Meet Edith Anne and her very noble and tolerant big brother, Bishop. Edith Anne is  9 1/2 years old and has always played the pleasant but somewhat annoying loving little sister to Bishop (11 1/2 years).

Over the last year, poor Edith’s arthritis in her carpi (wrists) have caused a significant deformity to her front legs making it very difficult to walk, let alone run and play. She looked like a little stubborn old women hobbling about but still refusing to give up.

We took X-rays and her condition had gotten much worse. The deformity to her wrist joints was putting more strain on her damaged joints, making the degeneration escalate and creating more pain.

Her Dad, Earle, wanted her to have an active life to enjoy; so we called in Jeff Collins of K9 Orthotics. Jeff is a trained registered prosthetic technician and has a prosthetic limb himself. He personally understands what’s it like to be on the receiving end of a prosthetic device. http://www.k-9orthotics.com/

Edith Anne visited Jeff in early March. Jeff and his team designed and built braces for Edith Anne’s front legs. During the two weeks it took to get the braces made, Earle started wrapping Edith Anne’s legs with a bandage material to get her used to the feeling of a brace.

Once Earle got the braces, he started to apply the braces for hour or so three times a day. Jeff showed Earl how to adjust the tension on the strap to make it comfortable for her and what to watch for if there were problems. 

Earl said: “It takes a while to get the tension correct on the velcro straps – the blend between too tight (blood flow)  and too loose (chafing and lack of support ). She flops on the couch every morning and night to get braces on and off. This makes her dad’s back feel a little better. ”

Within a week Edith wore them up to 10 hours a day. It didn’t take long for little Edith to start pestering brother, Bishop although there was still an obvious lameness to her gait, her attitude was back!

Now, a month later, Edith can wear the braces for a full day. She is back in true form with Bishop enjoying playing with her again and she doesn’t look lame … just happy … really really happy!

Thanks Jeff of K9 Orthotics! You made Edith young again and gave Bishop back a play mate.