Finley's Story

Growing up with Golden Retrievers was one of my fondest memories thinking back on my childhood. My dream after finishing my Occupational Therapy Doctorate was to finally get one of my own. Finally, October 2nd, 2019, Finley came home with me. Another one of my dreams was to train him to be an animal-assisted therapy dog, but little did I know, Fin would be the one needing therapy.  

Only after having him for a few days, I was taking Fin out to go to the bathroom and he ended up being attacked by another large dog.  I had to intervene to save his life, resulting in injuries to my face, requiring plastic surgery.  Fin was left with a broken leg and puncture wounds.  

Fin spent months on limited activity, not able to play like a normal puppy, but was such a trooper (to the point I considered changing his name to that!). He had a cast for 2 weeks as he became more active but when the fracture healed, Fin’s limp didn’t seem to be getting any better.  I took him in for physical therapy thinking it was muscle atrophy or a learned gait pattern since he was so little, but the physical therapy vet informed me this would require further investigation, opinions and x-rays. We were refred to multiple orthopedic surgeons and between all the phone calls and visits - we had a total of 8+ vets looking at this case and radiology reports. Ultimately, Fin suffered growth plate trauma that caused one of his forearm bones (the ulna) to stop growing.  His fracture healed, but his elbow has been dislocated for months, which is why his limping continued to get worse as he grows and he can’t bear any weight on it.  

Since January, we have moved to a first floor apartment since I had been carrying him up and down 3 flights of stairs everyday. We have also moved forward with meeting with the best orthopedic surgeon in Florida at University of Florida Vet School. Future blog post to come on his recovery.