Unhappy Feet

This evening Harriett and I removed the splints and cut the wraps off Donald and Daisy’s legs. This will be the first night in over six weeks that we did not rewrap their legs and feet. Tonight they go barefoot and we begin a new phase of trying to correct the deformities in their legs and feet.

Donald and Daisy have a condition called hyperextended carpals. The photo below, on the left, shows Donald’s legs when he first came here. You can see that the carpal pad is nearly touching the floor.

Daisy has the same problem, though hers were not quite as bad as Donald’s. We started out wrapping their legs to give the carpal joint some support. The idea was to stop the tendons from stretching any more, and as the puppies grew they would “grow into” their legs. The photo on the right, above, shows what Donald’s legs look like now. The carpal joint is almost in the right place. The OrthoVet splints we have been using have made a huge difference.

But now we have a new problem. Notice that his toenails are pointing upwards instead of down. The photo on the right shows Daisy’s foot from above. Notice how her toes are splayed out. They should be together and compact. Six weeks in the splints has helped their carpal joints, but they’ve lost muscle tone in their toes. So now we’re going to see if we can build up their foot muscles without stretching the carpal joints and losing everything we’ve worked so hard to gain.

Our goal will be to get them off the wraps and splints within two weeks. After being wrapped for so long they would get very sore if we just remove the wraps, so we’re going to make a gradual transition. For now we will wrap them when they’re playing together and let them go barefoot at night and when we are doing exercise sessions. The orthopedic surgeon says we should walk them on grass and other loose surfaces, so once the weather clears up they’ll be getting some therapy time outside.

No one knows if the gains are permanent, so we’re pretty nervous about what will happen over the next few days. I’ll post an update toward the end of the week and let you know how it’s going.