Tiny Pup Learns To Walk After Oklahoma Vets Fix Its Upside Down Paws

A rat terrier puppy has been given a second chance at life after being born with upside down paws.

Siggi was born with a rare disorder that left her with deformed paws and was unable to walk like other dogs.

"Siggi’s problem looked like it was in the paws but it was actually in her elbows. For reasons not fully understood, these patients’ elbows come out of joint early in life and the result is severe rotation of the lower front limbs and an inability to walk. At most, they might muster a crawl that seems most uncomfortable and is poorly suited for a dog’s life," said small animal surgeon Dr. Erik Clary in a statement.

The animal rescue caring for Siggi reached out to Clary after discovering that he and the staff at Oklahoma State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine fixed the paws of a hound puppy named Milo that had a similar problem.

At 13-weeks-old and weighing only four pounds, Siggi and the rescue when to Stillwater to meet Clary.

Since he was already familiar with this medical issue, Clary agreed to fix Siggi's paws. With the help of CT scans, the vet and his team broke the bones in her front paws so they could be reset in the right direction during surgery.

With the help of tiny puppy-sized splints, Siggi's paws healed correctly, and she's now learning how to walk.

"At that stage, the task then became one of teaching her how to walk and she proved a fairly quick learner. Lorraine, her medical foster with Dallas Dog RRR, did a fabulous job implementing an incremental rehabilitation regimen that now has Siggi doing many things that puppies like to do, including chasing a ball in the yard. Truly, I could not be more pleased with Siggi’s progress," said Clary.