# Broken leg :-(



## Tracilea (Jul 27, 2009)

Hi everyone. I am new here, and I am thrillled to have found this place and have seen all the cute pics of your Chihuahuas!! They are so darling! 


While I am thrilled to be here, I am also sad at what has brought me to search for this place. 

In may we were making a visit to the pet store to buy some supplies for our Yorkie/maltese dog Rosa and we saw the cutest lil puppy!! Having had Rosa for a year and a half (her being our FIRST dog) I felt that I could handle another since we all loved Rosa dearly and she was such a loving member of our family. I know, I know, NEVER buy a puppy from a pet store (Rosa was bought from a breeder), but I absolutely could not help myself!!

So home came the newest member of our family...Willy. We LOVE him to death, he is the cutest lil Chihuahua I have ever seen. He and Rosa get along GREAT! They both love us dearly and are happy to have a doggy friend to play with too. Sorry this is so long, I just want to give as much history as I can.


As I said, we got Rosa from a breeder, but she was a bit older, 6 months when we got her cuz she was originally given to an older couple but the husband got very sick and had to go in the hosp, so they could not keep Rosa so the breeder took her back and thats where we got her. I have read so much about dogs since we got her and it always stresses that dogs need to be socialized early on or they can be bad around people and other dogs. With Rosa she barks when she see's people and other dogs. If the person puts a hand down for her to smell she smells it and all is well. I am scared however to let her near another dog because she barks up a storm and it looks very scarey. But anyway, the point of that is, I wanted to make sure Willy was very well socilized, so I brought him with me on walks to the kids school, stopped by to see neighbours along the way and Willy NEVER EVER barks or freaks out like Rosa does..


So, fathers day comes and I am off to visit family, and in the social end of things I decide to bring Willy along with all his supplies and crate for down time in, his blanket etc etc. It was a great day. Everyone loves Willy and Willy has a blast playing wih everyone and practicing his tricks etc etc. Then we are getting ready to go home, everyone is saying goodbye. My cousins 5 year old son picks Willy up, and I can see this out of the corner of my eye and I litterally open my mouth to ask him to put him down carefully and I took one step towards them and Willy licks his face and I guess it startled him and he dropped Willy!! My heart STOPPED!! Willy started SCREAMING.. I have never before been a dog person before we got our dogs, but I have never heard such a horrid noise as a puppy screaming in pain.

Long story shorter (lol) We rushed Willy to the vet. Vet takes X Rays and sure enough the front leg is broken. IT WAS A CLEAN AND COMPLETE BREAK between the wrist and ellbow area< so no joints involved. Vet says $2000 to pin the break. As horrible as this sounds, we cannot afford that kind of money, esp after just buying the puppy which was costly between the purchase, the supplies, the vet visit and shots and cuz it was June, heartworm and flea meds. Plus my husband just got layed off 2 weeks after we bought Willy (figuress lol) . So we opted for door number 2...a cast, which in the end ended up totalling $550 by the time all was said and done..



So for a month he spent in this HUGE cast lol Looked like a little pirate with a wooden leg lol cluump clump clump. After a month we go in to have more X rays done to check, plus Willys paw had never lost the swelling with the cast on despite daily appointments to check on it and pain meds and antibiotics. So vet removed the cast and X rayed and the bone had healed but she said not 100% yet but because of the swelling, which had gotten worse over the last few days, she decided to leave the cast off and have him put on complete crate rest, out only to be carried to pee for 2 weeks. So sorry this is so long.


So that was last week. Now, 2 nights ago I had a blaring headache and I wanted to go to bed so I asked my hubby to walk Willy for me (until then i had been SOLEY taking care of Willy) , now usually cuz of the cone on to keep him from licking his leg, when I take him out to pee at night I sit on the floor with him with the cone off for a few minutes and stroke him and let him lick the other parts of his body and scratch anywhere he might have an itch, but this night cuz I needed to go to bed I told my hubby just to leave it off for half an hour while he was in his crate so he could clean himself etc etc (he really never bothered licking his leg so I wasn't concerned). HOWEVER, I think, because he had the cone off (and hated being crated so much and just wanted loving!) he tried to bolt when hubby tried to put him back in the crate and he thinks in attempt to bolt he hit his leg on the door of the crate. I heard that HORRID screaming again and came running and demanding to know what he did to my baby! (lol) Which he explained what had happened. I picked Willy up and he calms down after a few minues so I put him down to see if he would bare weight on the leg and if not a rush trip to the vet again. But he did bare weight on it and walked around a minute, so I stayed up and kept an eye on him and he was fine the next day. 


So, on to today, after dinner I took him out to pee, and naturally he walks a few steps to find just the right spot to pee  then he all of a sudden starts whining and holding up his leg, so i pick him up (I live in terror now of his leg), but he seems fine, put down again he puts weight on it and tries to jump up on Rosa who is nearby to see what was the matter. 

I guess what I am asking here is what does all this mean?? Is he not healing? How long will this take to heal so I am not living in terror for my poor sweet lil Willy. We love him so much and hate that he is crated 24/7. We have so much love to give him. Its breaking my heart and I''m so scared for him!!. Can anyone give me advice or help with a similar story? He is such a sweet heart.


On an off note here, all the pics I see of Chihuahua's they have such short legs. Willys legs seem so long to me. He reminds me of a deer his legs are so long and graceful. Why does he have long legs? (other then to get broken and give me heart failure hehehe)

Thanks so much for reading this and thanks in advance for any replies. I am going crazy for my lil cutie!


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## *Chloe* (Feb 6, 2006)

aww poor little one, unfortunatly in my experience it does take a while to get them back to some sense of normal, altho not the same my Twiglet had a knee operation and it was probably 6-8 weeks before she would put any weight on it and about 4 months before she was back to a good sense of living - its sad to see them crated but it is to help them get better  welcome to chi people


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## princesslisa31 (Mar 31, 2009)

AAAW the poor little thing!
hope he gets better soon x
o and welcome to chi people


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## rhaubejoi (Dec 10, 2008)

i think maybe he is figuring out mama will come running and give extra love if he hollers...i think his leg is healing, but he is playing you like a fiddle.....maybe next time, hold off on picking up and just watch to see if he is ok. if you really think he is not ok, take him to the vet....but cuddling and loving is like when you praise them for doing something good.. in his mind----screaming gets me attention and loves from mommy, so if i holler real good every now and then, mom will come running and swoop me up and love on me. next time, hold back and watch...otherwise you will end up with a little monster on your hands. also, i NEVER let little ones pick up Zoe. When my niece is over and she wants to love Zoe she has to sit on the floor to love her. I wouldnt even let my son (age 10) pick her up until recently. puppies get the wiggles and little hands cant always hold on. when little ones are around its a good idea to introduce them to the puppy right off and tell them that you have some puppy rules. 

1.) is you have to sit ON THE FLOOR to play with the puppy. you can tell them that it makes it easier for the puppy to see them. 
2. ) is you have to move slowly around the puppy, you can tell them its because the puppy is still a baby and its mind is too slow to get out of the way fast. 
3.) you cannot feed the puppy your food. tell them this is because people food is not good for puppies. this prevents you from having to rush your baby to the vet because of a chocolate chip cookie that was shared ( or something equally as dangerous) 

if you have 3 rules and you tell them right off the bat, well, three is a number all kids can easily relate to, and giving the rules numbers gives them importance. it also makes the child feel important to be told the rules. then sit the child down and introduce the puppy and the child. with chihuahuas (and other small breeds) these are good rules to teach a child who is around your baby anyway even if your chi is 10 years old. Bailey, (my niece) is 3 and she could tell you the 'puppy rules'. I babysat her all day last school year and we had no toddler/puppy accidents. they are precocious little ones and just need a little adjusting to if you are used to larger breeds


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## * Bailey & Kahlua's Mom * (Nov 10, 2008)

I have no advice, I am hoping we never have this issue... but I wanted to send healing thoughts to Willy and welcome you to the board!!!!


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## catz4m8z (Aug 28, 2008)

Oh dear, I hope your baby will be fine soon. At least as he is young his bones will heal quickly. Hopefully he is just playing for sympathy.
Dont feel too guilty tho, these things happen. I tuened round the other day in the park to find Adam staring at me from the arms of a little boy, he'd happily let a little kid drop him..silly boy!


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## chi's R me (Jun 30, 2009)

I would be careful, the leg could still be tender if he stands on it a certain way or moves it a certain way. It takes awhile to completely heal. Be careful not to let him jump down off of things even if it's not very high, that could put alot of stress on his leg. It sounds like it is healing but he's just not 100% up to speed yet.


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## Tracilea (Jul 27, 2009)

Wow!! Thank you all so much for the welcomes and advice/comments!  What a great group I have found!


Oh dear, 4 months is a LONG time to get back to a good sense of living :-( Yikes. I was afraid of that. My poor lil baby! I hope not having to be crated for the 4 months? I live in fear of when she says he can come out of the crate cuz he loves jumping up on the couch and I know even a jump off the low couch can reinjure his leg :-(

Boy oh boy, as for the rules, I actually did give a list of rules when we got there and I realized the little ones were there lol I sounded like a drill sargent and got a few jokes tossed my way (lol all in good fun). No picking up the puppy, no sudden fast moves around him, absolutely NO crawling/running fast around him etc etc. Though I didn't think to say the rule of no offering any food, though it wasn''t an issue that day. My OWN children know that rule however  It was just one of those things....kids forgetting the rules since it was *new* rules to him cuz its not his dog. Though don't get me wrong, I was very angry and thoughts of "little brat didn't listen" DID go through my head lol 0 I had to remind myself that kids are kids sometimes and it was an accident. I did beat the heck out of myself though for bringing him along to be socilized (though I was not aware my cousin was going to be there with his little ones) I wish wish wish I never brought him and I guess thats part of the frustration. Its not something that can be taken back and I just wanna love and play with my lil baby :-(


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## chi's R me (Jun 30, 2009)

It might help to keep a leash on him so you can keep him real close to you when he's out of the crate, don't give him enough length to jump off the furniture. Oh by the way hello and welcome.


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## Tracilea (Jul 27, 2009)

Thats a great idea  I will keep that in mind for when he is allowed to be let out of the crate. Will make me breath easier knowing he can't go far on the leash :-D


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