Miss Izzy, the Tripawd Mastiff

It has been a while since my last post, so I thought I would just drop a note to say that Miss Izzy is doing so well!  She is growing, and she appears stronger with every passing day.  Her last weigh-in had her at 69 pounds.  She stands tall and loves to run around the yard.  We are very happy that she continues to be a happy and healthy big dog tripawd.

Speaking of healthy, we took Miss Izzy to her second swim session yesterday.  She did fantastic.   We had not brought her in for a swim for so long because she was recovering from her spay, not to mention that the holidays hit us faster than we were prepared to admit.  She still splashed around quite a bit, but she also swam for five more minutes than her first visit – a ten minute swim can sure wipe a puppy out!  She was rewarded for her brief moments of calm swim with spoonfuls of peanut butter.  That made the swim well worth it in her eyes!   Next week, we are going to see how she handles the big pool, figuring that she’ll like the idea that she has more control than she does in the endless pool.  Another week, another adventure!

Izzy continues to get exercise when she is not in the pool, enjoying her daily walks at the park down the street.   Her walk is more of a slow jog, since she still gets the opportunity to strengthen her rear leg without the strain that a stroll has on her leg.  All it takes to get her out the door is to hold out her gentle leader – she walks her little face right into it, tail wagging, and out the door we go.  When she’s not walking or swimming, she plays a never-ending game of tug with her brother, Chase.

Until next time, all is well in Izzy’s world, and she hopes all is well in yours!

Good news: Miss Izzy appears to like the water, so we can start adding swimming to her exercise regiment!  We took her for her first hydrotherapy session this past Tuesday evening and she did fantastic!

We first experienced hydrotherapy treatment for dogs when our first mastiff, Harley, had tplo surgery on both of her knees.  Part of her rehab involved swimming in an endless pool for a period of time ranging from five minutes to twenty-five minutes.  Harley loved the water so much that we couldn’t keep her out of the water for long.  Harley never had a strong back end, so swimming definitely helped her to get strong and to heal from her knee surgeries.  Anyway, we knew when we decided to adopt Izzy that we would incorporate hydrotherapy into her post-amputation recovery.

Not long after the vet slipped on Izzy’s life jacket, Izzy found herself being hoisted into the endless pool. Naturally, when the vet initially placed Izzy in the pool, she splashed and splashed, dog paddling out of control as she tried to get her bearings.

At first, as Izzy flailed in the water, she looked at all of us standing around with a little bit of uncertainty, but then she seemed to realize that we were all there to help her try something that would be good for her.  Within a few minutes, Izzy got the swing of things.  She relaxed a bit and started to paddle calmly as she focused on working her rear leg and her two front legs.

Izzy’s actual swim session was probably about five minutes, but that five minute period wore her out.  We can’t wait to see how much swimming helps her to develop the strength in her lower back and in her rear leg.  Hopefully, Izzy will be able to endure a little bit longer of a swim during her next swim session.  Whether she swims longer or not, we know for certain that we love this little girl and we can’t wait to see how far her dog paddling adventures take her!

When we first heard about Izzy, the 6-month-old, brindle, female mastiff being rescued by the Great Plains Mastiff Rescue, we were immediately drawn to her story.  In September, the good folks at GPMR rescued her from a breeder in Louisiana who neglected to care for an injury to her rear left leg.  All it took was one look at her face and we knew we were in trouble.   We were in love.

In July, Izzy managed to get her leg tangled up in some sort of metal cord, something like a lawnmower cord, which ultimately resulted in a gash to her lower left rear leg.   In July, Izzy had four legs.  When GPMR retrieved Izzy from the breeder in September, they found that the breeder never bothered to care for her injury.  Instead of taking Izzy in for what likely would have been a simple treatment within days of her incident, her leg was bandaged and left to heal on its own (or, rather, her injury was left to fester until her breeder surrendered her to rescue  TWO MONTHS LATER).  As fluid leaked from Izzy’s bandage, not only did her leg swell to a size three times the size of her good leg, but her injury had become so infected that she was becoming septic.  Once Izzy was hospitalized, and her bandaged unwrapped, among other things, the vet discovered that two of her toes had basically rotted off and that her left rear leg was determined to be unsalvageable.  In order to save Izzy’s life, they had to amputate her leg.  And so began Izzy’s life as a tripawd.

As we followed Izzy’s story, it was clear that we needed to make her a member of our family. We had experience with big dogs, having owned three mastiffs before Izzy.  We had experience with the challenges that big dogs face (our first mastiff, Harley, had knee surgeries on both knees, among other issues).  We did not have experience with a tripawd, nor the challenges that tripawds face.  Yet, because we knew that we could give Izzy a good home, we put in an application to adopt her – after all, what were the odds that we would actually have the opportunity to have our lives graced by her presence?!   Apparently, the odds were pretty good – we submitted the first application on her.   In October, we were thrilled to learn that Izzy was going to become a member of our family, joining us, our mastiff, Chase, and our cat, Ocho.

Miss Izzy arrived in Denver by transport on November 3, 2012, after traveling from Louisiana, where she was rescued, to Oklahoma City, where she was treated and where she was allowed to heal thanks to her two different foster families, and from Oklahoma City to our home in Denver.  We never thought we would go through such extensive measures to adopt a dog, but it was clear that Izzy wasn’t, and isn’t, just any dog.  She is as much of a doll as we thought she would be.  She is happy, resilient and forgiving.  She gets around relatively well in spite of her missing leg.  Little hop by little hop, she rises and struggles to stand tall.  She runs like a bullet.  It is not until she slows down to walk or when she tries to stand up that it becomes clear that she is a newly-born tripawd. We have no regrets, but we know that we have a lot of work ahead of us in order to ensure that she lives a good life.

And so begins our journey with Miss Izzy.

 

 

 

 

This is Miss Izzy’s story and the beginning of our journey with caring for a tripawd.  Miss Izzy is a 7-month-old English mastiff whose left, rear leg was amputated due to the failure of a breeder to care for an injury that turned septic.  Izzy became part of our journey once we learned that we were approved to adopt and care for this lovely baby girl and she arrived at our home, joining us, Chase, our 2 1/2-year-old English mastiff, and Ocho the cat. We hope that we can help Miss Izzy to live a long and quality life.  Through this blog, we hope that you can teach us a little something about raising a tripawd.