Hand hold please. Beloved Labrador hit by car and losing her leg

[SnowSnow]

Hand hold please. Our lovely girl was hit tonight when we were crossing a road and her leg is not salvageable.
It was obvious straight away that the leg would not survive.
The vets are going to operate tomorrow when she is hopefully fully stabilised.

I’ve just come to bed to try and sleep but am just lying here thinking her legs been ripped off over and over in my mind.

I know long term she will manage as long as she recovers well but my poor girl.

Oh OP I'm so sorry. Your poor girl. Sending you both strength and hugs 🖤🐾

Glad she is getting so much better x

Luna started hydro today and seemed to enjoy it and swimming to get the ball. She was happily tired afterwards.

She is unfortunately extremely nervous to go on walks so that’s a bit difficult but we are just going at her pace and hopefully she will get a bit more confident. I have taken her a couple of different places in the car to just do 15 mins in countryside places we normally go which was more successful but she still seems a bit unsure.

happily tired is good, and I would expect it did her leg and muscles good too.

yes baby steps re going on walks, dogs do have memories and her last proper walk was not a good one :(
the going to different places to walk is a good one.

Feeling quite low today about Luna. She is out of sorts, I think possibly maybe sore after hydro as she is mostly lying in the kitchen.
Also we tried to get her out for a walk and a car drove passed as we had just got off our driveway and she turned and pulled up the drive to go home. I just don’t know how we can help her get over this.

I think if she is still struggling the end of the week we will speak to vet to rule out pain and then I guess we need to work out some strategies to build up her confidence to go out and perhaps eventually maybe a behaviourist would be helpful. I am thinking a start may be to just sit somewhere a little distance from a road but with one in sight and watch the world go by a bit initially.

I don’t want her to always feel terrified of going out etc.

Shes now shaking and holding her tail funny so is going to the vets later. Luckily our vets do Saturday as a normal working day.

ETA she had paracetamol earlier in case the issue was pain but I guess if it is it’s not strong enough.

@SnowSnow I’m so sorry to hear Luna is struggling. If you’re anywhere near Yorkshire I can recommend a great behaviourist. Once you’ve ruled pain out, are there walks that are rural that you can drive to and then be away from cars?

Hope shes feeling a bit better now.

She will be trigger stacked ref cars. You need to build up really slowly to get her used to them again (and to be fair she may never be), which will be as you say just sat at your front gate/door watching the cars go by.

FB Dog Training Advice and support is an excellent resource and will give you help and advice about how to gradually build up the experience

Thank you, we are Oxfordshire area.

We have a few places we drive to normally for a decent off lead walk about 15mins away. So will carry on trying those for short 15 mins walks a few times a week to see how she gets on.

Thank you will take a look at that group.

She has got swimmers tail 🤦‍♀️. Anti inflammatories for 5 days which will hopefully help. The vet said they can’t advise about the anxiety but suggested a behaviourist and said to use someone APBC registered. I think we will see how she goes the next few days but very likely will engage a behaviourist.

I have been wondering about how you were getting on. Sorry to hear she's still very nervous and having more issues than expected. She is doing really well; it's still relatively recent, and I'm not surprised she's petrified of roads/vehicles. I would take her for walks away from any traffic, and I would keep her close physically, as reassurance for her.
A friend recently started hydrotherapy with her limping dog (albeit 4 legs, not a special 3 legged angel), and it has made her dog limp more, but the therapist said this can happen as they adjust/build up strength muscle etc.
Luna is an angel. Take care

Thank you, yes unfortunately she has gotten worse with not wanting to go out as time has gone on. I think your advice is right just go away from roads and keep her close.

That’s interesting about the hydrotherapy. I guess it’s like for us if we start new exercise we haven’t done for a while we will get sore for a bit.

I mentioned before that we used a buggy for our dog when he couldn't walk much. Would that maybe help her to feel safe out with you?

Hi SnowSnow, See the story about the retired police dog, that was hit by car during police chase, had front leg amputated and pelvis reconstructed. She is recovering and it seems like a heart warming story. There's always hope. Hope you are finding a way forward.

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14486473/police-dog-three-legs-wins-Crufts-hero-award.html

Oh, they look extra sad when they've got swimmers tail especially if they're very waggy normally.

Mine got over it quite quickly with a couple of days of metacam

Thanks for all the kind messages. Her tail is a lot better.

It’s been one of those weeks this week. One of our chickens died, car failed MOT and toddler has a tummy bug. Had a good old cry last night. Luna was being barky and I just felt like the poor thing is bored and frustrated and her enjoyment of life will be very low at the moment. I have been doing games in the garden where I throw one bit of kibble and she then sniffs to find it etc.

This morning she did make it round two of the grassy lanes on our street so that’s a win. I emailed a behaviourist last night. I don’t want us to inadvertently make anything worse.
I have also been reading through the recommended FB page guides on scared dogs etc and will read some of their other bits too.

@SnowSnow Oh OP, sorry to hear that you and Luna are having such a rubbish time.

Hope that things have improved for you all since you last posted.

I think that we always expect recovery to be a linear process, but it's always seems a bit more up and down in reality.

Hopefully, there will be some more ups for you both soon, and Luna will be able to gain a bit more confidence with her walks.

I suppose it's just like for people, that if you've spent a lot of time at home, it seems a bit scary going out, especially when she had such a horrible experience before.

Sorry, I don't have any helpful advice for you in relation to the walks but wishing you all the best and hoping you can both enjoy some walks soon now that the weather is picking up 🐾

Thank you for your message. We have had some ups 😀. We went to a secure woodland you can hire with a friend and her dogs and she had a whale of a time. Ran around, jumped over fallen trees etc. I was astounded at how physically fit she still is and how comfortable she was. It was honestly so heart warming. My friend edited it in to a lovely video which DH said made him emotional when he saw it.

I then yesterday took her to a more local bog standard secure dog field and she again had a great time.

The behaviourist is coming in just over 3 weeks. She has really impressed me even just over email. Luna has also in the last day or so got a bit nervous going from the lounge to dining room and kitchen to dining room. But only sometimes. Not sure what is causing that but we are not going to pressure her in any way.

The other good news is she had her second hydrotherapy and her tail was fine afterwards, she definitely enjoyed it as she tried to get back in the pool after her shower 😁

Here she is last week resting after a good zoom around a secure dog field.

We have had some lovely country walks the last week or so. She runs pretty fast. 25mins is enough for her at the moment.

We have seen the behaviourist today and have a plan for the first stages of trying to resolve her fear of roads and cars so I’m feeling positive about that.

Oh, I'm glad she's doing well. Good luck with the behaviourist.

So happy that she is progressing well. She really is a beautiful girl.

😍

Aww isn't she beautiful !

Thank you for updating - I was just thinking about her the other day.

It's lovely to see her and I'm really glad she's doing so well ❤️

So glad to see her improving!

Fingers crossed with the behaviourist - all things with dogs take time. And even if she can't ever walk on roads again, because she's so worried, you still have her in your life, and that's worth everything!