A tiny puppy who almost died after being mauled by a large dog in Trafford has made a miraculous recovery. Diane Columbine was walking her five-month-old fox terrier, Matilda, in her local park in Urmston when, without warning, it was set upon.
The other dog - which was initially playing happily with Matilda - grabbed her by the throat and shook her from side to side during the frenzied attack.
Diane and the other dog's owner managed to rescue her in a matter of seconds - but minuscule pup Matilda was left with a series of horrific injuries including paralysed legs, broken ribs, and a bite wound that pushed bone into her spinal cord.
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She was left unable to breathe or stand on her collapsed back legs as a result of the injuries described by a specialist as 'some of the worst and most life-threatening injuries' he'd ever seen in such a small dog reports the Mirror.
With help from husband Steve, Diane rushed Matilda to a nearby Vets Now 24-hour pet hospital, nursing her on the back seat of their car as they battled through traffic.
Diane said she was convinced her beloved pooch would have to be put down. "It took us half an hour to get there because of rush-hour traffic on the motorway and it felt like a lifetime like everything was in slow motion," she said.
"Poor Matilda was making a terrible noise of pain each time she tried to breathe – it was just off the scale of awful to see and hear.
"We handed her over at reception and I was totally convinced that was the last time I was going to see my dog – she was so tiny, so weak and so injured I thought they would just have to put her down."
But against all the odds, medics managed to save the poor pooch's life through the night.
In the process, Matilda was so weak she suffered a cardiac arrest but the veterinary team were able to restart her tiny heart by carrying out an internal cardiac massage.
And now, quite astonishingly, she's back to charging up and down the garden as though nothing had ever happened.
Surgeon Paul Aldridge said it was "some of the worst and most life-threatening injuries" he's ever seen in such a small dog.
After five days of round-the-clock care, Matilda was well enough to go home with Diane and Steve, who were instructed to give her gentle physiotherapy every four hours for two weeks.
Slowly but surely, Matilda regained the strength to stand, then walk and then run, with no lasting after-effects at all.
Diane said: "It's nothing short of a miracle. Every time I see her run or jump I think to myself how blessed we've been to still have her.
"I slept downstairs for a fortnight next to her cage so that she wasn't alone and so I could give her the physio which Paul and the team showed me how to do.
"Matilda was just so brave throughout it all – which is very apt as I discovered that the name Tilly comes from the German phrase for mighty in battle.
"Well, she's certainly lived up to that, hasn't she? And she's only here because of Paul and his amazing colleagues – I can't thank them enough for their dedication and kindness.
"They never gave up on Matilda, not even when her heart stopped."
The park attack happened so quickly that Diane never had a chance to establish the breed of the other dog – but it was roughly the height of a greyhound, meaning that it towered over Matilda.
Diane said: "It wasn't the other owner's fault – it was just one of those freak incidents and I think she was as shocked as I was that one minute her dog was playing nicely with Matilda and then next minute he had her in his teeth. But what matters is that Matilda is still with us – she's just our mighty little miracle."
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