Half a Dog High and a Dog and a Half Long

Just over a year ago, my dear dachshund Max, a seven-and-a-half year old, purebred Pet, started to lose his ability to walk. At first, it came in small increments – he would no longer be able to pull his back legs up to scratch his ears, or he would seem to stumble over his own hindquarters. I knew that many doxies could be prone to back problems, but I figured it wasn’t serious enough to merit medical attention, thinking that he would get over it soon.

However, as the weeks went by, the problem quickly became more serious, and Max was soon dragging behind him and having trouble even walking around. Granted, he had never been a particularly athletic wiener dog, but he had always been ready to romp around the house or the yard, and I couldn’t bear watching him simply collapse every time he tried to walk. Now, suspecting something more serious than simple clumsiness, I hurried Max to the vet, only to have my worst suspicions confirmed.

It turned out that Max was suffering from IVDD, or Intervertebral Disc Degeneration – a problem common among animals in which the cartilage between the dog’s vertebrae slowly deteriorates, leading to pain and eventual paralysis if treatment is not secured. Although Max’s condition was not as serious as it could have been – he was far from paralyzed – his ability to walk was still severely impeded. In addition to planning surgery, my vet suggested that we find him a dog wheelchair to help him walk until he recovered.

There was one major problem with that plan: it didn’t seem like anyone actually made dog wheelchairs for pets. Because Max would probably only need the wheelchair to help with his recovery, I didn’t want to order a custom-fitted wheelchair, which would be needlessly expensive and almost impossible to return or resell. Unfortunately, all of the adjustable wheelchairs on the market seemed to be “meant for dogs 20 lbs. and up” – there was nothing on the market for a recovering doxie like Max.

Thankfully, after digging a little deeper, I stumbled upon the Walkin’ Wheels Mini – a smaller version of an adjustable dog wheelchair that was designed exclusively for small dogs such as the Shih tzu. Since Max’s surgery was scheduled for the following day, I had to be sure that I could get it quickly – luckily, when I contacted the manufacturers, I was assured that the Mini could be shipped on the day we ordered it, and reassured that Max would almost certainly adapt quickly to the device.

Not twenty-four hours later, as I returned home from Max’s successful surgery, I picked up the Mini in the mail, just when I needed it. Just as quickly, I rushed it back to the vet’s, where Max was just beginning his recovery – and it was everything I had asked for. Barely ten minutes after that, with the help of the attending veterinarians, I managed to fit the wheelchair to Max, and, although he was initially slow to appreciate the device, he quickly took to it, moving around as though he had been born in it.

Now, a couple of months later, Max has recovered completely, no longer stumbling but sprinting around the house like his old self – all thanks to one wiener-sized pomeranian wheelchair.