Can anyone help?
 

My Scarlett had her first litter late Tuesday night, 2 boys and 3 girls. It was a scary whelp as the first baby came out feet first with no sac. I grabbed the feet and tried to pull but she relaxed her contractions and the baby went back up. I called the emergency vet and told them we were coming. I knew that baby was lost but didn't want to lose the whole litter or possibly even Scarlett. I rushed to get dressed and my wife stayed with her. While I was getting dressed, she had another contraction and the feet were presented again. My wife grabbed the feet but couldn't get the baby out. Then Scarlett contracted again and this time the baby's hips came out and my wife was able to pull him on out. We were amazed but the baby was alive! Whew! So we called the vet and let him know we would be staying home to finish the whelping. O.K., now on to the problem. The third baby born, a little girl, has mis-aligned rear legs. Her feet point inward about 30 degrees and her toes are curling under some. I took her to the vet today, an orthopedic specialist. We discussed wrapping the legs to straighten them but he was afraid of the joint setting crooked. He recommended instead to do physical therapy on her. I can easily align her legs and feet with no distress from her but am unsure that this will really fix the problem. I know we have a small window of opportunity before the bones set so I want to make sure we don't blow it. The vet explained that this joint (from the hock down to the foot) is more tendon and cartelidge than bone and feels therapy is the way to go for now. He did tell me, however, that in his 40 years of practice he's never seen this particular problem. I have another appointment in 2 weeks. He said he would do more research in the meantime to see if he can find out more. So my question is: does anyone here have any experience with this specific problem? If so, I would greatly appreciate any insight you may have. I haven't researched this yet and will be looking around tonight but any first-hand experience would be wonderful. Thanks in advance....Jim

Oh Jim...as I was reading the first part of the post, I was so worried you lost a pup. I'm so relieved you didn't :). I don't any advice whatsoever (except, maybe calling a vet hospital for a consult w/ an animal physical therapist?), but just wanted to post that I'll be keeping this little girl in my thoughts. Keep us posted on her and hang in there. :)

~I have not had any experience in anything like this and hope everything works out for the little puppy. I'll be saying a prayer. Please keep us posted as to the outcome.

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hi not sure if my problem is the same but we had a litter 3 years ago and our darling little gracie was born with what they called flipper back legs they were backwards ,the vet wasnt sure what ro do either so because she was only 1oz at birth we decided to weight till she was a bit older 2-3 weeks and look then as she needed care around the clock .surprisin the one leg turned around but the right one never has ,i will take a picture of her today and see if i have any from when she was born .she is now going to be 4 soon and 3lbs of pure dynomite she only uses three legs but boy the others have a hard time catchin her .the only think she can not due is go down the stairs she climbs up d

Thanks, Ann. We surely dodged a bullet with the first boy. Let me tell you, that'll get your adrenaline going! As for the little girl, she is very healthy and doing fine except for her obvious problem. The vet I saw isn't my regular vet. He is THE guy to see in this area for orthopedics. I had to get a referral just to see him. I am hopeful though, as her left foot has straightened out some since birth. Even if I can't get her to 100%, I at least want her to have a good quality of life. I've told you about my Bijou so you can imagine my dread when I first saw this little girl. I can't find anything online about this specific problem so for now will just go with the PT. There is a great clinic in Mandeville, LA that I may check with but am unsure if they have any experience with this either. I'm hoping there's a YT'er out there that can help. I will post updates as it may be helpful to someone else if they have the same misfortune.

Hi Jim...I'm sorry to hear about the baby girl's foot and I hope she will be o.k. with some therapy.

Let me tell you our story...not a Yorkie but a baby duck. We used to take the duck eggs from the river bank and hatch them out so they were safe, they we would return the babies to the water once they were big enough to make it on their own.

So, one of the baby ducks was born with a foot much like you described...crooked leg, foot turned under and to the inside. My husband decided to make a splint for his leg so he made it out of a straw...just split it down the side and slide it over the leg...it's enough support to keep the leg straigt, or at least it was on the duck. He also made a little sandal of sorts...he made it the shape of the duck's foot, it was heavy cardboard so it had a little weight to it. We would straighten out foot, lay the sandal under his toes and tape it in place. We had to change it once a day so we would stretch his little foot and work it a bit each time we took the cardboard off...then we would replace his sandal. We did this for a couple of weeks and it really helped him...he was able to live and swim normally.

Maybe something like that would help your little girl as long as the mother didn't bother it.

Thank you. That would be great to see a photo and compare with my pup. To give a kind of visual, she looks to be 'pigeon-toed' and her feet up near the toes curl under some. The vet is sure it's only the hock joint and there's no problem farther up around the stifle. She is small (3.8 ounces) but not ultra-tiny and has good vigor and is nursing well. For now, I'll be doing the PT several times a day and watching her progress closely.

Great story about the duck. I've considered trying a taping method, possibly with some wire as a re-enforcement but will try the PT for a little bit. If I don't see some positive result fairly quickly, I'll have to try something else. The vet wasn't able to give me a firm time for when the bones really begin to set, but I'm sure we have no more than maybe 3 weeks to get this resolved.

Thank you very much. I'm saying my prayers for her, too. It would be heartbreaking to have her go through life in this condition.

It got my adrenaline going (my heart sped up!) just reading it bc I was thinking "oh no!" as I was reading it and was worried about the outcome. Funny you mentioned Bijou bc the second I read about the pup's legs, I thought of your Bijou and her turned legs. While I'm just heartbroken for your pup, the fact that you have Bijou leaves me hopeful that you already have the background to help this baby. That is so wonderful that you've already seen a bit of improvement too! :)

It's because of Bijou that I'm not wasting any time jumping on this. With her, the vet saw her at 3 days old but wanted to wait since they couldn't get a good x-ray on such a young pup. Not knowing any better at the time, I went along with this. Well, they x-rayed her at 6 weeks and told me there was nothing that could be done since the bones had set. Needless to say, she is my EX vet. These days, I don't have a lot of trust in vets but do feel that this guy is very competent. Still, I won't blindly follow his recommendations since this case is time sensitive.

I don't have any "yorkie experience", but I do have Miniature Horse expreience. Crooked legs is quite common in new born miniatures. Many times they need to be splinted -- but the risk is damage to soft tissue. We only had to splint one mini - my precious little Quincy. The splints worked, but we did have minor soft tissue damage which healed once the splints were off.

I truly believe that physical therapy will be successful IF you are diligent and continue the therapy/massage as directed by the vet or as frequently as possible. I am a firm believer in giving the body the tools to heal itself, in this case therapy/massage.

I entirely forgot to congratulate you on your new litter. Can't wait to see pics :)

I started working her legs within hours after she was born. I surely hope the PT works as there just isn't much to work with on a newborn Yorkie's legs. And, as the vet said, it's mostly cartilage, tendon and muscle. She does show some good strength, though. You should see her when I apply upward pressure from her foot. She REALLY pushes back LOL. I was surprised she even had the pups when she did. She was only on day 59 from her only tie but all the babies seem full term. I'll try to get some pics soon but have been too caught up in dealing with the little girl to get any pics yet. The pups all look generic at this point, but Scarlett and Roger, the Dad, are both gorgeous and are the same type so I'm hopeful for some very nice pups.

My first skin daughter was born with her feet pointing up-almost touching her legs:eek:I was so shocked and thought for sure she would need surgery but the dox told me not to worry and showed me how to do physio on them. It took a good few weeks but they straightened out. They said it was because she had such long legs she had been lying funny in the womb and had her feet tucked under my ribs! The little stinker:p
I'm sure your girl will be fine with you working so hard on her!

Here's a couple of pictures. The first one is Scarlett with one of her babies. Her hair's a wreck, I know, but she hasn't left her babies except for 2 potty breaks I made her take. The second pic is Roger, the pups' Dad.

Thanks for the post, Piptickle. That's very reassuring to hear. I just finished a short PT session with her a little while ago. I'm also moving her away from Mom to encourage her to crawl around, figuring that will help build the muscles.

I had one pup born with a similar leg problem. I massaged and worked on it 4 times a day and by the time he was ready to leave he was fine. I did sell him at a reduced price as I was not sure if he would have further problems later in life. He was fine until about age 3 when he jumped off the back of a couch and nedded surgery but i don't think it had anything to do with the earlier problem

Scarlett's gorgeous even with messy hair, and if the babies look anything like mom or dad, they will be beauties. I'm so relieved you didn't lose any, this must be so difficult; I just don't know how you breeders do it. I don't have any information, but it does sound like this condition can be corrected, and I wish you the best of luck. Praying that all goes well.

Scarlett and Roger are georgeous. It sounds like a good plan to move her a bit to encourage crawling. Sounds like this little one is in good hands! Keep up the good work.

Update...
 

Scarlett's little girl is doing much better. The PT and having her crawling around seems to be working. Her left leg is almost completely aligned now. The right leg is progressing slower but I can still see a noticeable improvement. All the babies are eating well and have plumped out nicely. I have an appointment tomorrow to get their tails and dew claws done. I'll post another update in a few days on my little girl's progress....Jim

Jim, Scarlett, Roger and the Baby are the prettiest Yorkies ever. I hope the doc helps you out with the babies foot. Keep us posted and send more pics. I will try and research some things for you..Blessings.

Update
 

Well, thought I'd post one final update. Scarlett's little girl is doing so much better now. I took her to the ortho specialist on Thursday. He was surprised at her progress. He felt all her leg structure really well and said everything is lining up nicely....no crooked bones :thumbup:!! I can still see one of her feet that is ever so slightly turned but I have to compare her to another pup just to see that. I'm still continuing her therapy but have high hopes she will be 100%. I'll be taking her back to him for a final check-up before she's ready for a new home but everything looks great at this point. The pups opened their eyes this week and are starting to 'motor-vate' around. Of course, they still can't be late for a nap as you can see in the pictures :D. They are 17 days old in these pics...Jim

Those pictures are so adorable, gosh the ones with them snoozing away are so darn cute. I'm so glad you were able to give the little girl the personal attention she needed. What a difference this will make to her life!

Thanks, Nancy. When I caught them all in a row ...belly up, I just had to get a pic. I'm so happy that my little girl is working out well. At first, I thought I would just try to give her a decent quality of life but it looks like she will leave her problems behind her and I'm so thankful. Best to you...Jim

~So glad to hear the physical therapy is working for the little girl. Prayers for all the babies and the mom. And to you for all the medicine your giving to her.
cheryl
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Jim I never can get pictures posted but will try....please have a brace made for the little girl.. we had to do this with gracie..nothing fancy but it worked.. she walks fine today.. so please send me you email addie and I can send you some pictures to see..if these are not good enough...
the vet I took gracie too had not ever seen this.. her back feet went inwards.. so he braced her.. told me to come back so he and his wife could figure something out together.. it took one week.. she was a little older... anneAttachment 268633

Attachment 268634 gracie at going on three years old..

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