Sorry your Chi has had so many problems. I have no advise to offer. All I can say is how lucky he is to have found you and your daughter to love him and try to help him. Gloria In a message dated 10/8/2011 10:38:08 P.M. Central Daylight Time, avmve...@yahoo.com writes:
Hi everyone, I've been a member for awhile but have not posted much, just following the posts. I wrote in for advice over a year ago about my chihuahua who is somewhat disabled and received so many helpful replies from so many of you but you may think this is weird but I was so overwhelmed by all the responses that I just sort of went into hiding, lol. It was too stressful for me and still is. I changed to daily digest but today, changed back to traditional and am able to read all the posts. My chihuahua is about 10 years old and we got him when he was about two years old from a man who said he found it abandoned. He has so many problems but as you can imagine, we love him dearly. He has a humped back which the doctor said is from some condition of the spine and surgery is the only thing that might help but even then, they couldn't guarantee it would help and we really couldn't afford to pay $8000+ not knowing if he would come through. When he was neutered, he ended up not being able to bark for over a year and I was so upset with my vet that I changed and here he was our vet for over 20 years. They had several doctors on the staff and I just felt like they were taking our money by repeatedly taking xrays and other tests and he wasn't improving. Then he began having trouble walking, and for a year, his front paw turned inward so he had to walk on his knuckles. I put a bandaid on there so walking on the concrete wouldn't hurt him. Then a year later, I changed doctors and it was the same thing, they wanted to do more xrays and my daughter refused, saying he already had enough xrays and what were they doing for him. He did have a cyst on his back but the doctor fixed that and where they shaved the hair, it's funny because the hair hardly grew back and you could see the partially bald spot. Just lately I notice hair growing back and it's strange that this hair is longer and softer than the rest of his hair. Well, the strangest thing happened on this visit. When we took the bandaid off his paw for the doctor to check him over, when we left the office, he was able to walk normally on that foot again, we just couldn't understand it. After about a year, he is now walking again on his knuckle. In case you're wondering why we never had anything done for him, it's because our first vet (his assistant) just couldn't find out what was causing the problem which is why we changed vets. And we weren't happy with our second vet because they again wanted to do nothing but take more xrays. Anyways, I'm so sorry for this detailed email but this is why I stayed away from this group because I didn't think there was anything that could be done. He's a strange dog, he comes to us on his own terms. When my daughter is holding him (it's her dog), no one can touch him, he bites. Then when I'm holding him, my daughter ca't touch him. In the ten years that we've had him, he has always barked at my husband and is not friendly with him. But in the past year or so, when he needs to go potty and my daughter or I are busy and can't take him out, we can give him to my husband and he won't bite although he makes a soft growl, we have to laugh. That's the only time my hubby can touch him. Or when my hubby is sitting on the sofa and we place our "Chucho" on his lap, he'll stay there. When I try to cuddle him too close, he'll turn his head and try to attack me and it's lucky my relfexes are as quick. Only a few times when he comes to me on his own, he can be cuddly and put his face next to mine but rarely. I meant to say when he walks, his back legs spread apart in a ways so it's hard for him to walk. In our house, we have to have rugs down the hallway, otherwise, he'll slip. Thank you so much for listening, I'm glad I got this all off my chest. What prompted me to write was about the potty thing. Our Chucho is very well trained and looks at us in a certain way when he has to go. When it's raiining, I'll use an umbrella but now my daughter puts an old rug near our front door and he knows to do his business on it. Once in ahile he might have an accident in the house but it's usually when he can't get our attention, we might be napping or something. He's good in holding his poop though we notice. Thanks again for listening, Violet --- On Sat, 10/8/11, Joan Croft <joan_cr...@hotmail.com> wrote: From: Joan Croft <joan_cr...@hotmail.com> Subject: RE: [Chihuahuas] new member To: Chihuahuas@yahoogroups.com Date: Saturday, October 8, 2011, 7:41 PM My two use puppy pads – usually during the night, or if I am sick in bed. They both go outside also. We had a few very warm days and Dolly didn’t want to go outside, but she is too proud to go potty inside when it is daylight. So she started going out the door and walking behind the patio furniture to right off the concrete and then would run back the very same way. Desi was doing OK in the heat, but when it was raining here a couple weeks back, neither wanted to really go out…they would cry by the door but when I opened it they would sniff the humidity and turn around and stay inside. I had an empty space right outside the door against the house, so I put a puppy pad there (it was too far in to get wet from the rain) and they actually went on that puppy pad. I have one of those puppy pad holder trays, so I am going to put that one outside so that the wind doesn’t fold up the corners. Maybe something like that – a compromise – will help. Joan, Dolly Dee & Desi Lou From: Chihuahuas@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Chihuahuas@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Pam Dean Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2011 4:16 PM To: Chihuahuas@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [Chihuahuas] new member I am a big fan of wee pads. My two are both wee pad trained in addition to going outside. Expecially the 3lb one, his bladder is so little, he could not last eight hours for sure. But both were crate trained and x-pen trained. It sounds like the honeymoon period is over lol and u must go back to basics. She must not be allowed free access to the house until you have this under control. If you don't want to confine her to a crate for 8 hours, perhaps an x-pen with wee pads and a bed. And frequent trips outside with treats and praise, praise, praise when she does what is expected. Start from the beginning, like u are training a puppy. They are very smart and when they know what the rules are, they will be equal to the task. Pam From: Lynn Galliano <galliano.g...@comcast.net> To: Chihuahuas@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2011 2:27 PM Subject: [Chihuahuas] new member Greetings, I joined this group because in July we adopted a rescued Chi mix (don't know for sure but we think terrier) who was 4 months old at the time. She is super smart (her name is Gabby) and funny, talkative, has very long legs and can jump over our basset hound like a reindeer, she's wonderful in every way. We potty trained her in one week's time. Then last week it began raining here (Northern California). She refused to go outside through the dog door, and though we still walked her, has now "forgotten" how to go potty outside. She is going all over the house. She never had other issues either until the rain, but we came home to our leather sofa torn up and unstuffed and the kitchen wall chewed and plaster all over the floor. Has anyone else experienced this? Do I need to make her "warmer?" My husband hates dogs in clothing, but I need to do something because she won't go out now even when it's not raining and 70* outside :-( I notice she shakes a bit when its cold and loves the sun. All advice welcome, our 6 year old basset hasn't been as challenging so I'm not up on training as much as I should be. Thank you in advance, Lynn
