[Dailydrool] Advice on front-end doggie wheelchairs

[Elizabeth]

Young Charlie has such a youthful attitude and takes such pleasure in being naughty that I forget that, being almost thirteen, he’s no spring chicken anymore. Last weekend I took him to the GABR picnic, and the weekend before that I took him to the Ohio Basset Rescue picnic. He seemed to enjoy the first, but the second was too much for him physically. 

He has these wonky front legs and feet that are the result of his radii and ulnas growing at different rates of speed and his growth plates closing before they could even themselves out. (His original family had him neutered when he was four months old, and I see a connection there.) So he stands in a perfect ballet first position, with his hind end jacked up higher than his front. He’s pretty much a structural disaster. 

As he’s aged, his front end has sunk lower, which is causing his front feet to roll inward, or, roll over, as we say in the ballet world. This is the sort of poor technique you find being allowed in less reputable ballet classes. In Charlie’s case, however, it’s unavoidable, given his deformity. The more his feet roll over, the more uncomfortable it’s becoming for him to walk any distance. 

When he was chronologically young, he’d spend most of his time at these basset picnics playing, chasing, and pal-ing around with likeminded hounds, barely noticing where I might be. One year he wandered up on the stage in the GABR dog park without a thought for my whereabouts and took a nap on the front edge while stuff was going on up there. But the last couple of years he’s become more concerned about staying close to me. This year he has focused almost exclusively on keeping me in sight than on meeting new basset friends. Last weekend I realized the GABR dog park has quite a lot of ground to traverse when your front legs and feet hurt. 

Charlie joined the Carprofen (Rimadyl) Club a couple years ago, but now it seems he needs a little more help than that. After the GABR picnic I decided this is probably the time to start looking seriously at front-end doggie wheelchairs. He can still manage getting around the house well; it’s the outside world that’s become a problem. If anyone can recommend a doggie wheelchair company to consult, it’s the people on the Drool. Whatever advice, suggestions, or company names you all can give me (and Charlie) would be very much appreciated.  

Elizabeth