Ace
Hi, my name is Lynda.
14 years ago, I bought my son Lance
a beautiful little Staffy pup for his 14th birthday.
As the pup was black, Lance called him "Ace."
He was a roly-poly puppy, full of life as all puppies are,
and into everything. Every morning, he would come to the kitchen
with me and enjoy his cup of tea and toast. When he was finished,
the "cheeky puppy" would waddle back into my Lance's room and sleep in bed with Lance.
Ace became Lance's best friend.
They went everywhere together, as best friends do.
He learned to ride on a skateboard and sit on the back of Lance's bike.
This dog thought he was a human.
There was nothing this dog wouldn't try.
Surfing the waves at the beach was one of his favourite things, as he has a real love of water.
Ace has been like a gypsy and has travelled around Australia with Lance.
These two were just inseparable.
Even as Lance grew older and went off to parties, Lance and Ace would go together.
All Lance's friends classed Ace "one of the boys," so he was more than welcome.
Ace has had a very full life and is loved by so many people.
He has such a soft and loveable personality and it's because of his placid nature
that he is a tripod dog today.
Two weeks ago, Lance came home to find his loveable "Acey boy" as I called him
had been viciously attacked by a Pit Bull-Cross dog.
He had several wounds to his neck and left leg and was lying lifeless on the back lawn.
Lance quickly wrapped him in a blanket and rushed him to his local vet,
where it was touch and go for the next 24 hours. His temperature had dropped
and he was going into shock. Vets worked on him fast to stop blood loss.
His front left leg had very bad nerve damage. They tried to save the leg,
but two days ago, the bad news came; the leg will have to be amputated.
As you can imagine, we were in shock, but decisions had to be made to
save our Acey boys life. He had worked so hard to stay alive,
so we had to make a quick decision as infection had gotten into
the nerve damaged leg. We visted your website as advised from a
close friend to do and I think seeing there are so many dogs dealing
with this problem, our Acey boy was going to be fine.
Ace came out of hospital yesterday and he is doing well; so far, so good.
Our Ace boy is now a tripod dog!!!
Lynda Adams
Perth Western Australia
Friday September 17, 2010
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Red
Hi there,
I have an 11 year old golden retriever rescue named Red.
We adopted him at age 5 from Retrieve a Golden of Minnesota.
He had lost his leg at age 1 after being found on the side
of a highway after (they suspect) he was hit by a car or truck.
Red has done quite well until the last 1.5 years.
Red's leg started giving up as he was going up stairs,
and he started refusing to go very far on walks.
I took him to a rehab vet in the Twin Cities, and she found
that he had a ripped tendon/ligament (can't remember which) in his ankle.
It healed after months in a brace, then things started to go downhill again.
The vet has tried many avenues trying to pinpoint the problem and treat it,
but we've had limited success.
We've tried adequan (arthritis/cartilage issues), a shot of vit. B complex
(would address bulging disk), and he's currently on gabapentin and Deramaxx.
None of these make him able to take more than a 5-10 minute walk without his leg giving out.
I would love to hear what things people have tried/had success with when
dealing with a weak/painful leg in a senior tripod.
Also any management ideas would be wonderful. Thank you!
I resisted the Deramaxx for those very same reasons,
and tried many natural alternatives - glucosamine and fish oil
as well as Bromelain and Boswellia.
Only when he started falling going up our stairs did I resort to Deramaxx.
We have him on as low a dose as we can for him to get around.
Have you heard about safer pain relievers that have worked?
Thanks so much, your website is wonderful!
Karen & Scott Pedersen Monday, September 20, 2010
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