Physical Therapy for your Best Friend!

In 2005 I adopted the world's greatest dog from Little Bow Wow Rescue in Southern California. She is a white fluffy little thing who is probably a cross between a Maltese and maybe Shih Tzu and definitely the world's happiest little girl. She was left at the OC Animal Care Center by people who said she was found as a stray (yeah right, as if this starved little thing had any chance as a stray) when in reality what probably happened is that these people thought it would be fun to have a little puppy for their kids so they went out and got her (probably from a puppy mill), but what? you have to feed and groom a dog? and take them to the vet if they get hurt? what a hassle! So they decided they didn't need to do any of those things for her, not even when something or someone injured her severely as a very young puppy. Nope, they didn't even take her to the shelter then of find a rescue group to fund her care. Instead they let the injury stunt the growth of her femurs which left her permanently crippled. By the time LBW got her, she was already fully acclimated to life with two extremely damaged hind legs. In the time that I have been lucky enough to have her, she had always been little miss speedy, but I noticed earlier this year that she was walking more on her front legs and using her rear legs less and less so we ended up at CARE which is a rehab center for our furry little friends! Dr. Waldman established that my little Lily had torn her cruciate so we began eight weeks of physical therapy which included acupuncture, physical therapy, and water treadmill along with exercises at home. Eight weeks later she was pain free and had gained almost a pound of muscle! That's a lot when you only weighed 5lbs before! Did I mention that CARE is located in Santa Monica? It was about a 45 minute drive one way in the carpool lane (my human best-friend rocks!). They do incredible things there, making dogs who can't walk, walk again. The staff is great, my favorite techs are Steve and Juan. Lily and I miss seeing them twice a week, but we try to keep up with her progress by swimming in the bathtub and doing the physical therapy we learned there a few times a week.