On 16th August, Phoebe Ho, after having contacted me, brought a rescued dog, Wawa, found on the MMR2 Highway. Wawa had a short chain, was incredibly friendly and we suspect she was probably a lost dog (or abandoned?).
Ref: http://animalcare.my/2011/08/wawa-rescued-pup-from-mmr2-highway.html
To recap a long story short, Wawa was limping and our vet said it was probably an old fracture. The bone was broken, but the body has a remarkable mechanism that can sometimes self-heal.
Phoebe had two options:
1. Do an IM-pin insertion and repair the leg. This costs a bomb, of course, and there is no guarantee that all will go well because it is inserting a foreign material into the body. Also, the recuperating period could be very stressful for the dog. How do you tell a dog to stay still and not move so that the bone can heal properly? You can probably tell a cat to stay still (not tell per se, but cats don’t move that much, usually), but dogs? Dogs are highly active and mobile creatures.
2. Let it be. Let Nature take its course and let it heal by itself. Wawa may walk with a limp, but dogs can cope. They are not like us! They compensate, accept their fate, and manage quite well.
Phoebe chose the latter, and now…
Dear Kah Yein,
It’s been a long time since last updates of Wawa. 🙂
She’s doing well at the moment, had her second vaccine on Wednesday, although vomited on the way back home, but no big problems 🙂 Her leg been healing well too, now she even can climb up or jump out from the playpen =.=
As manja and naughty as usually, will be jealous if we pet Vivy and she will push Vivy aside =.=
Regards,
Phoebe
A case in point is also Lim Mei Leng’s Jenny. Jenny was brought in from the streets in Puchong with a terribly swollen leg. Jenny was extremely depressed too. Our vet advised amputation, and right after the surgery, Jenny transformed immediately into a very happy dog. She even ate voraciously after the surgery and that surprised everyone as the surgery had not gone very well. There was massive bleeding. But here’s the thing – with the “problem” gone, Jenny probably felt so happy and well again.
See this: http://animalcare.my/2011/06/jennys-drinking-and-eatingso-well.html
We sometimes think it’s cruel to amputate. True, who wants to lose a limb? But remember we humans only have two legs, but dogs and cats have four. And sometimes, they can cope very well, especially after the pain and problem has been removed. We’ve done a few amputation cases for cats AND dogs and all have healed very well.