Ernie

Meet Ernie, a gorgeous 11 month old boy who has had a really rough start to life.
Ernie was surrendered to us at 8 weeks of age with a fractured front leg.
He was taken to surgery where a plate was placed on the leg to stabilize the fracture. Everything appeared to be ok for the first few weeks post repair, then Ernies paw started to rotate outwards and he progressively became more lame on the leg.
At this point we knew something wasn’t right, so we went straight to see the amazing team at Southpaws specialty and referral hospital in Moorabbin to try and establish what was happening.
We’re not exactly sure what caused the rotation in the paw, though to try and get some normal function back, we knew we would have to go to surgery again.
At this point we had two options, attempt to straighten the leg with a pretty major surgical procedure and hope to get some function back, or amputate the leg.
Given we don’t know exactly what breeds Ernie is (we were told Labrador x American Bulldog though we’re not convinced about the bulldog part) or exactly how big he was going to grow, we made the decision to try and save the leg.
The amazing surgical team at southpaws took Ernie to surgery where they re-broke his leg and fixed it at a normal angle using an external frame which was removed 8 weeks later.
It is now 9 months since the initial surgery and Ernie is doing well, so it’s now time to find him the perfect forever home.
It’s going to take quite some time before Ernie will have full strength back in his leg, so he will need someone who is happy to continue to work with him to reach his full potential. Given the trauma that Ernie’s leg has gone through, he is at a higher risk of developing arthritis in that leg later in life and although he is doing well now and should continue to improve, we have no idea what may happen in time.
Ernies leg is 3cm shorter than the other so he does have a limp that will never fully resolve and does tend to hold the leg up when standing, it may be more comfortable that way, though having a slightly shorter leg certainly doesn’t slow him down!! He loves running, wrestling with his foster brothers, playing tug of war, swimming in the shell pool and of course, taking naps!
He is good with cats and dogs, has basic training / manners, good in the car, crate trained and toilet trained.
Ernie is such a loving boy who would benefit from having a doggy play mate and even after everything he has been through, still just wants to be loved by his humans.
We don’t believe he will ever be running marathons, though there is no reason why Ernie cannot enjoy a more laid back lifestyle.