I hope no one here ever needs anything like this...but if they do, this might help them make a wheelchair for their big dog.
Tiny has suddenly gotten very very sick, and though tests are still in progreess to find out what the cause might be, at this point Myasthenia Gravis is a possible, even likely, diagnosis. Whatever it is, has disabled some of her muscles (esophagus) and weakened others (legs), yet left her aware and bright-eyed, and wanting to do all the Tiny things but unable to do most of them.
I can't continue to lift her by her harnesses (one on her front half, carabinered to one on her back half) and "carrywalk" her around, cuz it hurts too much and I'm just way too exhausted to do it for long. So...the wheelchair.
At first, I was going to take a human walker thingy and stretch it, so it's four corners were just beyond her paws, so that it would be stable while she "walked" suspended under it by her harnesses. But I couldn't find wheels large enough to support her, and roll over stuff in the yard, etc., without reinforcing and buildng up the bottom fo it so much that it basically became a wheelchair.
So, I figured I might as well just build a wheelchair.
I have two...for people. One was for a kid or a skinny/small adult, which I got off freecycle years ago, and was glad of when I broke my ankle. It's a Quickie2, and modular like most. Aluminum so I can't weld on it, but being modular eI might not have to. The ohter was a steel one, I think it used to be my mom's. I could probably cut and weld to modify it, make it work, but I wasnt' sure. Both are folding types, which both maeks things easier and harder.
Since the Quickie is modular I could take it apart, try it out, and if it didn't work, I could return it to human use relatively easliy at a later date. So that was where I started, and is the one I'm still working out.
actual wheels were too tall so used the 20" wheels off of her original trailer from teh apartment. Startted out with 16 " but they were too small.
I am too wiped out to describe everything right now, so I'll just post the present pics, and a couple of video bits, and maybe someday I can come back and fill stuff in, or answer questions if any. The pics show various stages of modifcation, ideas, and versions of it as I found things wouldn't work for one reason or another.
[youtube]6G972QThRoE[/youtube]
[youtube]yJzX57jGCdc[/youtube]
Tiny has suddenly gotten very very sick, and though tests are still in progreess to find out what the cause might be, at this point Myasthenia Gravis is a possible, even likely, diagnosis. Whatever it is, has disabled some of her muscles (esophagus) and weakened others (legs), yet left her aware and bright-eyed, and wanting to do all the Tiny things but unable to do most of them.
I can't continue to lift her by her harnesses (one on her front half, carabinered to one on her back half) and "carrywalk" her around, cuz it hurts too much and I'm just way too exhausted to do it for long. So...the wheelchair.
At first, I was going to take a human walker thingy and stretch it, so it's four corners were just beyond her paws, so that it would be stable while she "walked" suspended under it by her harnesses. But I couldn't find wheels large enough to support her, and roll over stuff in the yard, etc., without reinforcing and buildng up the bottom fo it so much that it basically became a wheelchair.
So, I figured I might as well just build a wheelchair.
I have two...for people. One was for a kid or a skinny/small adult, which I got off freecycle years ago, and was glad of when I broke my ankle. It's a Quickie2, and modular like most. Aluminum so I can't weld on it, but being modular eI might not have to. The ohter was a steel one, I think it used to be my mom's. I could probably cut and weld to modify it, make it work, but I wasnt' sure. Both are folding types, which both maeks things easier and harder.
Since the Quickie is modular I could take it apart, try it out, and if it didn't work, I could return it to human use relatively easliy at a later date. So that was where I started, and is the one I'm still working out.
actual wheels were too tall so used the 20" wheels off of her original trailer from teh apartment. Startted out with 16 " but they were too small.
I am too wiped out to describe everything right now, so I'll just post the present pics, and a couple of video bits, and maybe someday I can come back and fill stuff in, or answer questions if any. The pics show various stages of modifcation, ideas, and versions of it as I found things wouldn't work for one reason or another.
[youtube]6G972QThRoE[/youtube]
[youtube]yJzX57jGCdc[/youtube]
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