Rottweiler Dog Breed Profile

Added on Sept 10th, 2010
As my husband, Scott, went to bring in the trash can one day in 9/09, lying next to it, he found a female Rottie. She had very recently delivered, but the puppy whereabouts were unknown. She was lactating & weak. The muscles in her back legs were VERY atrophied, almost as if she'd been kept in a kennel, made to lay down, unable to develop properly, causing her to hop & walk with a limp. The Vet informed us she wasn't a year old yet! (11/15/08 is her estimated birthday.) We think she was bred while in her 1st heat & her puppies probably didn't survive. (No puppies=no $$ profit=trash?) Her condition wouldn't allow her to travel far & none of the neighbors claimed her. My mom also lives with us. She & I were against keeping her since we already had 3 dogs, but we were attached by the 2nd day. My mom chose the very fitting name, "Mama Mia!" Thankfully, she received a clean bill of health from the Vet & fit in really well w/the other dogs & cats. Mia has unusually rare double-dewclaws on both her back legs w/actual tendons in them! The Vet didn't think hers posed a problem, being so well attached, so they weren't removed. We got her spayed about a month later. The Vet took X-rays & we discovered she'd more than likely been hit by a car early on because she had a steel pin in her left femur, but the bone had grown up completely around it. We also found that Mia?s left hip was bone-on-bone, causing extreme pain all the time. In 4/10, the Vet performed an FHO, a surgical procedure that removes the femoral head & neck from the femur. The head of the femur is not replaced, but is allowed to heal & develop its own "false joint". To prevent arthritis & pain in her other hip, Mia gets a supplement shot of Adequan once/month. She healed surprisingly quickly, basically building her hip muscles up 100% since. She no longer limps & the Vet says that this is probably the best our dog has ever felt in her entire life. Mia was left as someone else?s trash, but became our treasure!(LINEBREAK)