Underdog To Wonderdog- Anyone Seen This?

[Cosmolo]

Has anyone seen this show? I am watching it at the moment and they have a puppy who is 12 weeks old who has no use of her back legs. She lies in her own waste as a result and has sores on her legs from dragging her back legs around. The rescue organisation is getting a wheelchair made so she can 'walk'- eventually.

What does everyone think about this? I can't help but think it's cruel to keep the puppy alive let alone finding a suitable adoptive home.

[Simply Grand]

I haven't seen the show but would like to.

I feel sad that she's been left like this for 12 weeks and been able to get to the point of sores and lying in her own waste And then apparently dumped on rescue. Whoever bred her should have made the decision to put her to sleep or treat her

I'm inclined to agree with you Cos unless a very dedicated owner can be found. There seem to be stories about animals getting around with little wheelchairs or fake legs but it would be so much worse for her to get attached to a home then get dumped again.

ETA - just thinking about the toileting issue, she won't be able to go on her own ever, unless she has to go all over her cart, or she has a human taking her and holding her up every hour while she's a pup then every few hours for her whole life. I just can't see how that's quality of life, even if someone actually did it, poor puppy.

Edited January 16, 2013 by Simply Grand

[flame ryder]

Is this on mainstream TV? What channel? Sounds interesting...although I've probably missed it now...anyone else watch it?

[Cosmolo]

It was on Animal Planet i think. They found a home for the pup- with 2 small children and yes the dog will need help to toilet every time for the rest of it's life.

[Greytmate]

Has anyone seen this show? I am watching it at the moment and they have a puppy who is 12 weeks old who has no use of her back legs. She lies in her own waste as a result and has sores on her legs from dragging her back legs around. The rescue organisation is getting a wheelchair made so she can 'walk'- eventually.

What does everyone think about this? I can't help but think it's cruel to keep the puppy alive let alone finding a suitable adoptive home.

It's all about people wanting to be seen as more caring and more special than other people. It is cruel.

[flame ryder]

It was on Animal Planet i think. They found a home for the pup- with 2 small children and yes the dog will need help to toilet every time for the rest of it's life.

Dammit!!! I don't have pay TV

I wonder how long before the novelty wears off? What sort of dog was it?

[jerojath]

I feel it would be one of those times when the fairest thing to do is PTS straight away.

[Cosmolo]

The dog was a GSD x Rottweiler

[Loving my Oldies]

It's all about people wanting to be seen as more caring and more special than other people. It is cruel.

WOW! That's pretty harsh. What evidence do you have for such a judgement?

The dog was a GSD x Rottweiler

So, they are going to have to have a few wheel contraptions until the dog reaches full growth!

I can understand people wanting to do this with a dog who has been a family pet for many years and has an accident or something happens to give it paralysis, but I wouldn't put a dog through it.

[Greytmate]

It's all about people wanting topic be seen as more caring and more special than other people. It is cruel.

WOW! That's pretty harsh. What evidence do you have for such a judgement?

The dog was a GSD x Rottweiler

So, they are going to have to have a few wheel contraptions until the dog reaches full growth!

I can understand people wanting to do this with a dog who has been a family pet for many years and has an accident or something happens to give it paralysis, but I wouldn't put a dog through it.

It's my opinion. What evidence do you have to call it harsh? It's your opinion. Stick to talking about rhe topic and refrain from criticising other posters. Otherwise it starts to seem like a personal attack, which is against forum rules.

[Diva]

I feel sad that she's been left like this for 12 weeks and been able to get to the point of sores and lying in her own waste And then apparently dumped on rescue. Whoever bred her should have made the decision to put her to sleep or treat her

Yes I agree, as she is a cross bred whoever bred her is unlikely to be bound by any code of ethics unfortunately, and may well feel no responsibility. Not that you need a code to act responsibly, I don't mean that. But it makes me angry too, poor little poppet.

Perhaps she wasn't born like that and it was a later injury ? I didn't see the show so don't know.

It's all about people wanting to be seen as more caring and more special than other people. It is cruel.

I think you are quite likely right, either that or a passionate commitment to life no matter what the suffering, which is bonkers to me.

I have had to make a decision whether to pts a disabled pup, much less disabled than the one in the op and she did make it through to a great quality of life - but I was conscious at the time of how hard it is to disentangle your own interest and consider it rationally from the pup's point of view alone. Much agonising went into that decision.

Edited January 17, 2013 by Diva

[TigerJack]

I have a little dog who is partially paralysed. Back in the dark ages I had undesexed little dogs who managed to get pregnant (no surprise in retrospect) and I had a litter of two born from them. Mum is tiny and rather than leave her to struggle with her labour I rushed her off to the emergency vet in the middle of the night for a Caesar. Vet decided to try and wiggle the first pup out rather than go for the caesar and sadly twisted a bit too hard in the process. My little pup was left with spinal damage.

I took home mum and the two pups and about a week later I noticed that the first one was not moving back legs and they just dragged out behind, different to his sister. I was devastated at the time and I am a big softie. i could not bring myself to euthanase such a tiny baby. (He was 120grams at the time.) I spent the next few months at home babysitting them and researching all the different wheelchairs for dogs and mobility aids etc. I decided I would keep both pups and I would get him a wheelchair and I would have this happy little dog that whizzed round in his wheels.

In retrospect it was a naive way to think. You cannot leave a dog in its wheelchair when you can't supervise them and I work full time. My house has single steps between levels indoors. While I was away from home I would have had to leave him without the chair and if he ended up immobile then he would be sitting in his own mess all day.

I was lucky, I never ended up having to deal with wheelchairs. Jasper's legs developed a spasticity that holds them rigid. His ligaments and tendons have sort of frozen into holding his legs straight. He only weighs 3 kilos too so he is quite light. He ended up being able to wobble onto his feet and run with his front end and the back end sort of bounces around behind him. A bigger, longer bodied dog would not manage this. Jasper is now all muscle at the front end and he can actually get up the single steps by throwing himself up from his shoulders. One step maximum, two would be impossible as he needs a runup.

Jasper has never really been able to be toilet trained. He often does not know he is going. He is now 8 and he is getting bladder control. (Had that for a few years now) but he never knows when he needs to poo, his back end just starts to bounce around while he keeps doing whatever he was doing. He often lies down with his head on his front paws and is completely unaware that his back end is still standing up till it finally overbalances and tips over. At the age of six he finally scratched his own head with his back leg for the first time.

Positives - I have a very happy, well adjusted little dog who does not know he is disabled. He just thinks he is a normal dog. I never had to get a wheelchair.

Negatives - At 8, he occasionally has a back foot knuckle over now when he moves around so I have to start watching him for sores caused by dragging. He is messy. He is tiny so its only small messes and he does now go to the pee mat and the smell sort of triggers him to go himself. Going on command is never going to happen. This means lots of accidents in the house and that makes toilet training any other dog very hard due to the scent.

I love Jasper dearly and he is a complete joy to have around. In retrospect though, the sensible thing would have been to euthanase. The chance that he would end up with the particular leg spasticity and rigidity that Jasper has is not guaranteed for any dog in his situation. A larger dog or a longer bodied dog would not get the same mobility as Jasper, even with leg rigidity. Jasper's tiny weight and small body mass / low centre of gravity all work in his favour.

Jasper could have ended up bigger (mum is a cross and I don't know what with) and heavier and needing a wheelchair. In that situation I think he would not have had good quality of life due to the amount of time he would have been sitting around, not in the chair. Its a big gamble to take to keep them alive. I was just taken by this cute little tiny baby and put my own wishes first and thought of course I will save him. Not realistic but in Jasper's case turned out OK.

I don't hink he will have a normal lifespan. He occasionally has days where he can't manage the single step and that will get worse I expect.

I don't breed and all my dogs are desexed but if I were ever in the same situation I suspect I would euthanase.

Jo

[Diva]

Thanks for sharing your experience TigerJack. It is not an easy subject.

[Pollywaffle]

TigerJack..your story is lovely..your little boy was meant to be.

[flame ryder]

We need a pic of Jasper :)

[Loving my Oldies]

It's all about people wanting topic be seen as more caring and more special than other people. It is cruel.

WOW! That's pretty harsh. What evidence do you have for such a judgement?

It's my opinion. What evidence do you have to call it harsh? It's your opinion. Stick to talking about rhe topic and refrain from criticising other posters. Otherwise it starts to seem like a personal attack, which is against forum rules.

Nothing to do with a personal attack. I don't care who posted it. It was a harsh judgement without evidence - unless of course you have been consulted by the people .

Perhaps you could have prefaced your remark by saying, "In my opinion ....". But you said straight out that it is all about ..... etc etc. And you were wrong as evidenced by TigerJack's story.

That said, you could be right regarding some people's motives. Afterall, we see similar in some rescue groups who believe that all dogs should be saved.

And I think if you'd bothered to read the rest of my post, I did say that I wouldn't put a dog through it, so I think was was obviously my opinion and evidence that I was sticking to talking about the topic.

[TigerJack]

We need a pic of Jasper :)

Here are several.

Jasper two weeks old with his sister Daisy feeding. This was the day I noticed the difference in their back leg positions.

A few months old - he can stand and was wobbling around. The step they are standing over is the one he can manage without help. Jasper is the black pup and Daisy is grey

[TigerJack]

and this is Jasper meeting Sam for the first time.

Last pic is taken tonight just dozing on the lounge. He is now 8 and a half.

Sorry for the crap photo quality. My pics were too big and I am useless with resizing so I took a picture of the screen with my phone.

Jo

[Guest Clover]

I think it is cruel, but then I think a lot of stuff people do re: their dogs health is cruel.

[Greytmate]

It's all about people wanting topic be seen as more caring and more special than other people. It is cruel.

WOW! That's pretty harsh. What evidence do you have for such a judgement?

It's my opinion. What evidence do you have to call it harsh? It's your opinion. Stick to talking about rhe topic and refrain from criticising other posters. Otherwise it starts to seem like a personal attack, which is against forum rules.

Nothing to do with a personal attack. I don't care who posted it. It was a harsh judgement without evidence - unless of course you have been consulted by the people .

Perhaps you could have prefaced your remark by saying, "In my opinion ....". But you said straight out that it is all about ..... etc etc. And you were wrong as evidenced by TigerJack's story.

That said, you could be right regarding some people's motives. Afterall, we see similar in some rescue groups who believe that all dogs should be saved.

And I think if you'd bothered to read the rest of my post, I did say that I wouldn't put a dog through it, so I think was was obviously my opinion and evidence that I was sticking to talking about the topic.

No, I don't bother reading 99% of what you say, It's not worth the effort to scroll back and look. I'm just telling you to stop quoting me and having a go at my opinions. I don't have to justify what I said. You don't have any evidence that I am wrong, Tiger jack never kept a dog in a wheelchair. Seriously, go and find somebody else to argue with, I'm not interested in your worthless advice on how to write posts on a forum.