Adorable Labrador Willow arrived at Battersea’s London centre with her sister aged just eight weeks old.
Full of character and abundant in playful, rambunctious energy, the puppies found themselves in Battersea's care as they both had health issues.
Mischievous Willow’s Battersea journey was set to be a little more complicated than that of most young dogs. On arrival at Battersea, Willow was found to have an issue with one of her hind legs. One of her bones was thickened, causing her to limp at times and although she was managing on the leg to an extent, there was a high likelihood that the problem would get worse as she grew.
On Battersea vets’ advice, Willow started a course of hydrotherapy treatment in Battersea’s state of the art hydrotherapy centre. As she progressed in her treatment, Willow spent some time on foster, quickly learning her puppy basic training along with some more advanced tricks. She was one of the smartest young puppies Battersea’s dedicated kennel team had ever met.
Willow had found kennel life stressful and was vocal about being left alone, yet with people around she would settle contentedly in her bed with a chew or a toy.
Willow did excellently with her hydrotherapy sessions and took to the water with ease, yet even with the best efforts to rehabilitate Willow’s leg, after follow-up x-rays and discussions with a specialist, Battersea's expert veterinary team concluded that the best course of action to allow Willow to live a fulfilling, pain-free life was for her leg to be amputated.
Happily, the operation went smoothly and after making fantastic progress in her recovery, Willow found a loving new home in the countryside. Now she is bouncing around quite cheerfully on three legs with just as much spring in her step as she had with four legs.
