fears were realized when we found a "lump" near the end of his penis.

A tiny bump the size of a pea. The vet aspirated it and it looked fine, but 'watch it'. It doubled in size in a week, the vet removed it and it was cancer.

And no, they couldn't get "complete margins". Muffin give up and just roll over and die? NO WAY. I put him on a cancer home-cooked diet when I first found the bump. After finding out we didn't get 'clear margins' we chose to try chemotherapy -- it's not nearly as difficult for dogs as humans, but it's not cheap.

At the same time, knowing I might not have Muffin for very long, I decided it was time to put dreams into action. My husband and I have not been able to have children (our dogs ARE our children, so to speak). But Muffin absolutely LOVES children.

He's drawn to them, and loves them incredibly.

I'd always thought that he would make a wonderful therapy dog. I had been taking all 3 of our dogs to a local Alzheimer's home for some time, but a facility like a hospital with children required "certification".

After the cancer diagnosis, I became convinced that Muffin needed to get certified so that for however long he had, he could help the children he loved, and particularly children with cancer with whom he would have so much in common.

Muffin, altho a bit stubborn and nose-driven as most any Cocker Spaniel is, breezed through his Canine Good Citizen test. I'm a bit handicapped with arthritis myself, so I looked around for a certifying group that would be interested in both Muffin AND me, and one that would work with me on equirements since because Muffin is deaf he requires touch commands and hand signals, and because I can't stand or walk quickly for the human part of the equation.

We became certified thru Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs, Inc.

Muffin the Intrepid just does NOT give up.
After 14 months of chemo, and two surgeries for cancer, he's been in remission over a year, he's OFF chemo, and healthier than ever.

He's a dog on a mission. We do pet-assisted therapy four weekends a month.

He visits Arnold Palmer Hospital for Women and Children, Give Kids the World, a home for developmentally disabled children called Grandma's House, and we still visit the Alzheimer's home. Plus we've visited Shands Children's Hospital (a hospital that specializes in children with cancer) and we're trying to work out volunteering there every other month (but it's three + hours away, so it's taking a while to organize).

MUFFIN LOVES IT!!!

He's deaf. So what! He's had cancer. SO WHAT -- it just gives him more in common with the children he loves. He has his own special wagon that gets him up high enough to see the kids in wheelchairs (it has a little step up -- so what if the arthritis bothers him a bit because of the darned old chemo -- Mom'll massage it and make it feel better!!).

Nothing stops this dog. I respect him more than any other animals I've ever met. He has taught ME the meaning of "don't quit". We've pursued healing for him -- and he cooperates with every vet he meets. Chiropractic, accupuncture ... even traditional medicine. When the vet needs to take blood to 'test' it ---

Muffin simply holds his head up and offers his neck to the vet. My vet is continually astounded - he never needs a tech to help 'hold' Muffin -- no, Muffin KNOWS this is to help him, so you just DO IT!!
Click HERE to have a look at Muffin's Website.

 
< < Previous Page   Next Page > >