Newfy in Wheelchair...

[Maggiesmom]

Has anyone had any experience good or bad with their newf in a wheelchair? We have found that both of Tily's hips have no ball left, her left knee is shot and the right is going. She needs exercise to take off weight, she has trouble getting up and down and cant walk well. When the right knee goes it wont be good. We are looking into a wheel chair for her. We have a friend (person) who is wheelchair bound and has been looking at different dogchairs online and coming up with plans to make one for her (saving us tons of money) he said he has lots of wheelchair parts that are spare and from what he's seen online it should be easy to make. My questions are
1. should she only use it outside?
2. how easily will she adapt to using it?
3. is there something that works well inside if the full thing is too much for her to figure out how to manuver around stuff?
at this point if she just wants something not too far away and since most of the floor is wood she just kinda pulls herself along in a sitting position. Would it be feasable to make her some makeshift cart thing to sit on to roll herself along easier?
Any ideas, comments, feedback would be very appreciated. I hate to think we would have to put her to sleep cuz she cant move when her mind and self is good.
THANKS

 

[wrknnwf]

I don't think you could leave a dog unattended in a wheelchair so I don't think putting one on inside will help unless you are there to makesure she doesn't hang up on anything.

If you do have a chair made, make sure it can support her weight. If she doesn't have any carting experience, you will have to keep her on leash while you train her and probably after that too. It may frighten her to all of a sudden be strapped into this device so training is a must. You don't want any more injuries as a result of a runaway dog.

How old is she and have you looked into surgery for her? If scooting around indoors doesn't cause her discomfort and if she is otherwise healthy and happy, I wouldn't think about putting her down. It may make you unhappy to watch, but she could be perfectly content. Dogs adjust to diasbilities much more readily than humans.

But if she is an old gal who struggles and is unhappy, it would be kinder to relieve her of her misery.

 

[JackandKelly]

I just came across this site posted on the dachshund forum I frequent. I was amazed to see they make special ones for dogs over 150 pounds, they also make 4 wheeled carts

http://handicappedpets.com/www/index.php/dog-wheelchair-carts.html


Maybe more affordable ones here
http://handicappedpet.net/helppets/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8161

 

[Maggiesmom]

she is 7 yrs old, from all we've talked to with the combo of not just the hips but the knees also and her weight are all not good factors for surgery. On top of the fact that with the loss of my job last year and 30k pay reduction when I did find a new job paying for the surgery just isnt an option.
We did some carting training with her but she was quite young at the time. Making a chair for her the prime concern is it be safe for her. The guy that is looking at making it for us has made chairs for himself to use out of PVC for the shower and lake so he does have experience and since he and Tily weigh about the same he knows what hes dealing with .
Thanks for your suggestions on leashing etc to have her in it. You're probably right that in the house shes perfectly happy scooting / draggin her behind around. I was just wondering if we could make it easier for her.

 

[lilly06]

We have a wheel chair that we are willing to part with. It is by Dogon and you can view it at www.dogon.com . We had it custom made for Lilly. Unfortuntatly, she was not that hip on it. She was only in it a few times. She had multiple surgeries on her knees ie cructiates and patellas and the PT wanted to get her moving during recovery. It is not something that you could leave on all of the time. It is my understanding that they can do stairs in the cart. I have heard some have great experiences with it. Lilly was only motivated really into really moving in it once. It does take some coaxing. Perhaps some orthopedic braces would help. Check out http://www.orthopets.com/vetinfocomingsoon.htm

Good luck to you.

 

[TinaM]

Yep, same results as Lilly. Our Murphy wouldn't use his wheelchair either. Ours was from Eddieswheels.com. We donated ours back to the vet clinic. Eddies wheels has a section on their site where you can purchase used carts from previous clients at a deep discount. Good luck.

 

[Pipelineozzy]

If she needs to lose weight, talk to your vet about some of the newest diet foods. We have a new one now that actually allows the dog to eat normal amounts but has a healthy fiber in it so that they don't feel deprived but still lose the weight. In Canada, it's called Satiety diet. We have an obese basset in our practice that has lost 22 lbs this year on this food, the only thing that worked for him - and his orthopedic issues are better just from the weight loss. For in the house, I would consider one of those body harness type things with a handle so that it's easier for you to assist her in getting up and moving around, I can't imagine having to strap a big dog into wheels all the time, but you could help her relocate if she had a "handle".
I don't think that even with the wheelchair, she will get enough exercise to lose the weight without a serious calorie reduction, so a satiety food might be very helpful.