It’s really not about us. It’s about our search for the most comfortable walking harness and our 20 lb. Jack Russell Terrier/Beagle mix rescued from a local shelter on 9/10/2001. Her name is Meggie and she thanks us every day for bringing her into our family.
Since bringing her home, she has had life-threatening health issues requiring multiple hospital stays in the critical care unit. We had her only a few short months before her first hospital stay. Only 9 months before her second hospital stay. She became terribly ill after 2 botched spay procedures. The problems related to these surgeries resulted in us learning of one of her health issues--a life-threatening blood disorder known as Immune-Mediated Thrombocytopenia (ITP) -- where the immune system destroys it’s own good platelets. The vet informed us that only 50% of dogs with this condition survive because their platelets drop to levels so low that they bleed out. While she was hospitalized, we rarely left her side, spending day and night with her in CCU at the emergency hospital. The few hours we couldn’t be with her daily, we would stay up nights waiting for calls from the internal medicine vet, giving us her latest platelet count in the wee hours of the morning! After chemotherapy, blood transfusions, mega doses of steroids, antibiotics, blood work twice a day, gastrointestinal drugs, pancreatitis & colitis we finally brought her home. Thanks to great care, exceptional vets willing to go the extra mile to keep her alive; and her own will to live... she pulled through two episodes within two years.
She survived her third episode in 2004. After this, Meggie started to slow down a bit and appeared to not want to move around much. She would try to be her playful self but one night, she began yelping and crying out and we knew she was in excruciating pain. It appeared the pain was coming from her back hind leg area. When trying to walk she was using only her front legs with hind legs dragging motionless behind her. She continued crying each time she moved and had completely lost mobility of her hind legs. She wouldn’t let anyone near her and after hours of trying to get her carefully into a kennel, we made it to the ER once again. Vets felt she may have had a bleed in the cord but because of her ITP, the doctors were reluctant to operate fearing she might lose too much blood and not survive. After another lengthy hospital stay, discussion with vets of her little chance of ever walking again, months of physical therapy, medical expenses exceeding anything we could have imagined, and 6 months of only seeing us through a kennel...Meggie again amazed us with her will and determination to walk again...even run and play!
The orthopedic vet told us to curtail activities such as jumping and running up and down stairs for the rest of her life. We purchased a stroller so we could take longer walks while she still comes along. We were also told we could no longer use a neck collar on her walks. Our mission then was to find a harness that was comfortable, easy to put on and one that wouldn’t put strain on the neck or cause chaffing under the front legs.
Fortunately we found the perfect soft harness and Meggie seemed so completely comfortable on her walks. Whenever we’d take her out for a short stroll, other dog owners constantly approached us to ask where they could purchase one! All the inquiries got us thinking we should be sharing this harness with others more. That’s why we opened Pawsitively For Dogs. We’ve added other harnesses as well and hope you too are able to find the perfect walking harness for your dog.
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