Prosthetics for Patty!
Hello all!
This is Patty, a 12 year old pitbull who has had a pretty rough start in her life. she came into our lives about 7 years ago when her cute face walked into my vet clinic because there was a mass growing on her toe on her right forelimb. Looking at it and assuming her breed was right we assumed it may have been a cancerous mast cell tumor (pitbulls are prone to these things). The owners at the time agreed and opted for surgery. Surgery went without complications and the mass was sent out for biopsy.
Outcome: Hair follicle infection.
Odd but very grateful, Patty continued to heal... until she didn't. Unfortunately her paw grew in size and the mass we had taken off only three weeks ago, had already come.back.
Confused we had the mass read AGAIN, it wasn't what we were told, it wasn't a hair follicle infection but a squamous cell carcinoma, highly cancerous but can be with high chances of non reoccuance with taking the limb... her forearm.
The owners were in the fence, could they handle a tripod 5 year old pitbull in their small motel room?
So here comes me... a sucker. I offer to foster for her entire experience. The speaking with a surgeon, going to PT, talking to doctors, scheduleing her appointments, being there to sign papers for her when it was the last time she would ever walk on four limbs again. But there to recover her, to take her to my hospital for after care, to helping this dog walk again, and after all that "fostering"... it's been 7 years of joy and weirdness from this little broken creature. Did you know, she was also a bait dog prior to her being adopted to her original guardians. She is missing half of her teeth because of it, which her foster mom (me) has fixed.
She's perfect, an angel sent from heaven as a lesson to remind us of how we can still find joy in the face of the worst outcome.
With that being said, as I adventure on my new path to becoming a Social Worker in Veterinary medicine, I am starting a new internship this year who do alternative therapy treatments and one of those is Pet Therapy. With this internship they're training me and a dog of my choosing. My hope.is to take Patty with me to train. From a dog who's come from trauma and gives people nothing but love and affection I think she'll be a great fit for the job only problem is, she gets tired very quickly being an old lady and only having 3 limbs to help her. If she had lost her back leg, it would have been better on her body but these are the cards we are dealt with and we are playing our best hand. I did try to fit her for a cart but she was too terrified of it and didn't enjoy the idea of this large thing with scarry wheels being attached to her BUT there is an alternative.... 3D prosthetics and braces made JUST for her. Only problem is, there is only one real company and I was quoted over $2500 for both a brace for her existing forearm as well as a custom prosthetic for the other. (Which isn't bad at all)
As much as I would love to drop that money on her, which I've been saving, she had some other thoughts and had a mass removed, which again wound up being a cancerous mast cell tumor low grade with clean margins but that's where all of what I saved for her went. I was hoping to have this for her by the fall when I start school and maybe with some help, we can.
If you can't or don't wish to donate, a simple share is extremely helpful. Any amount will help Patty get her dream robo leg she never knew she wanted or needed so she can help me to help heal others to heal themselves.
Our whole family thanks you