KAPAA — When he celebrated his fifth birthday, Kai was having trouble moving his back legs to walk.
The five-year old Chihuahua terrier mix has had the same problem for the past year now.
“He has three compressed discs in his back, we’re not sure how it happened,” said Holly McCool, Kai’s owner. “I came home from work one day and he didn’t want to go for a walk. And then the next morning, he couldn’t walk. The vet said that he probably fell off the bed or couch or something and compressed his discs.”
A teacher at Kapaa Elementary School, McCool doesn’t always have the time or energy to take Kai for a stroll to the beach or the local park. It’s a lot of work to take care of a dog that can’t really take care of himself, she told The Garden Island.
“He’s a pretty active dog though, he doesn’t know he’s disabled so he drags himself around,” she said. “At this point, it’s like having a baby. He can’t really control his bodily functions. He needs help to use the bathroom sometimes so we need to hold up his body so he can go.”
McCool was told that there are some treatment options available, but she can’t afford it at the moment.
“You can do laser treatment and various things, but I just don’t have the money for that, to do a few treatments. It’s one of those things where they can’t tell you if he’ll walk again or how long it will take for him to walk again,” she said.
McCool said when it first happened, Kai couldn’t move anything in his lower body. There’s been some improvement.
“Now, he can sort of push up off his back legs a little, but he can’t support his body,” she said.
McCool is looking for folks to volunteer to take Kai for walks. She told TGI that some people have reached out to help.
If interested in helping Kai, call 652-8685.
