Luke Skywalker the black lab/chow mix is going to be 17 years old on Valentines Day 2010! In 1999 he started having signs of hip dysplasia and then had to have surgery on both knees. His hind quarters were so compromised that he started to drag his rear right foot. He would barely pick it up off the ground. The effect was that he would scrape his pads off and bleed and after lots of rehab in the pool he got markedly better. The vets had (so called), boots that really were more like tube socks. I must have gone through 40 of them! I had to reshape them with heavy tape and be as creative as I could be. Actually making a shoe out of duct tape and cotton. I had a human cobbler actually make him a leather boot which lasted longer but not good enough. Went through many of those as well. By 2003 it was obvious that he would never be able to really pick up his right foot enough to clear the pavement.

MY SEARCH BEGAN! I had a healthy dog with a problem, thats all! When I found NeoPaws, his right foot had begun to curl up due to lack of putting pressure on it. He pretty much hopped on his left leg. So in 2003 he received his first NeoPaws boot! He wore his boot every single day until this moment, October 2009!!! He walked normally in his new boot and got back all his muscle and more! His foot relaxed a bit and flattened out. In the last 4 years he has had to wear boots on both rear feet because he wore out his good left foot. To be continued in next comment …