Meet Trudy, she is one of the McGee family pets. She is a 6 year old French Bulldog. She shares her house with Roo (12 yr old Pit Bull Terrier), 3 cats (Pitter, Boo, and Holmes), 3 boys (ages 10, 6 ,1.5) and her loving parents. She was adopted by my wife, Dr. Jenny Longbottom, when she was about 5 months old. She was born with a hiatal hernia which resulted in severe aspiration pneumonia and esophageal ulceration. Surgery was done to repair her hernia and place a feeding tube directly in to her stomach. She was tube fed for over a month while her ulcers healed and her pneumonia resolved. She completely recovered and has been doing great for the past few years.
Her patellas or kneecaps slide from the front center of her knees to the inside of her knees occasionally. This creates inflammation and arthritic change in her knees which can cause her intermittent pain. This is a link for more detailed explanation of luxating patellas.http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?A=2448
Trudy has gained some weight over the past year due to extra snacking from my 1 1/2 year old. He loves to feed her and it has become a game for them both. Our busy schedules and this long winter have not allowed us to get the exercise Trudy needs to stay fit.
We use a numeric score to judge an animal’s fitness called a Body Condition Score (BCS). This is a scale from 1 to 9, with 5 being ideal, 1 being emaciated, and 9 being obese. Trudy has a BCS score of 7/9 which means she is overweight. That extra weight puts added stress on her joints and back. The added weight also causes her patella to luxate more frequently causing her pain.
Weight loss and exercise to strengthen the quadriceps leg muscles will greatly improve her condition. The underwater treadmill at Mount Carmel Animal Hospital will help her with those two goals.
Please follow Trudy and cheer her on over the next couple of months as she reaches her weight loss goals and hopefully improves her patellar condition.
If we can help your dog with weight loss or an orthopedic condition please give me or our rehabilitation technicians a call.