Tiny dogs are fragile....bad day.

So I think y'all know I have a lot of dogs (7) and I kinda really like my dogs. But my baby, take my man card if you must, is my little chihuahua Lilly.

She spent the first 4 years of her life stuck in a cage as a breeder in a puppy mill. She came to us an emotional mess and afraid of the world. Over the last 3 years she has improved but I always see her as my smallest and most fragile little dog emotionally and physically.

Well last night she was trying to move from one end of the sofa to the other and there was a bulldog in the way. So in a move she had done many times before she vaulted the bulldog, but she missed and landed right on the back of the very asleep bulldog who launched up at the startling and suddenly there's a screaming from Lilly like I've never heard before. She wouldn't stand on her one foot and we prayed it was just a sprain or a bruise.....

Nope...

We had the choice to splint it and keep her very sedentary (she's a sofa slug so this weighs in our favor) for $ or have it surgically repaired $$$$ We're trying the splint obviously, it has a few more risks of not healing but even if that happens she'd need the surgery so were in the same boat either way. She's not figured out how to move with this on yet and she's very unhappy about it all.

Of course she is enjoying the pampering and a ride in the Abarth.

With all the snow and our back yard being so wet we were advised to put a baggie over her splint when she goes out but a couple of bux at the PetSmart for a more fashionable option.

poor thing. I hope she gets better soon

Hope she gets better soon. We have a chi-italian greyhound mix (think Chihuahua on stilts) that this could happen to easily.

Sorry, Jim :(

bgkast wrote: Hope she gets better soon. We have a chi-italian greyhound mix (think Chihuahua on stilts) that this could happen to easily.

Oh wow, yeah, I could see the fear of those legs taking a good hit. Gotta be an interesting looking dog though :)

Sorry your little buddy is suffering, best wishes for a full recovery without surgery.

Hope she heals successfully and quick.

She reminds me of my Maddie, who is a Chihuahua/Corgi mix. She is known to launch herself places as well. She misjudged a jump the other day and damn near knocked herself out on the coffee table. Goofy dog.

Toyman01 wrote: Hope she heals successfully and quick. She reminds me of my Maddie, who is a Chihuahua/Corgi mix. She is known to launch herself places as well. She misjudged a jump the other day and damn near knocked herself out on the coffee table. Goofy dog.

From behind Lilly has been mistaken for a small Corgi....we may overfeed her a bit. I've never given a second thought to all the misjudged jumps our dogs make but now Im a bit paranoid.

The polka dots really bring out her eyes. I just spent a good amount of my pup. She has to be taken outside on a leash right now so she can't run. Apparently she just got away from the wife and she had to chase her around the yard.

The upside to it happening to a small dog is that spliting is more likely to work. The downside is that surgery on limbs that small (if needed) is a huge pain. It's just so much harder to pin/screw little bones. I hope the splint and rest yields acceptable healing.

mazdeuce wrote: The upside to it happening to a small dog is that spliting is more likely to work. The downside is that surgery on limbs that small (if needed) is a huge pain. It's just so much harder to pin/screw little bones. I hope the splint and rest yields acceptable healing.

Our vet's concern was just the opposite. Splinting is likely to work due to the limited strain but in his experience smaller dogs seem to have more healing issues and wont always heal up when splinted due to limited circulation in their limbs and other factors. But I agree I think its a better option than trying to plate (which is what they suggested surgically) her tiny bones.

Any of my other dogs and I'd have more worries because they are all so active but Lilly leads a very slow paced Zen life. Running is not for her. She loves to be outdoors but will take an hour to walk the perimeter of our yard at her own pace enjoying life and smelling the flowers. She sleeps like a cat, which is to say about 75% of her day is dedicated to sleep. When you spend 4 years in a cage barely large enough to stand up in then you learn to sleep a lot and when you get access to an acre of "freedom" you enjoy it at a leisurely pace. :)

Lily is cute. Hope she heals quickly.

We have a poodle about her size.

Hope she has a speedy recovery.

A lot of us have a soft spot for critters.

We had to put one of our kittys to sleep on Wednesday, poor guy was full of cancer.

Trans_Maro wrote: We had to put one of our kittys to sleep on Wednesday, poor guy was full of cancer.

Ugh, sorry to hear that. I lost my little Min Pin buddy to cancer in 2010. Brain tumor that cause dementia. He was already blind from diabetes so when he would wake up from a nap and not be able to see and not remember who he was or where he was he would sit and howl at a wall for hours out of fear. It was terrible. Cancer sucks.

Hope she heals quick.

Sounds exactly like something my Pom would do. Hope she heals soon. I have a big fluff ball Pom who is my little buddy too.

Ugh, poor thing. Hope she heals well. That's awesome you guys for rescuing her from a puppy mill. The people that run those are one micron above scum.

bmw88rider wrote: Sounds exactly like something my Pom would do. Hope she heals soon. I have a big fluff ball Pom who is my little buddy too.

Poms rock, I was in love with a tiny pom but it was not meant to be, then we started working with mill dog rescue and there were so many chis they reminded me of short hair poms. Tiny dogs are fearless but fragile, its a bad combination.

I'm down to one dog: Bubba. About 100 lbs of Rhodesian Ridgeback. I don't think he could break a bone if a train hit him. I think he would break the train.

Anyway, that's a bad break, both bones.

Now, "we wuz taught" that for bone to heal:

• The busted ends need to be next to each other.
• The busted ends need to not move.

They do this by casting the joint above and below the break. So, keep it casted, so the break is immobilized. Or it's gonna need pins.

Oh, pins, there's an interesting subject: The Germans developed them in WWII. Our fly boys would get blown out of the sky, fall thousands of feet to the earth and bust a femur. Standard medical procedure at the time was to put the patient in traction for months hoping to keep it immobile enough to heal (see above.) The Germans would operate on them and pin the bone, then put them in the POW camp. There would be a prisoner exchange and they'd go back to the US. The US docs would look at the fly boy and say "What's this scar on your thigh?" "I dunno. I was flyin' along, minding my own business while I dropped bombs on people and the next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital with a cut and these stitches." An X-ray would show a hunk of metal in the bone. Nobody knew what it was, so they were operating on the flyboy and removing it because they were worried it might be a bomb.

Thanks for taking such good care of her. Hopefully the splint works and she heals quickly.

I hope Lily heals up fast. She looks like she's taking it in stride.

She's adorable. Sending well wishes your way.

I hope for a speedy recovery. My chihuahua scares me sometimes.

I openly dislike most small dogs, but that one seems pretty good. Last chi I met was pretty good too, so there is that.

Hope she heals fast. She looks like a good dog. I think 99% of dogs are good dogs, and you can usually tell just by looking at them