Dogswheels - mobility for paralysed dogs

[GSDOWNER]

My name is Jim Colla, and I first came into contact with dog carts over ten years ago when my two German Shepherds, Prince and Sabre, came down with a disease called CDRM (known as DM in the US). This terrible disease is similar to MS in humans, and causes a gradual, creeping paralysis of the dog's rear legs.

Click to view my website>>>>Dogswheels - wheelchairs for dogs

[GSDOWNER]

Just had a nosy round your site and I think its wonderful that you can help owners give there dog a second chance in life, made me both sad that one day my dog will be needing your help.............but glad because there is help out there

So keep building jim bob.........

[kita]

Hi Jim,

Glad you have joined the site.

You had your two in carts around the same time that I had my girl in one.

There was very little information around then (certainly the internet was in its infancy). I wish I had known more - I know for certain I would have had my girl for much longer than 18 months in the cart. Like you I found out so much by accident, I found out that they do not become incontinent by an accidental comment by my vet when he wished to take a urine sample for an infection she had. I was so mad! From that day on she was clean.

I eventually lost my girl because she developed deep bed sores - a result of bad circulation that could have been prevented had I known how to massage her legs.

I have a video of her in the cart (an old fashioned cart) that one day I will find out how to transfer to the computer. She certainly runs around far more than any other dog in any of the video's. She went up and down hills, on the beach, over stones and rocks - sometimes turning the cart over in her eagerness, she was always up front of her 'pack', racing up hills to get to the top first. I dread to think what she would have done/got up to with one of your carts!

I would not hesitate to put a dog in a cart again.

Sue

[wildmoor]

I opted for mine to be pts approx 7yrs ago he was feacal incontinent, he didnt know it was coming, which then distressed him. Also he had OCD of the shoulder, that he had from being 14mths and at times his front leg would swell due to the inflamation and disruption in blood supply and caused severe pain. I dont have regrets in doing this as it allowed him to go in a dignified manner and wouldnt hesitate again in doing so, this was about my dogs quality of life not me.
Pam

I let my dear old Sabre go when a form of stroke left him unable to use his right front leg. He was still gung ho and up for it but it simply wasn't fair. He had struggled to stay walking with CDRM for three years then this happened and it would not have been fair to have a dog who had always tried to fit 48 hours into a day just laying on the sofa. But providing everything else about them is ok, they are eating and clearly do not want to 'go' just yet then good wheels are great for them. Of the old cumbersome K9 and the Dogmobile I would take the K9 every time, not so their latest version which is cheap nasty rubbish and the reason I decided enough was enough and set up to build them here. I was sick of people having two choices, rubbish or spent a small fortune. Pressure sores: get a cheap camping bed mattress from Argos and inflate it just enough to keep the dogs body from being in contact with a hard surface.

I was one of the founder members of the Degenerative Myelopathy list but after a few years it began to drift very much off topic so I left but we, the foundling mob, gathered a vast amount of knowledge from all around the world. It was me who nagged them into trying wheels. To illustrate what wheels can do. A couple of years ago I called in to see a GSD at Balsall Common on my way to Bolton. 9 years old Tara had totally given up, she couldn't even be bothered to raise herself for me to measure, ears down she was a sorry old state. Rescued she lived on a farm and missed being out all day in the fields. It played on my mind so much that the moment I arrived back in London I got on the phone to people I had supplied carts to years earlier and I found her one in Ilkeston. Next day I drove there, collected it and headed straight to her. Once in it she screamed with delight and went tearing out into the field to see the horses, ears up. We got her another year before she died.