I came into work one morning several months ago to find that Animal Control had brought in a medium-sized, black dog who could not stand up. After examination, I found that his back legs worked fine but he could not use either front leg. X-rays revealed that his right front leg had an old gunshot wound just above the elbow that had shattered the bone. The bone had healed as best it could and felt stable when touched. The left front leg was normal on x-ray but had nerve damage.
He was happy and not in any pain, so I planned to keep him a few days, hoping his owner would claim him. But if not, we would euthanize him.
Amazingly after two days, he started to walk on the gunshot leg, but still could not use the nerve-damaged leg. The staff fell in love with him and named him Willie Nelson (because he howls and “sings” when he wants attention). He continued to get stronger on the right leg, but his left leg would collapse every time he tried to put weight on it. We made the decision to amputate the left leg and he healed beautifully.
The day before he was to go up for adoption, he suddenly wouldn’t stand. We x-rayed the leg again and found it had fractured through the area where the gunshot wound was. Because it had not healed well, it couldn’t withstand the strain of bearing the extra weight of him being three-legged. My husband, Dr. Michael Wells, and I decided to repair the fracture with metal pins, which we planned to leave in place for stability. Two of our kennel crew, Brandon and Chase, fostered him while he healed.
Unfortunately, the bone was too soft from all the previous damage and the pins kept backing out. Despite several attempts to reset them, they finally came out completely.
Our next step was a cast, which Willie hated but learned to tolerate. Finally, the day came to remove the cast. Willie walked on his leg but after only a few minutes there was an audible crack. The leg had broken again!
We were heartbroken and out of options. Willie went home to spend a last night with his foster family and we planned to put him to sleep the next day.
That night was pretty depressing at our house. For four months, we had worked with Willie and it was devastating to lose him. I asked my husband, “What if we buy him a custom-made cart?” I talked to Brandon and Chase the next morning and they agreed to adopt Willie if we would purchase the cart. We worked with an awesome company called, “Eddie’s Wheels,” which gave us a shelter discount and built him a cart in just two weeks.
Meanwhile, after talking to Brandon and the people at Eddie’s Wheels, we decided to amputate his broken leg as he would never use it and we didn’t want it to be a source of pain for him.
Willie is still adjusting to his cart but doing great. He is one of the happiest dogs I have ever seen, exhibiting a positive spirit every day of his trying journey.
Their lives are in our hands.
— By Dr. Lisa Levy, Aiken County Animal Shelter Veterinarian
