October 8, 2005.  Handsome Roscoe arrives in a tiny kennel with his mom and dad and their son.  The poor doggy is whining and crying because he has always been an active boy and wants free.  He is not a happy camper stuck in his kennel, but their vet prescribes complete immobilization.

 

This boy is just four so we told them we would take him in when they wanted to deliver him from somewhere near Nampa, Idaho, about seven hours away from us near Spokane, WA.

 

Roscoe is sweet, happy and kind so his attitude is perfect to be a wheel chair boy down the road, if his recovery comes to that.  But not if we can help it at our rescue.  We did not want him put down at such a young age and they did not want him re-injuring himself at their home so we have a new, rescued boy who needs a lot of time and medication and our determination that he will walk again by Christmas or he will be rolling around the house.  And we shall see if anyone will want to adopt him later.  Right now we are in full nursing mode and worry about his future later.

 

The previous parents know after asking us that we have nursed back to 100% health two other rescued dogs with massive back trauma in the past including our first rescue, Hunter.  We have experience and this time it was a re-injury of an back injury from August. 

 

How was Roscoe injured?  They have a very large Great Dane puppy who landed with both front feet in poor Roscoe's back the second time and he went down completely.  He had almost receovered completely until he was hurt the second time around.  They do not know how he hurt himself the first time.

 

So poor Roscoe is confined to jail again for several months yet again and not allowed to do any more damage to his spine on our watch.  Poor little guy.  He has a lot of boredom coming his way but he has dog buddies he can visit with through the bars in his kennel.  He would rather be outside playing even without back legs.

 

Oct. 9 - The vet is not open today on Sunday so we continue his medication and crate rest until we can see the vet tomorrow.

 

Our vet looks over his records and switches all of Roscoe's medications.  After much poking and prodding the vet says there is no muscle tone near Roscoe's tail (bad sign), but Roscoe lifts his back legs when toes are pinched on one side (great sign).

 

Now we are feeding several pills including muscle relaxers, pain relivers just in case, and anti-inflammatories and steriods several times a day and we are putting pure liquid DMSO down his shaved spine three times a day too.  He looks stupid with no hair on his back, but the pure liquid DMSO soaks into his spine faster instead of hair so shaved he stays for now.

 

We did this same vet work above on our little downed wiener girl last summer, Patsy.  She is now back in complete health with running, playing and yelling at horses.  She is my girl for life now.  No one can tell that she was ever injured.   It took forever for her hair to grow in on her back otherwise many people could not tell she was the same dog who was injured now.  But see Roscoe like this now it brings back bad memories of Patsy's recovery.  She was dragging her legs just like this one is now.  I know what he is in for and it won't be an easy time for him or us to get him to walk again. 

 

It took about eight months for Patsy with a lot of physical therapy to get back muscle tone behind once she was finally walking before she could run right behind, but she could always feel when she had to go potty.  Her tail always wagged too so there was a light at the end of her tunnel.  I do not see that with Roscoe, but he is now on my program.  We will see if he uses his legs or a wheel chair.  This is one happy dog so wheels will not bother him.

 

I never took any photos of my Patsy being downed like Roscoe is now.  It hurt too much to see her like that and I did not want any photos.  Now I almost wish I had to show people to not put down their wieners when they get hurt.  There is always a small chance they will recover if you give them time and take them to the vet right away after they are hurt.

 

Roscoe has no idea when he has to go potty (not a good sign) so we have to change his bedding constantly all day long.  The vet is telling us he will never walk again without major surgery and we can't afford it.  So we will try to nurse him back to health or Roscoe will get a new set of wheels.

 

Last year, we never documented Patsy's eventual recovery, but my husband and other volunteers at our rescue have encouraged me to keep everyone posted this time around.  Let's pray that I am three for three and batting 100% on getting these little, damaged wiener guys to walk again.

 

I think the vet is just covering his rear in a CYA manuever and he doesn't want me to get my hopes up about the newest charge here because he knows all too well that I nursed back two other dogs. 

 

I also let him see little our feisty Patsy again while we were checking out Roscoe.  She promptly tried to bite our very patient vet and his vet tech so he remembered her well even though it has been over a year since she was in his office last.  "Go Patsy.  It was all that vet's fault!"  I wonder why she hates going to the vet now?  Hahahaha.  Patsy may be tiny at around 8 pounds, but she is one feisty wiener.

 

Oct. 11 - I see Roscoe's tail wagging today.  YEAH!  That is a very good sign.  I am sure it was the DMSO.  I saw it work well with Patsy last year. 

 

These inital photos were taken on Monday, Oct. 10 and he could not even hold his tail out as seen in the photos above.  I will take ANY tiny victory at this point.

 

Oct. 12 - Roscoe is starting to yell less in his kennel, finally.  The poor guy knows now no matter how much he screams that he is just not getting out.  Roscoe is mercifully quiet while in my office while I am typing this and doing office work for the club and rescue.  Roscoe is still happy and getting canned doggy food three times a day for his pills.  At least the food is good in jail he is now thinking.

 

When he is all done yelling he will move out of the dog room with most of the other rescue to the other side of the house so he can be near us at night and be more a part of the action in the living room.  That should help with his boredom a lot, but not until he learns that yelling will not get him out of jail.  I need some sleep after listening to him for several days.

 

Oct. 13 - We found many blood spots on the towels.  We watched for a day and it was getting worse.  Back to the vet today.  We thought it might be some sort of kidney failure.  After exams it was caused by loose stools (whew!) and some medication we are on our way after another $100 vet bill.  R is going potty just fine and his bladder was empty when the vet checked him.  (Whew!)  The vet emptied his stool and I will have to take back a stool sample in a few days to make sure there are no bugs, etc.  We think the stress of being in a new home caused awful diarahea and that it irritated Roscoe's bowels to where there was finally blood showing.  But all is well now and I have some extra medication in case another of my rescued dogs gets something similar.

 

Oct. 13 - 17 - No more blood spots!  The medication worked well with that problem.  And Roscoe's tail is really wagging now.  He also has some feeling in his hind end and some more muscle tone there too.  Our other medications and DMSO seem to be working as Roscoe wants out of his box or kennel all the time now.  R has taken to chewing his box to bits and there are pieces of it all over the place now.  At least he has some entertainment now as his bones aren't all that interesting any longer. 

 

We got him some beef soup bones to chew on throughout the days as they do not splinter and he has something to do in prison.  We change Roscoe's blankets numerous times a day so he is not laying in urine or poop as little as possible.  Our wash machine is getting a workout.  ;-)  I have to do one load of laundry a day just for Roscoe.  But he is such a sweet dog and is well worth our efforts to get him to walk again.

 

Nov. 5 - Been too swamped to write lately here.

 

Roscoe is slowly improving.  For a couple of weeks he was trying to stand but stood on the tops of his feet like he is dragging in the photos above.  But I noticed yesterday that he is standing very unsteadily on his feet correctly!  YEAH!

 

And I noticed another improvement.  Everytime I put the liquid DMSO down his spine he is flexible enough to try and reach around to lick it off.  That is a great sign because he had no feeling back there when he arrived and he could not really move side to side.

 

And R is bouncing around well enough that I have to worry about keeping him entertained more.  He gets a lot of beef soup bones from the store and is getting a bit fat but he can go to the bathroom, 1 and 2, on his own.  So he is adoptable down the road even if he is in a wheelchair.  Oftentimes, the dogs have to have their bladder and/or bowels expressed when they get these types of injuries.  No new parents like to do that.  So R going potty on his own even if he has to wear diapers down the road is also a tiny victory.

 

 

Nov. 15 - Swamped some more here.

 

Roscoe was walking on the bottoms of his back feet for a few days now.  There is movement, but not the best kind.  R has finally re-learned to walk like a drunk on the bottoms of his back feet so he is up and around some.  But we are still restricting his movement while his spine heals so he is back to protesting loudly every time he can't play with his wiener buddies outside his exercise pen. 

 

But R went from a large box to an ex pen when he chewed the cardboard box to bits for fun and enjoyment.  He made a mess of our dog room, but he was having fun.  So now we get him a treat bone weekly to chew on and keep himself happy.  Roscoe has very clean teeth.

 

And we are seeing some improvement in his mobility to move his head around to lick himself where he wants now.  His spine is getting very flexible.  We have high hopes he may yet recover after being with us for over a month in his slow journey back to walking and not being in a wheel chair the rest of his little life.

 

Dec. 21 - Making more progress!

 

Roscoe is still mostly confined to his exercise pen now, but he is walking better every day. Dennis, my very patient husband, says he "looks like a drunk."  But he is getting around well.  I do pull R out when the other dogs are outside and let him zoom in the large dog room to gauge his strength behind.  It is better and better. 

 

I rarely see him walk on the wrong side of his back feet any longer.  I think he has enough feeling behind there that he can tell when he puts his feet down on the wrong side.  He still looks drunk, but the muscle tone in Rosce's rear looks better and better.  Soon we will have to start his physical therapy. 

 

Last summer, I turned over Patsy and pushed down on her back legs.  She barely had any strength at all.  After her pushing and getting rewards when she pushed back it helped out a lot.  Roscoe is a much bigger dog than tiny little Pasty so my physical therapy is actually picking up Roscoe to push on his legs.  This is not a small dog. 

 

When I see Roscoe zooming just a bit better then we will start his more freedom and more time out of doggy jail.  But I see little improvements in his physical part almost daily now.  His mental state has always been very, very happy doggy. 

 

And no one is helping to fund this dog's recovery besides us.  But we are fine with that.  I could drive a newer truck, etc.  But I think helping those who can't help themselves, the animals, is the best way I can spend every spare dime as we do not have children who need an inheritance.  So helping these cute critters is something we both enjoy and if no one will ever help us out then we will still enjoy what we do.

 

So happy holidays.  I will be buying beef bones for the crew here for a happy day of bone chewing when I am buying stuff for our Xmas dinner.  And they will all get some new toys too!  Once they have destroyed the toys I get the large mess they all make.  I wish it were summer for Roscoe to watch dogs play in the yard but he has to stick it out until he can play in the yard himself.