LOVELAND — Brutus survived mind-numbing cruelty to become a tail-wagging pioneer in meshing flesh and bone with new-age prosthetics.
Despite having his four paws amputated when he was 4 months old by a breeder in Cañon City, the 2-year-old Rottweiler plows ahead with goofy determination to live life like any other dog.
“This is really cutting-edge work that will have far-ranging implications in the future for both animals and people,” said Felix Duerr, an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences at Colorado State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital. “And Brutus is doing a really good job.”
Duerr is part of a team overseeing Brutus as he adapts to living with four prosthetic limbs, and the school believes Brutus is only the second dog ever known to use prosthetics on all four legs.
It’s not an easy transition. Brutus uses a clumsy high-stepping gait to maneuver over concrete curbs and sidewalks. Inside the house, the going is a little smoother for the 75-pound pooch, but he still steps gingerly around carpets and pillows.
“He’s learning how to thrive with his new feet,” Duerr said. “But it’s going to take a while.”
As a puppy, Brutus was left outside, and his paws suffered frostbite, prompting a backyard surgery by the breeder, who then pawned off the dog in a shopping center parking lot.
No one has heard from the breeder since. Brutus, meanwhile, fell into the hands of a rescue group that raised $12,500 for the dog’s surgery, two sets of prosthetics from Denver-based OrthoPets and physical therapy at Colorado State.
Brutus came under the foster care of Laura Aquilina and her husband, Rick Jaruzel, in June. Other members of their Loveland family include cat Durchilita and a patient 10-year-old Great Dane named Charlie.
Brutus enjoys the pleasures of any dog, crowding out Aquilina and Charlie for a spot on a living room couch and bouncing up to a stranger for a pat.
“I know Brutus is a purebred, but I don’t think he’s well-bred,” said Aquilina, who has applied to adopt Brutus.
“He goofs around like any 2-year-old dog,” said Aquilina. “He sleeps on his back and snores with his little nubs-for-feet sticking straight in the air.”
“But with all that he’s been through, I guess he should get the good life,” she adds.
Brutus lived with his first foster family for about a year but he couldn’t walk on the hardwood floors and stairs.
He has an easier time in Aquilina’s home, and he doesn’t wear his prosthetics inside the house. But outside, gravel and rocks cause him pain without his new legs.
Shortly after Aquilina took in Brutus, he had surgery on three of his four paws to remove bone fragments and the two remaining toes to fit the prosthetics. He was fitted with the rear prosthetics in September, and the front legs came in November.
Each limb weighs about a pound.
OrthoPets veterinarians also learned that both of Brutus’ wrist joints had collapsed. “It’s similar to a human rolling his ankle completely to the side, left grossly unstable,” said Martin Kaufmann, founder of OrthoPets.
The dog also has a painful callus that makes movement difficult, Kaufmann said. They hope Brutus’ prosthetics will protect and make his limbs more comfortable, support his front collapsed legs and realign each leg to an equal length.
In 2013, OrthoPets helped put four legs on Nakio, who was left as a puppy at a foreclosed house in Nebraska in the winter and was stuck in a frozen puddle in the basement. He was later adopted by a veterinary assistant in Colorado Springs.
His life and trials spawned a support network for disabled canines, and the work done on him set the stage for the recovery of Brutus.
“We learned a lot from Nakio’s story, and we were able to apply that knowledge to Brutus’ case,” Kaufmann said.
This month, Brutus will begin a new round of physical therapy at CSU. That will involve underwater treadmill therapy, balance activities, exercise balls and other neuro re-education therapies to help Brutus adapt to his new limbs, said Sasha Foster, CSU’s certified canine rehabilitation therapist.
“He’s learning how to move with them on,” Foster said. “Once he’s mastered that, we will help him achieve higher-level-functioning activities, like hiking and playing with other dogs.”
Only his new, fragile legs are keeping Brutus from doing those things now, Aquilina said.
“He’s a goofball. He’s happy-go-lucky,” she said. “He just wants to play.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907, mwhaley@denverpost.com or twitter.com/montewhaley
