Ivan is a German Shepherd X Lab who has been hypothyroid since 2, had elbow displasia at 9 months and ACL surgery at 2 1/2 years. He has had arthritis in his knees (stifles) since he was 3. Ivan will be 10 in January. He has been overweight most of his life (he was 166 at one point..he is 142 right now), but still been a happy guy who gets around.
The picture is of Ivan in one of his favorite positions at the store (with Rags..the frostbitten ears, fanbelt amputated tail stray that adopted us) He gets acupuncture from 2 to 5 times a year. Recently he has started to have problems with his hind legs sliding out from under him… and it is getting worse rapidly. His radiographs show he has severe arthritis in his knees (the vet referred to them as “mothy”) his hips are becoming arthritic and he has spondylosis of the spine. The vet believes Ivan is starting to have his nerves being pinched in his back causing the weakness in his hind legs.
I’ve discussed it with my vet, but he hasn’t had much experience with larger dogs using the carts.

Ivan is EXTREMELY easy going. I don’t think he will have issues with accepting the cart or learning to use it.

I just wonder if I should wait till he can’t use his hind legs anymore, or if getting him a cart and letting him use his legs a bit with the cart would be better…if dogs his size usually do well with the carts. I was thinking he might even walk more, as he would have less pain inn his knees with them not bearing the full weight (he loves to swim in the summer… that is actually when we usually can get a few pounds off him. He goes to work everyday (have a feed & pet supply store) and he plays with his 3 other buddies ( an Irish wolfhound mix, a Walker coonhound and a Portuguese water dog mix)…although he usually just runs a short distance to them and kind of acts like a tank…broad siding them.

Response: Ivan sounds like a great candidate for a cart. It will enable him to exercise and play. Exercise can improve his health and play will help maintain his quality of life. Now is definately the time to get him in a cart. It is possible that, if his legs get worse, his cart may need to be adjusted slightly, but the necessary adjustments are not difficult.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 4th, 2005 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Ivan - Happy and Healthy on Wheels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.