Tiny's Wheelchair Project

Amberwolf,

First off, my hat's off to you for designing, adapting and constructing a usable wheelchair for Tiny.

Secondly, your compassion and patience are amazing.

Not much in life scares me anymore, except for the thought of losing my wife, or losing my doggies or kitty-kat.

The doggies are older, and have been having knee issues which limit their mobility, which is sad to see even though the mutts are happy as clams in a high tide. The cat, only 3 years old, got really sick a few days ago, and off to the vet she went. Fortunately, because we have a pet-care policy in place at the vet hospital, we did not have to spend a buttload of money to get basic treatment for the kitty. Had the treatment needed to be more extensive however, we would have had to let nature take its course.

The cat is doing better this past couple of days, eating and drinking on her own, but she's not outta the woods yet. Again, if she gets worse, we simply cannot afford expensive treatment, which brings me to my point: The thought of losing our kitty critter friend is very worrysome for my wife and me. My wife is worried that she would have to put me in the lockup ward at the mental hospital, were the cat to pass away, and I can't deny that I just don't know how I would handle such a loss.

Just my two cents, y'all....

Mark

I definitely fully understand. If it werent' for Tiny, I would probably no longer be alive, after the fire that killed the four I had before her.


And I am worried about her again: she was fine last night, with a temp of 100.2F (normal for her) but predawn she had been restless, stretching a lot, and later puked up some grass she'd munched on while we were out for the dawn pooptrol.

By breakfast (~10am) she was not feeling well at all, and didnt' wanna eat anything. I managed to get her to eat a few spoonfuls of boiled pureed chicken with her meds stuffed inside, but didn't wanna try more than that cuz she might puke them up and then they cant' help her. Her temp had gone up to 102F.

She's been munching on ice cubes since then, now and then, so at least she'll stay hydrated.

Stretching has continued, and it is probably her back aching...which could be a kidney infection. Temp is up to 102.4F now. I've already let the rescue know (cuz they do the vet stuff for us), been updating them thru the day and will continue to while at work, cuz I'm taking her up there with me.

She's still walking around ok, but she doesn't really want to much; she wants to just lay down and sleep right now.

We're about to leave for work, I've gotta go get the trike ready for her with the cooling stuff in the back, then get her in and go (it's like 110F out there so this is gonna suck).

Tiny's temperature went up to 103.4F whenever I checked at work. The rescue is setting up a vet appointment, time not yet known (waiting on the vet to call back), hopefully tomorrow morning as early as possible, but I'll ahve to wati and see.

(mostly because Tiny really needs help, but partly because I'm scheduled to work in the early afternoon...and it would be better if we can finish the vet visit and get her treatment going and then I can take her to work and keep an eye on her there, if it is possible...but if not, well, Tiny's more important.)

She had a couple of pee breaks while at work, and had some ice cubes and a little liquid water, didn't want anything else.

She still doesn't wanna eat. I managed to get her meds down this morning with some chicken, but tonight she dind't want that either, so we used creamy peanut butter to hide them in, and she was willing to take a couple of little gobbets of it before she lost interest.

Then we rested a bit, had some ice cubes, and then a potty break, where she leaned on me while she poopied (big enough it looked like it was saved up from a whole day!), then she had a lie-down for a bit in her favorite little spot under the tree (which happens to be right between Bonnie's grave and that of the rest of the dogs, at Fred's end of it.)

Tried some more dinner of various types of food, but she had no interest in any of it. She had some more icecubes and a ltitle liquid water (pedialyte, actually, but she doesn't care, it was cold).

After that, when they got comfy, her temp is now 104.4F.

Now it is naptime for her and Yogi, and though I'm exhausted I can't sleep, too many bad images in my head.

Amberwolf,

My hat's off to you, for your compassion for critters, and your patience and creativity in re-purposing a wheelchair for Tiny.

It's possible I may need to do something similar for one or both of my older Aussies, both of whom have blown out their knees and are having mobility issues therefore.

Thanks for a powerfully constructive post, regarding the wheelchair construction, and the updates on the Big Pooch's condition.

Mark

You're welcome; I posted it in hopes that no one would ever need to borrow ideas from it, but in the certain knowledge that someone would, eventually.


As for Tiny's condition: her temp went down to 103.8F, but she still doesn't feel any better. Got her to lick broth ice cubes, and drink a little plain water, but that's it. Rescue said the vet is totally full today, no chance of getting in. Waiting to hear back about tomorrow.

Amberwolf,

My apologies if my recent post seemed redundant or non-responsive; I earlier could not see my recent posts, and so thought my earlier post didn't get published to the board.

Sorry to hear about your having lost four pooches.....I would have died, at that point.

I will keep you and Tiny in my prayers, for sure!

Mark

hubmotormark said:

My apologies if my recent post seemed redundant or non-responsive; I earlier could not see my recent posts, and so thought my earlier post didn't get published to the board.

Click to expand...

No worries.

Sorry to hear about your having lost four pooches.....I would have died, at that point.

Click to expand...

I almost did, more than once. I wanted to, that night. If there had not been so many people (neighbors, friends, etc) there that night, and I hadn't had Bill's place to go to, with Bill, I doubt I'd've lasted thru the night much less the next few days or week. There were other events, later...and if I hadn't found Tiny, and her picked me, I dunno about them, either.

I will keep you and Tiny in my prayers, for sure!

Click to expand...

Thanks--she can use any help there is.

She's doing no worse, but not much better, other than finally being so hungry after having not eaten more than a teaspoonful a couple of times in the last...I forget. 2 days? and not wanting any of her own dinner either, almost havintg to force her meds down her, she smelled my dinner (the last of the "solar beef stew" from a bit back) and perked up, so I took half of it and blendered it up in to a puree, and fed that to her a little at a time over the last couple hours. So now she's at least eaten, and none of it came back up yet. (though the night is young, and her temp is still 103.8F).

There's been no news on teh vet appointment yet. I really hope it can be done tomorrow morning, or at least by early afternoon, so I can get home in time to prep the trike and Tiny for the ride to work to be there by late afternoon (a few hours later than I'm normally scheduled, the loss of those hours might be a boon in this case as I wouldn't be late to work that way).


(prepping involves packing her pillows with blue ice packs from the deep freeze, so she has a very cool "bed" in the kennel to lay on. then wetting the towel that is spread across the outer front of the kennel, so the evaporation as we ride helps cool it for her.

all necessary since the first ride at midday wed it was at least 110F in teh shade, and perhaps 30F+ more than that in the sun, and the second was at least 5F more tahn that in the shade and at least 10F more than that in the sun. tomorrow would be cooler since it wouldn't be midday, but it'll still be so hot it'll require teh cooling.

just for *me* i have to wet down my shirt and floppy cotton hat so i'll stay cool enough to not pass otu while waiting at traffic lights in the middle of a bunch of cars and trucks. and by the time i reach work, my hat is just a little damp, no more than if i had been sweating into it, and my shirt is dry except where i am sweating into it...only about 2.5 miles, about 10-15 minutes of trip time typically, depending on traffic. much less time at night on the way home than at midday.)

Amberwolf,

How is the Big Pooch doing today??

Please take a moment to let us know?

Her Obstinacy has decided being sick was no fun, so she got better on her own. I guess the vets never had any appointments available, so we never got her in to see them, so instead they just prescribed some antibiotics (don't know which yet, dunno how they could know which to provide without seeing her/testing)...which have not arrived yet. :/

Since her temperature is still elevated, 101.8F tonight, was 102.0F the last day or so before that, and a little bit higher for a day or more before that, she may still need those antibiotics, but she may yet just get over it completely on her own.



Good thing she is too stubborn to get really sick and die of whatever it was. :/



She's been eating almost normally those last couple days, and as of this mornign she's back to normal eating, almost taking the spoon/fingers with the food (she's gentle, but in a hurry!) with every bite, all the way to the end, and really disappointed there wasnt' more.

When she doesn't feel well, she is less enthusiastic and either doesn't expect more or even doesnt' want all of what there is. And when Tiny doesn't wanna eat, SOMETHING is really wrong.


So since she was feeling better, I let her stay home with Yogi, which made him a lot happier, though she was pawing at the trike's kennel door wanting to climb in while I was getting ready for work, cuz she wanted to go with me. I didn't actually use the trike, just the bike, parttly because of that.


Yogi is a lot happier with her around, especially when I am not.

So very glad to hear Tiny is feeling better. ....

That's awesome! !

Now she's back down almost to normal, at 100.4F, as of this morning at breakfast.

Both of them now are napping after serious playtime; they both got super-frisky after they each got a bath. While Yogi was rubbing himself dry on the bathrobe/towels/etc on the floor, a bedraggled-looking Tiny pranced up and started picking at him to get him to get up and play. I missed most of it cuz I didn't have t he camera in hand, but what there is is uploading now.

AmberWolf,

How is the Big Girl Pooch doing lately?

Please let us know.....

Thanks!

Thanks for asking! She's doing as normal (for her) as ever, though neither of them like the heat much--no playtime in daytime.

Nighttime, though, when it gets cool enough (not often in summer) she drags Yogi around by his big chewsticks or the rope, depending on what he picks up to show off with. Most nights it's too hot, but somtiems it gets down into the low 80sF or even mid-70sF, and especially if there's a breeze that's enough for them to want to play.

Tiny still tries to get in/on the trike whenever I get it ready to go somewhere, even when the kennelcrate isn't on there, and is always disappointed when I don't take her with me (usually I can't). Yogi's not terribly interested in the idea, though he likes the exploration of any destination at the other end of any trip.


Tehy're both napping after breakfast/meds now.


I never did get their last bath video to finish uploading. Need to try again.

So glad to hear she's doing fine!

Awesome!!

OT first-post by new member moved to it's own thread:
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=72441

Umm... Ok... It maybe my 1st post here but it will make no sense as its own thread/post... I only wrote it because your particular purpose/build may gain some use from it...

I actually also put together something on your issues with directionality control but now I don't know if there's any point in posting it... I guess I'll wait to post it until I see if you are actually interested/want me to...

Sorry if I offended you... I was just trying to do something nice as my 1st post... Clearly I missed the mark here... I'll stop here for now... But does anyone know how to remove the new thread created by moving the reply? It really is pointless in the larger scheme of endless sphere without this topic...

Adam

No offense taken, but there wasnt' anything in the post I could see that was related to this, other than it was about dog-related equipment.

Perhaps if when you wish to post an idea for something additional/etc to someone's thread, you could make an introduction of the idea in relation to the subject at hand, so it won't seem like a non-sequitur?

When I read the reply, all I saw was a post griping about existing dog harnesses and materials techniques, and then talking about alternative ones, which was given no relation to anything else in the thread other than that it was dog-related.


That is why it was moved to a seperate thread.


FWIW, it is very common for random people (often spammers, sometimes not) to just post a reply to some random topic here on ES, that has little or nothing to do iwth the topic--it just happened to be the one they clicked on and were reading when they decided to post. It is often but not always their first (and often only) post.

In general these are split off to their own thread by the moderation team so that the person can get the replies they are after, which they usually won't get if it's buried in someone else's unrelated thread.



If you want to edit the original post to give it some context for what it has to do with the subject, I'll stick it back in the original thread it came from (Tiny's Wheelchair Project).

Crosspost from the blog/housefire thread, for those following Tiny here but not there:
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=49550&p=1127037#p1127037

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Tiny's managed to hurt her right shoulder; appears to be a sprain, probably caused by her and Yogi playing too roughly/exuberantly. They get pretty playful fairly often, and are so big it's easily possible they coudl've collided in a way that could stress something.

It was sometime while I was at work, so I don't know exactly wha thappened, just guessing based on deductions. It wasn't as bad the first day, but yesterday was a bit worse, and today she doesn't want to walk on it much at all, but she also was getting excited by the usual things and running around anyway, up to late yesterday night.

This morning she had a hard time getting up at first, but did without help and was better after walking a bit, but is doing most of it 3-legged.

To complicate things, she's also got another fever, probably unrelated to the shoulder. It started slowly increasing yesterday, and around sunset today it was 102.4F, and is up to 103.0F now, with slightly labored breathing, even though she's resting and has been for a while now. Can't hear any bad lung sounds yet.

Probably unrelated, but she's also got some irritated spots on her upper front lip that coincide with shape and placement of teeth there, making me suspect that she might've bitten or scraped that lip in whatever tumble hurt her shoulder. If she wouldn't just lick it right off, I'd try some ointment.... :/

I notified the rescue group to see if maybe a vet appointment would be a good idea (especially since I'm off tomorrow so am free all day).

Probably gonna be a mostly-sleepless night worrying.

Praying for Tiny to get better soon. Oliver hurt his leg a couple of times. Once when the car door swung from part way open and hit him and another time we never knew how he did it. :?

Her fever broke sometime after I finally dozed off near dawn, I guess. About 10am she hobbled over on top of me to let me know it was time to go out and potty, so I got up and helped her out (I have her harness on her so I can lift up just a little around her chest to take some weight off her front end as she walks; we can't go fast but it's easier on her).

After potties her temperature was down to 101.8F, and a couple hours later down to 101.4F, and it's down to 101F now.

She's also less gimpy with more energy but still gimpy, and her shoulder is sore enough that she has actually made a little noise about it when she puts the wrong load on it in the wrong way as she gets up or lays down on her own (she won't always let me help, or wait for me to get over there).

I expect it's gonna take a few weeks to get over the injury, whatever it is exactly, mostly because I think that as soon as she *can* use it more she *will*, and start playing and running again and re-hurt it. :/

An update is that after a vet visit, some novox and antibiotics cleared up the pain and the infection, and she got better enough to drag yogi around the yard again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK33OSwDiDQ
[youtube]ZK33OSwDiDQ[/youtube]
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1135423#p1135423




After a week and a half or so of normality, about halfway thru the last week of rainy weather, Tiny started to show the same symptoms she'd had this most recent round of pneumonia, including becoming picky about eating again, gimpiness, fever, etc.

So back to teh vet we went today, and a careful exam showed no real definite signs of pneumonia this time. An xray at the right "settings" showed however that she has "donuts", or ringlets, around many branches of the bronchial tubes in her lungs, which are signs of inflammation / bronchitis of a type that is very similar in symptoms to pneumonia, and apparently the only reliable way to tell which it is is to use such an xray. Also, it's possible for this kind of bronchitis to cause it's own form of pneumonia....

The xray also showed that her esophagus isn't as bad off as it was before she started on the pyridostigmine, where it looked like almost a second stomach in size for it's lower 2/3's or more: now it looks enlarged but not hugely so, which may explain why it is easy enough for her to eat almost normally as long as she is at the ~45 degree angle on the feeding couch, instead of having to be at the vertical 90 degree angle a Bailey Chair would put her in (which I couldn't get her to stay in, as she'd jsut relax and slide down, compressing everything inside her so it wouldnt' have done what it was for, anyway).


The xray *also* showed the cause of her gimpiness and pain, and her hunched-over walking in the last several days: several of her vertebrae behind her shoulders have arthritic ridges on them, on the underside toward the lungs and esophagus. This is in the area where muscles and ligaments go for the front legs, and where they are supported by the long stems on the topside of those same vertebrae. Explains especially why she felt worst during the rains, and as it has cleared up she's gotten a bit better.


It also may explain some of her food-rejection, in that sometimes she just won't finish eating all of a meal, unless I go really slow with it, and wait for her "burp" that indicates a mass of food has passed into the stomach completely, before giving her more than a few spoonfuls at a time.

If I feed her like she prefers, and just keep the spponfuls coming, then at some point (when she feels hurty and gimpy) she often just rejects a spoonful, either by spitting it back out or just turning her head away. What I think happens in this case, knowing about those arthritic ridges, is that they are causing tissues to swell up around them, possibly including the esophagus, and pressuring it, so that once the food "builds up" waiting it's turn to slide down into the stomach (since her esophagus can't squeeze it down there anymore like normal), it reaches that irritated section and pushes on it from the inside while the irritated area pushes on the outside and it hurts, so she just stops eating and you can see she is not feeling well at that point.

If I wait a bit I can see her start to feel better, and that is as the food slides down into her stomach, and she may become hungry for the rest of the meal then (often she doesn't, once she hits that point she's done for a while, sometimes hours). That's probably as the pressure comes off the area, and the pain goes away.


As long as I don't ever let her reach that point, she will often (but not always) eat everything, if we go slow enough. Can take a half hour to an hour to get it all down that way, but at least she gets what she needs.

Alternatively, feeding her just a little, letting her walk around and do stuff, sleep, etc, then an hour to a few hours later feeding more, and so on, also works...but I can't do that during the daytime on workdays unless I take her to work with me, and even then only when I am myself at lunch for the halfhour we get...the possible issue with doing that is there's no feeding station, so she gets just a little front-end eleveation from pillows and towels stuffed under her inside the kennel on teh trike, and there is more risk of aspiration this way.

So we just feed her hwoever she'll take the most food, at any given time period. Mostly, it's not an issue and she'll eat enough (and want more), and sometimes she won't and we'll just make up for it the next meal if she will eat it, or in between meals, especially at night when I'm often unable to sleep thru a night anyway.



She also has the usual old-dog (she's about 9+) "skin lumps", most very small like rice grains, and soft, but during this most recent illness several of these flared up, three of them getting very hard (like jellybeans, and about that size, one of them even bigger). She ate one of them a couple days or so ago, on her right paw, and I've just been keeping it clean as I can. She eats any bandage put on it too, even if I coat it with awful-tasting/smelling stuff, or even hot pepper stuff. Today, just before the vet visit, she ate the largest one that had been on her left side towards her back, between ribs and hips. :/ She hadn't gotten to the one on her left paw/wrist yet, so the vet did a sample (biopsy?) of that one and found nothing but normal cells and oil; a sebaceous cyst typical of big dogs.

Probably the others were that type too but we'll never know now. :lol:

The one on her left side I've shaved around it so I can keep it clean of all the fur and whatnot, and coated it first with antibiotic cream and then white pepper and cayenne, because naturally Yogi discovered it (while we were in the room at the vet waiting for test results) and wanted to "help" with it, so now he knows it's there and keeps picking at it, licking and sniffing it and leaving dirt and stuff all over it. Tiny has left it alone herself, so hopefully the pepper will keep Yogi away from it (so far, he doesn't like that stuff, unlike Tiny who is too stubborn to care).


So, Her Obstinacy continues on....

So, Her Obstinacy proves her nickname again tonight, as she plays tugowar with Yogi over a stick, and she's whimpering and almost sort-of-yelping without letting go, obviously her arthritic vertebrae are hurting her to do the yanking around, but she just keeps on yanking at Yogi (who just stands there and lets her pull him around).

I take pity on her and tell them to "drop it", so they do, and come here, and they run over and start to greet me again, then they both run back to the stick and grab it and start over again, cuz they're having so much fun, and Tiny occasionally whimpers but isn't willing to let the pain stop her from playing.

So I just let her play herself out, which took maybe 10 more minutes--she might've continued on more but Yogi heard something and ran off, so she was left with a boring stick that she chewed on for a minute, then gave up and went inside to see if there were any crumbs left from dinner (a check she performs several times after dinner or breakfast).

Such a dork....

Someone set off a bunch of fireworks earlier tonight, and scared the crap out of both Tiny and Yogi, who had been outside playing around after dinnertime, while I was inside making my own dinner.

They both ran for the bedroom, but I wasn't in there so they came back out after a few minutes, but wouldn't even come in the kitchen, and paced around in the front room a bit. I finally stopped hearing them moving around, and looked to find Tiny "hiding" in the disassembled kennel off the back of the SB Cruiser; it's top is stuffed under the bottom so it takes less space, sitting on the floor. Yogi was "hiding" on the flatbed of the SB Cruiser itself, just standing on it, panting and yawning nervously.



Yogi followed me to the kitchen and then ran off to the bedroom again to hide on the bed, while Tiny just stayed where she was, and eventually rolled over and went to sleep there.

Now that Tiny is practically normal again (temperature has gone down to the low 100s, no sign of problems at her self-surgery sites), Yogi has started to be gimpy.

I haven't found the problem yet, but Yogi won't put weight on his left rear leg right now, it started as he walked away from eating breakfast, after standing there at the bowl (whcih sits on a kitty litter pail to hold it up to his height).

He doesn't react to any probing (other than tickles in his toes, which is normal). I trimmed his paw and foot fur back and don't see anything, either, but I did feel his knee pop once while I was doing that (with no reaction from him). He did let me trim his claws on that foot a bit more than usual, but wasn't gonna let me get any of the other feet.

He's still trying to run and chase the mailman's truck, and guy on a kick-scooter that went by, but he didn't keep doing it for as long as usual.

He hasn't figured out exactly how to work around it yet, and is hiding in the bedroom with me right now cuz I think he's still confused about why he has a problem, probably not having had to deal with this before.

Yogi has begun putting weight on the left leg more and more, though he sometimes hobbles as if he's taking weight off the *right* leg instead.

But Tiny's gotten sick again, fever up and down (as far down as 101.4F last night, but back up to 103.2F again today). So I've been taking her to work with me all week, and we're waiting on the vet to have a time slot free that we can get to, if she doesnt' get better before then on her own. Most likely that will be Sunday.

Yogi will go with us to get booster shots and an update on his leg, too.