NEWS

Tigger starts water therapy as leg improves

Carol McAlice Currie
Statesman Journal

Will doggie paddle for treats.

That's Tigger's motto these days.

The Staffordshire terrier mix who had surgery last fall to correct the first of two birth-deformed front legs doesn't much care for his water rehabilitation therapy.

Tigger, a bull terrier mix with deformed front legs, walks on an underwater treadmill to strengthen his front paws after surgery on the front right leg to help correct its shape at the Oregon State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Corvallis on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.

But he'll put weight on his recovering right leg for just about any amount of animal edible.

So that's what his rehabilitation specialist, certified veterinary technician Dave Meyer, was using Friday at Oregon State University's College of Veterinary Medicine to help Tigger develop new muscle memory on his front limb.

It worked like a charm.

With crumbling pieces of smelly treats in hand, Meyer helped Tigger achieve his personal best time of 8 minutes learning how to walk in an underwater treadmill housed in the large-animal wing of the veterinary medical school in Corvallis.

"Not bad for a dog who doesn't like baths," said his foster mom, Eve Good, as she watched Tigger first drink the water from the donated underwater treadmill and then reluctantly put his recovering paw in it. Marilyn van Dijk, a veterinary assistant, kept treats in Meyer's hands or in front of the dog at all times.

Tigger, a bull terrier mix with deformed front legs, has a physical therapy session with Dave Meyer, a patient services coordinator, to strengthen his front paws after surgery on the front right leg to help correct its shape at the Oregon State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Corvallis on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.

He'd forget that he had a bum leg, put his paw down and reach around for the treat.

Meyer, keeping hold on Tigger via a harness, cooed in the dog's ear: "I've got you. I've got you."

And then Tigger relaxed. He'd move his front paws forward as if on automatic pilot. Walk, walk, walk.

Meyer moved up the speed on the treadmill, and Tigger walked, walked, walked some more, as if he's been doing it his entire young life.

Except he hasn't.

Tigger has never walked or run on four legs like most canines.

He has jumped like a kangaroo on his hind two legs or inched forward on his belly. But he has never kept up with his foster parents' other dogs because his front two legs were congenitally deformed by a defect called ectrodactyly, or split hand or lobster claw.

These days, Meyer has him on the underwater treadmill and doing planks on a large plastic peanut to help develop callouses on the limb and strengthen his core to protect his other limbs. He hopes to introduce the dog to cavalletti exercises (small jumps) soon to help him further strengthen his muscles and improve his balance.

"He's been compensating his whole life, so we take this slow," Meyer said.

Tigger weighs slightly more than his optimal weight of 55 pounds, said his surgeon, Dr. Jennifer Warnock. The physical therapy sessions may help with that.

Dr. Warnock hopes to perform the second repair surgery on Tigger's other front leg at the end of March. But Good and her partner, Troy Riggs, have some fundraising to do first. When the Statesman Journal first broke Tigger's story last summer and it spread across the country through the USA Today Network and The Huffington Post, more than $17,000 was raised in a few weeks.

Tigger, a bull terrier mix with deformed front legs, has a physical therapy session to strengthen his front paws after surgery on the front right leg to help correct its shape at the Oregon State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Corvallis on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.

More than $10,000 was spent on Tigger's first surgery, ICU stay, bandaging needs, and his medication. At least $2,000 or $3,000 still needs to be raised to pay for this next round of surgery, which will repair the second front limb and fuse one portion of the other newly fashioned leg. Dr. Warnock expects Tigger's condition to regress a bit as he recovers from the second surgery, but she's cautiously optimistic the dog could be walking on both front legs by summer.

Tigger may or may not need prosthetics. His X-rays currently show bone fusion, which is excellent, Warnock said. If his therapy continues to help him develop callouses where he never had them before, she believes the prognosis to be very good.

"We want to get him functioning without pain," Warnock said. "I want him jumping on the couch, something most dogs take for granted. But Tigger does not."

Now about those treats ....

Email:ccurrie@statesmanjournal.com or call 503-399-6746 or follow on Twitter at @CATMCurrie 

Get involved

To help Tigger or other dogs at Savin' Juice Medical Dog Rescue, send an inquiry to: savinjuicemedicaldogrescue@gmail.com or call (971) 213-8163. The rescue desperately needs foster volunteers at this time. Or, go to the Facebook page Tigger The Dog, or http://facebook.com/Paw.For.Tigger/ There is a link there for credit or debit card contributions via a crowd-sourcing site. Donors who wish to give by check can call Eve Good at (541) 979-3633 for an address.


Tigger, a bull terrier mix with deformed front legs, waits with his foster owner Eve Good during a physical therapy session to strengthen his front paws after surgery on the front right leg to help correct its shape at the Oregon State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Corvallis on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.