Darcy, the two-year-old liver-coated cocker spaniel, has one amazing survival story. When she fell down a 60ft dam on a walk in the Highlands of Scotland, Darcy was badly injured. Darcy miraculously survived the steep fall but suffered internal bleeding, shattered bones in multiple places, compound fractures, and a damaged liver. Thankfully, after successive operations, a spleen removal, having her legs plated and pinned, as well as months of nursing and rehabilitation, which included hydrotherapy, physiotherapy and acupuncture, Darcy made an amazing recovery. Darcy recently won PDSA Pet Survivor of the Year. As part of Darcy’s recovery, her owner, vet Wendy Lyon, used Pooch & Mutt’s Mobile Bones and Salmon Oil.
First off, how is Darcy getting on now?
When the accident happened, she was very broken and just so many parts of her were damaged. We didn’t think we would ever save that back leg. All the bones of her femur were sticking out of her leg. More pressing at the time of the accident was that she was in stage 3 shock, which means that she had lost about 30-40% of her blood. She was dying in the car on the way to the vet. Her eyes kept rolling back into her head. She was hypothermic by that point, despite it being July. It was just horrific. It was a real rollercoaster of emotions. She should never have survived that fall but she did. She shouldn’t really have survived the shock but she did. She’s absolutely an amazing dog.
How long have you been using Mobile Bones and our Salmon Oil?
She was 9 days in the hospital and I went out and got both for her coming home. So she’s been on it since literally the accident. She loves the salmon oil. I put salmon oil on top of her food and mix it with mobile bones. She doesn’t even know its there.
Why did you choose these supplements?
I’m a vet, and whilst we don’t actually stock any supplements, I had spoken to quite a lot of people whose dogs had been in serious accidents that had used Mobile Bones. I looked at all the different supplements available, I read the reviews, I spoke to the vet and so on. I then made the decision that Mobile Bones was what I was looking for to help aid Darcy’s recovery.
It really seems to work! Certainly, her x-rays have shown an incredible amount of new bone growth. The orthopedic vet can’t believe it! She’s come on from the accident and she hasn’t caught a single infection. We were worried infection because it was a compound fracture, so all of these bones were exposed to the outside and she was laying on them in the bottom of the dam, which was obviously not clean. The problem was that it might have been an infection that got her in the end. But she never caught one single infection. She’s incredible. Even when she was lying in her blood, she was looking 60ft up at us, she was wagging her tail!
How is Darcy now compared to how she was before?
She’s doing so much better now and has recovered tremendously. She’ll never be 100% normal on that back leg. She has decent scar tissues from that operation. Which means that we’re working with massage therapists to break down the scar tissue that’s adhered to the bottom of the implant. When she walks she uses the back leg every step, but when she tries to run she carries that leg. But to be honest, we’re just really happy that she still has the back leg. The front leg has carpal arthrodesis, which means that she can’t flex the joint. The front leg is stiff, but you’d never know. She’s actually changed how she walks so she uses both front legs in the same way. She doesn’t limp at all. On holiday last week, she was out for three hours at a time. She was doing the same walks as all our other dogs. She hasn’t even been on any painkillers at all since last September. She really does get on with it. She’s an amazing dog.