Frieda

Frieda is supposed to be a Chi/Foxy cross, maybe ! Frieda had a bad break in her leg when she was little, which was left unattended, and is still sore. Frieda mainly "three leggs it" everywhere (almost tottally three legs it, her front right leg is a swinging passenger atm.). She occassionally puts her right foot down, but it appears shorter and causes her to limp worse than her three legged approach to life.

The injury Frieda had caused her to not use her leg at all, for a long time. Phisiotherapy is now prescribed for quite a while to learn how to use her leg again and rebuild the attrified muscle. ... If you can imagine her right leg has no muscle, her shoulder has no muscle and no strength, special care has to be used picking her up, as damage could easily be caused to all her tendons and nerves in her shoulder and leg, she has no strength to resist twisting or crumpling of the limb. Even lifting her gently and holding her carefully appears to cause her pain at times. A wrong twist could render the limb useless for life, we are hopeful and giving it time, but have already discussed amputation if not successful with the Vet, who had recoomeneded this be considered.

The problem appears to be a swinging limb with not enough strength to protect her from even lying on it wrong, she cant even shuffle it enough to get comfortable and will scream in pain from time to time, when she moves from side to side or is picked up, even gently. We almost abandoned her and thought she would be better off put down , with all the pain she has shown and all the three legged walking and swinging of the limb. Too easily a secondary inury can occur, which could be the end of that limb totally, if not already.

So, we decided, exercise, physio, swimming and perserverance, if the leg does not respond because the connective tissue and tendons have been detached, we may amputate if all else fails, but that will be a decission we will make after a long time. She is not fully grown, her muscles are still growing as is her fitness, strength and size. frieda has probably never walked much or exercised at all, she has few muscles at all. We are going to walk her 3 to 4 kilometers a day to start, and swim her twice a day, to start, later to build up to 7 or 8 kilometeres a day and five minute swim sessions along the journey. We have a strength and fitness plan for her, and are hoping we can get some use from her leg, she cant even hold a bone or dog biscuit with it at the moment, it is useless to her, and dogs use thier claws to hold such things, toys and food as well.

We still think we can offer a three legged dog a better life than death. We wanted a healthy small dog as a playmate for Chico, and we fiished up with Frieda, this was not our intention, we thought we would trial her for a few days and see how her fitness went, she failed the fitness test completely, but had gotten into our hearts so quickly, we could not return her. We thought, if not us, who else could offer this disabled puppy a better life ? We are perfect for her, she was just wrong for us, that is fate, I suppose. If you can offer her a better life ,show me how and I may consider passing her along. It would be hard to convince me someone else cares about animals as much as Wendy and myself however, and is willing to make the sacrafices needed to give her all the opportunities she deserves, to be all she can be and have a full and rewarding life.