Poos needed (warning: sad ending)

digitalscream

Just heard from the neurologist - they've isolated the problem, and they know how to fix it. Basically, there's a fracture in her neck (undetectable on x-rays) and instability between the first and second vertebrae, which is putting pressure on the spinal nerves - the fix is astonishingly simple: a neck brace and pain relief for 6-8 weeks. They could operate, but they're trying to avoid invasive surgery given the amount of trauma she's already been through; that said, it's a last resort if she shows any deterioration.

She's staying in for a few days so they can make sure she's comfortable with the brace and monitor for fits, although she hasn't had any seizures since she's been there; she almost had a couple yesterday on the way there, but we spotted the early signs and calmed her down. On that basis he's putting it down to stress, since the MRI showed no abnormalities in the area of the brain which would cause it.

She's a lot brighter this morning, and he's "optimistic" for a full recovery. That's the first time anyone involved has used that word.

ChrisMusic said:

Bit of a roller coaster, but you have good people around, sounds like excellent service and outlook from the hospital.

Looks like it will all work out fine, if a little heavy on the pocket, but that will right itself in time.

Ruby will return the love never knowing what you guys went through, just look into her eyes and it will all melt away.

Yes, definitely a rollercoaster. It's been a nightmare week, but...well, y'know

TTony said:

Good to hear some good feedback on the vetting world ... As I said above, we'll soon have a proper qualified vet on the staff (though he's not allowed to work on our dogs for a good few years!)

£3k though ... You're going to need to up a few invoices

Too many people moan about vets, I think, because they're used to (apparently) paying nothing on the NHS, conveniently forgetting that everybody pays for the NHS for the whole of their working lives. Yes, there are some vets who really do take the piss (we have one in our town), but it's definitely unfair to tar them all with the same brush.

I've had a good look at what actually happens, and there's so much that even apparently-affluent vets have to contend with; the most annoying seems to be the lack of animal-specific drugs, meaning that they have to adapt human drugs to much smaller body mass and then throw away the rest of the dose. The wastage is incredible, and very costly. Even the Cambridge Uni Vet Hospital has to ask for donations for equipment.

holnrew

Glad there's a solution, gws little doggy.

digitalscream

EUREKA!!!!!

Had a couple of updates from the vet today - aside from the fact that everybody there's totally fallen in love with her, SHE'S WALKING!!!!!

She's apparently much brighter and being really happy with all the nurses and students who man the place, she's eating much better and she took her first unaided steps this morning.

Then, this afternoon, they took her outside to do her business and she actually started following people around. Not particularly quickly, mind, but she's making "astonishing progress" (their words) now that she's cheered up some.

Happyhappyhappyhappy

randomhandclaps

Great news and glad to hear it.

johnnyurq

Nice one dude made up for you and the wee scamp.

TTony

digitalscream said:

She's apparently much brighter and being really happy with all the nurses and students who man the place

Excellent news ... hopefully she'll be back home with you soon.  

The care that she'll get in the Uni vet hospital is probably higher than she'd get in a normal vet practice.  The students generally choose to be vets because they love animals and want to care for them (true), plus, being students, most of them will err on the side of over-care (because they're under constant supervision and evaluation on every rotation).

By the time they've made it into practice, it does become more of a job and a business (it has to, unfortunately).

digitalscream

Since she's getting her personality back and I'm (slightly) less worried about her recovery, meet the little pooch you've all been rooting for:

Happiest. Dog. Ever.

Even when some idiot puts a pointy hat on her.

ChrisMusic

   

digitalscream

And a video for y'all:

I know you guys must be getting sick of the updates, but I'm just so happy that she's regaining functionality Now we've just got to get her mojo back...

holnrew

Most excellent

bertie

great news  

digitalscream

holnrew said:

Most excellent

I should've mentioned - that video was taken at Cambridge University's Vet Hospital...they let us visit her for an hour or so. Honestly, the staff there are awesome, very helpful and really enthusiastic with the animals. Not only that, but we got a half hour lesson on spinal trauma from the duty neurologist and then he walked us through all the MRI scans to explain every last detail.

I really can't fault them. They've gone above and beyond with this one

digitalscream

SHE'S HOME!!!!!!!!!!

All the fears I had that she was going to be changed negatively by the experience were totally unfounded. This is exactly the same dog - they really have fixed her. She's still got the neck brace on (which she appears to hate), but she's completely regained all the strength and range of movement in her legs. She's doing her best to bounce around, and when she's outside she trots around the place exactly as she did before.

In fact, the only negative leftover is that her tongue is hanging out the right side of her mouth sometimes - the neurologist says that this is because the nerve which controls her tongue is very close to the area of her brain where there was a bleed due to the skull fracture, but even that might fix itself in time.

There's still a way to go before a full recovery; she has to wear the brace for at least 6 weeks and must be isolated from the other dogs in order to give her spinal cord and second vertebra a chance to heal, but it's looking great. The student vet in charge of her case said that she's the second miracle dog she's seen since she started. The other was a puppy born with an artery wrapped round his liver who was clinically dead for 15 minutes and was then resuscitated; Ruby's recovery thus far is apparently on a similar level to that, and privately none of them had much hope for her when she was brought in.

She even admitted that there were a few of them at the hospital who really wanted to take her home with them. I'm not surprised, she's a totally awesome dog

EDIT: I should say...there's a bit less of her now. She was somewhat rotund, which our normal vets have never been bothered about because she's so much more active than most dogs her size, but they've had her on a strict diet specific to her size at the hospital. She doesn't look particularly impressed with the idea, but she's significantly more svelte than she was a couple of weeks back.

ChrisMusic

Absolutely brilliant news   

randomhandclaps

Great stuff for the weekend. 

TTony

Good news Lee

johnnyurq

Nice one and here's hoping the recovery progresses well.

Parker

I'd do the same for either of my cats - they're family. Fingers crossed all goes well.

Adam_MD

It's always nice to read about someone who treats their pets the same as the rest of their family, because they are family. Really pleased for you and glad she's made a recovery.

We're the same with our two cats, anything they need that we can do we'll do.

holnrew

Great news.