This is my very special old lady Roxy, she was 15 years old in May this year, a grand age for any dog, but Roxy is a bit of a mirical.
When she was 10 months old, she had a horrific accident. I had taken them to a huge park near me. We had finished our walk and I was about to put Roxy and my GSD in the car. Both dogs had harnesses that attatched to the seatbelts, but they had tangled and I was undoing them. My (ex) husband was watching the girls while I sorted out the harnesses. Suddenly Roxy spotted a rabbit and shot off, I shouted her and she took her eye off the rabbit and hit a tree, she fell to the floor. I ran to her and picked her up she was unconcious. It was late and I had to find an emergancy vet. At 11.30 pm I recieved a call from the vet telling me they had stabalized her, but her brain was swelling, so was her heart and she had compacted the vertabrea in her neck and fractured the last vertabrea. If she made it through the night she would be lucky. The following day she was still fighting and the vet was unable to do anything else but keep her stable. He put us in touch with a specialist who aggreed to see Roxy to see if they could help. At this point she had no feeling in any of her legs.
The specialist at Willows referal service was fantastic and said he would attempt to fix Roxy's neck. She went through a lengthy operation, where 2 screws were inserted either side of her neck to stretch it back to normal and a screw inserted into the last vertabrae. The swelling in her heart and brain started to go down and after 5 days we were allowed to take her home. At this point she was still unable to walk and had to have daily physio (which the vet nurses showed me what to do). We had a cradle for her so she could stand supported. Just as I was on the verge of thinking she would never walk again she started to wriggle about using her legs, then finally after about 8 weeks she managed to stand unaided. My vet was so suprised when she walked into his surgery for a check up. Although she could walk and run, she has her difficulties, her back legs work slower than her front, but she adapted. I was told because of the damage to her heart and brain she would be lucky to make it to 2 years of age, once she reached 2, the vets were hopefull she would see 5, once she reached 5 I was told it would be a case of see how she goes. Now at 15 she is showing her age lots and tends to spend more and more time in bed dreaming of the days of running around.
And it's so lovely to see someone go to huge efforts for their dogs. Thanks for being one of those who didn't give up.
Kes is enough of a handfull without taking on another rescue dog at the moment 
