The council worker had to pull out of an offer on a new house to afford a £6,000+ vet bill for emergency spinal surgery to remove the damaged tissue.
However, Dixie is still in so much distress that she is not responding to physiotherapy and risks never being able to use her hind legs again. Melissa, 28, told Metro.co.uk: ‘Usually I would take her away to the highlands but I was working New Year’s Day.
‘The fireworks started very early at about 9.30pm. She had violent tremors and was shaking the whole way through. The fireworks did not finish until about 7 in the morning.
‘It was like she was having a seizure. It’s heartbreaking.
‘She currently can’t walk and if she doesn’t regain the feeling in her legs she wont be able to walk on her hind legs.She will be permanently damaged’.
INTERESTING FACT ABOUT YOUR PET: When your dog is carefully choosing the perfect place to do his business, it is because they prefer to go poop in alignment with the Earth’s magnetic field.
Melissa said her story was just one example of the of the ‘unnecessary stress caused to animals’ due to the sale of fireworks to the public. In the run up to bonfire night last year a distressed dog owner told Metro.co.uk her Labrador Cross went blind after her eyes ‘popped’ during a fireworks display .
We also reported on the heartbreaking case of an 18-month-old puppy that died after suffering a heart attack when it was left terrified by fireworks.
A woman also shared footage of her dog quaking in fear on her kitchen floor because of the constant noise of fireworks from a Bonfire display.INTERESTING FACT ABOUT YOUR PET: Dogs have a sense of time. It's been proven that they know the difference between a hour and five. If conditioned to, they can predict future events, such as regular walk times.
How does your dog react to fireworks? Send your pictures to [email protected]
But activists like Melissa think there should be an outright ban on their sale before more dogs die as a result of fireworks.
She said: ‘People who don’t know how to use them should not be able to buy them. I am on Facebook groups for lost dogs and there is always an increase in them running away when there are fireworks, it almost doubles.
‘I know it’s the UK government that are in charge of the law but I have reached out to Nicola Sturgeon to bring some attention to the issue’.
Melissa has started a petition to the Scottish government but previous attempts to ban the sale of fireworks to protect animals have fallen on deaf ears.
Over half a million people have signed a similar petition to the Office for Product Safety and Standards, which was set up by the Government in January 2018 to discuss the negative impact of fireworks.INTERESTING FACT ABOUT YOUR PET: Seeing eye dogs are trained to do their “business” on command. This way their owner can clean it up a bit easier. Some of the popular commands are “get busy” and “go time”.
However, two years later there has been little movement on the issue and campaigners are now calling for a review into firework regulations as a step to minimise distress to animals.