Mouse was born Nov 5 2022 in a barn in rural Atlantic Canada , it was said she looked no bigger than a baby mouse. She was smaller than all the other puppies and she couldn't walk on her back legs. Her prognosis wasn't good. On Feb 4th, We took her off of the farmer's hands, promising her we would do anything to give her a normal life that was pain-free. Since that day she has captivated many with her charms and story.

She was diagnosed with grade 4 luxating patellas in both hind legs, these were congenital, not caused by injury. Surgery was in her future for sure. She had a funny walk with a tucked abdomen, as if she were about to poo, but she had gone from dragging her legs behind her to running around our house after spending 5 months in our care. 

Earlier in the beginning of June she saw an orthopedic specialist in another Atlantic province, we took updated x-rays to see if her growth plates had fused yet so we could schedule her surgery. However he was extremely concerned with the deformation of her femurs, which were bending faster than they were growing. Her surgery needed to happen sooner rather than later or we risked her having a permanent painful disability. 

On June 15th she went in for bilateral patellar correction surgery. We recieved a phone call mid-operation about Mouse. Her right leg was way worse than the specialist had thought, her limb was noticeably shorter and heavily atrophied, and her patella had fused to the outside of her joint. He told us he could try and perform heroic measures to save the leg, but he couldn't guarantee that it would be fixed or pain free, however he believed she was a good candidate for amputation as her remaining hind leg could be repaired with no issue and had good muscle to work on. It was such a blindside for us, the dr had seemed so confident in the consult that he would fix her legs, amputating hadn't even been discussed before now.

We had her leg amputated mid femur, the answer was obvious, but I wasn't prepared for the emotional side of it at all. I sobbed when we picked her up. I cried all the way home. I held her and cried some more, It was so hard to look at her tiny body, now ever smaller without the leg, with her patchy shaved bare surgery sites, she was so groggy and just appeared miserable, wouldn't you be after such a big surgery? I was directed to this site from a nice community on Reddit and I devoured every page of information I could find.  

The first 2 weeks of healing didn't go perfect. She was incessant at trying to lick her incision sites, both her amputation stump and her patella repair. Even with her Gabapentin, trazodone, and metacam combo. She got her snout around the soft and hard cone collar we had got for her. So we put her in a modified newborn onesie to put a barrier between her and her in incisions. And I wish we hadn't!! She developed an awful rash behind her repaired knee and on the her stump due to licking through the onesie and getting it damp. I felt a lot of shame at her 2 week check up, feeling like I had made her recovery much harder for her when I just wanted to provide her some peace and comfort. But we were told it wasn't necrotic, it wasn't gangrenous, in fact it was most likely moisture dermatitis caused by allergies, her brain was telling her to itch and itch and itch instead of there being an actual infection from the surgery.

She was sent home with a new med combo, we dropped the metacam for Tramadol, added Apoquel and a steroid cream (theraderm) and a oral steroid (dexamethasone) as well. Also we ditched the onesie and got a proper fitting cone. We saw an immediate improvement in her itchiness. Finally we feel on the right track to her healing!

I have the help of my MiL who runs a nonprofit cat rescue who absolutely adores Mouse. She has veterinary connections which allowed us to have Mouse seen and looked after, plus community connections that helped us fundraise her expenses. My MiL is used to giving round the clock care to kittens and Mouse fits right in at 4.4lbs. I am less put together, I am emotional and burnt out as I'm trying to raise Mouse's littermate through regular puppy adolescence as well as facilitate Mouse's healing. I couldn't do any of this without her help.

I'll try to be on these forums more often to document Mouse's journey.