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Flori - our Rehabilitation Journey

My Florals is an amazing, peppy, opinionated, smart dog. She's easy to teach things too, and has a super temperament. It's unfortunate that her body doesn't function so well! Because she would be pretty perfect if it did.



Miss Florimania
Miss Florimania

She's had a complex medical history. In short she has a suspected connective tissue disorder (Ehler Danlos) that makes her hyper flexible, or 'hypermobile'. All her joints are super bendy, and she has loose skin. Even her teeth move around in their sockets.



This also means that she's got issues in her joints. Because while the bony structures in her joints are (generally) correctly formed, the connective tissue does not hold the joints together in the correct way. So there's excessive movement in the joints.


This mean's there's been a few orthopaedic issues!


Previously she's had surgery on one of the two luxating patella's. She has gait and stance abnormalities because of the multiple joints that are not functioning correctly. Luckily with the help of a team of professionals (physio, hydrotherapy, and a rehabilitation vet) I've been able to keep her fairly functional over the last few years. She's gained qualifications in scent work, jumpers, and continues to have a relatively normal life including spaniel life out and about, and working with students at school as a school support dog.






Recently we have had a new issue pop up. Flori had a lameness incident that was the most pain I've seen her in before. And this is significant, for a dog that is likely to have had a low level of chronic pain her entire life.


She was non-weight bearing on her hind right. This was the knee that was meant to be the more functional knee, as it had been surgically repaired!


After visiting a ton of people, and being referred to a specialist we did some pretty extensive diagnostics. I'm pleased that this did rule out some pretty serious problems (invertebral disc or sacral - illio issues, cruciate / meniscal issues). What it did show was that she has some degeneration in her hips, and has also damaged the retinaculum (covering) of a tendon (for the lateral digital extensor muscle) that runs down the outside of her knee. The specialist has only seen a injury in this area once before in his career, and can only find about 4 published case studies on it, none of which are the exact thing Flori has done!



This means that now when Flori bends her knee, the tendon on the outside flicks back and forwards over the bony protuberances rather than staying in the appropriate groove.


So she's having surgery to repair this. Whilst I'm in the somewhat privileged position to be able to pay for this option, it's a tough ask financially for the surgery, post surgical appointments, and rehabilitation costs. I'm not the Give a Little type, so instead have some options for you that you get something out of, and also a little bit of money will go towards helping Flori with her surgical and rehabilitation costs.


Flori Fundraisers


T-shirts

These super cute t-shirts can be shipped anywhere! Worldwide!


Toothless T
Toothless T

Butterfly T
Butterfly T

Pre-hab Online Course

This is one of my most EXTENSIVE online classes. It covers in great detail a huge number of areas. This includes red flags (noticing changes), cooperative care training, managing a dog in recovery, tips tricks and hints for dogs in rehab, and how to teach rehabilitation exercises (that are also fitness!). There is over 100 videos, pictures, discussion and more.


Use the coupon code FLORI for a discount in this course.



Florimania
Florimania


 
 
 

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