SPECIAL APPEAL - LEO

Leo came into our care after serving his seven days in a Pound down south.

Leo is the most fantastic, big, loving, cuddly teddy bear…. but he has absolutely no muscle at all, especially on his hind legs.  When Leo came into our care, he also had a very pronounced limp on his right hind leg. 

This improved and disappeared over the first few days he was with us in the kennels, and at the time we felt that it was probably due to Leo’s lack of muscle.

We suspect that wherever Leo came from before he landed up in the Pound, he was kept confined almost constantly in a very small, restricted area, perhaps a dog crate… and going by the state his coat was in, we think that Leo was probably kept outside 24/7 as well.

We felt that the best thing that we could do to help Leo would be a course of hydrotherapy, which would quickly help to improve his muscle tone, joint stability and fitness, without placing any stress on his joints.

  We manage to find a fantastic foster home with Christine, who is one of the hydrotherapists at the K9 Health Centre near Aberdeen.  On the 20^th August Leo moved into his foster home and had his first hydrotherapy session, which he really enjoyed.  Immediately there was an improvement in the fluidity of his movement and gait.

However after a couple of sessions Leo started limping on his right hind leg again.  We decided to bring his x-rays forward, and so on the 25^th August Leo was x-rayed.

 The vets diagnosed that Leo had a ruptured cruciate ligament in his right hind leg, and a partial tear of the cruciate ligament in his left hind leg.

In order for Leo to have a good quality of life, a specialist orthopaedic vet has said that Leo will need both cruciate ligaments surgically repaired.  In large breed dogs the operation of choice is the Tibial Plateau Levelling Osteotemy, known as a TPLO.

  The specialist has recommended that in order for Leo to have the shortest recovery period, and least stress, that he should repair both his cruciate ligaments at the same time instead of as two separate operations.  This will also reduce costs for us as Leo will only need one operation.

The cost of repairing Leo’s cruciate ligaments is going to be around £2500…

For a small rescue like us, that is a huge amount of money, but when we took this boy out of the pound, we made a commitment to do our very best for him to make his life a long and happy one.

Everyone who has met Leo has fallen head over heels in love with him.  For everything that this boy must have been through, he has the most fantastic temperament and nature.

   Leo loves everything and everybody, his best friends are Christine’s 2 cats… and one of his favourite past times is playing with them and his tennis ball… preferably both at the same time.

He is a super loving boy, who loves children and is very gentle and patient with them.  He also gets on brilliantly with all other dogs he has met.

We feel that Leo is such a special boy, with a fantastic laid back nature, and HE deserves a chance to have a normal active life in a warm, secure home with a loving family.

Please, please, please help us to help Leo, we have a lot of funds to raise to make his poor boy better, but with your help we can change the world for Leo and give him the life that he deserves.

If you would like to make a donation, to help us to continue helping Leo, please click on the "Donate" button below.

Thank You.

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