Today the beautiful Mimi is 4 months old, and without SOS Italian Setters she would never have made it this far! When the rescue commit to a dog we ‘never‘ give up, our commitment is for life and not just until the dog moves onto either into foster or their forever home. In some case to fulfil our commitment for the lifetime of the rescue dog costs huge amounts of money we often do not have readily available. Mimi is such a case where our commit is going to cost the rescue over a long period. We need to ask you to help us to help Mimi! Before you think further have a look at the pictures and videos and if you do not think she is worth the effort, the money then I do not know what would galvanise you to donate.

Tomorrow, Monday 16 September is going to be a big day for Mimi as she starts her therapy. We will be posting regular updates so you can see her progress. Please donate, is all I can say.

Mimi will be 4 months on 15th September and she is the bravest little Setter we, or you for that matter, will ever meet. She is a disabled dog who runs fast, faster than any of my dogs.

We at SOS Italian Setters rescued her without knowing what the problem was. No one else would do it and we thought we were going to lose her if we had not act swiftly. There was a deadline looming and that’s when we got her.

Mimi is the sweetest puppy there is. To tell the truth all dogs at her age are simply adorable. But she has that sparkle in her eyes and her fluffy ears which make her special.

She is also special because she was born with a disability which is going to make her life a little different, nevertheless beautiful compared to other doggies of her age.

Since Mimi has been in our care (24 August), we have consulted several orthopaedic surgeons (some gave us their opinion for free), physiatrists and a specialist in diagnostic imaging. This first part of our work was extremely important to find out what the exact problem was. And now we know… It has not been easy to make a decision as we received very conflicting opinions on how to proceed, but once we had a clearer picture it became clearer what we needed to do.

Mimi suffers from quadriceps contracture with complete fibrosis of the right rectus femoris, vastus intermedius and vastus lateralis and of the left rectus femoris, vastus intermedius and vastus lateralis. The ultrasound also showed a marked dislocation of the patella and the articular planes of the knees, which are markedly dislocated as a result of quadriceps contracture. Please donate now and help Mimi win over her disability!

In view of the complete fibrosis of three out of four muscle components of the quadriceps, we were advised that physiotherapy treatments on these muscles are not expected to give the desired results.

It is very likely that due to the contracture of the quadriceps, the femurs will not develop in length and the hind limbs will remain shorter than the forelimbs. Mimi is learning to use her limbs as supports, she uses her back legs as crutches, and over time may be using her lower back “too much” to stand up. It is therefore very important to develop the abdominals including the obliques well in order to avoid complications and low back pain over the years. We were advised that orthostatic support of the posterior train should be considered in the future, this means some wheels to support her at least some of the time.

We have also received reassurance that she currently has no pain and is unlikely to develop joint pain as neither the hips nor the knees perform important mechanical functions.

In light of all this, we have decided against surgery and to enrol her on a physiotherapy programme which will consist mainly of hydrotherapy, physical therapy and acupuncture. She can start as early as Monday, and we need your help to be able to offer her the best care she needs right now. She will be at the clinic Monday to Friday, and it will cost about EUR 100 per day. It is difficult to say how long she will need to be on the intensive programme, but it will be between 2 weeks and one month.

We do believe this is definitely the best opportunity for her. The physiatrist told me this morning that despite her disability they are sure she will be able to

enjoy a long, happy and pain free life, a “normal” life like any other dogs she said. What else could we wish for?! Yes, there is something else… that she will never lose that sparkle!

Forever grateful for your support. If you cannot donate, please share this post far and wide. Thank you 💖