Out with a crunch



With a bit of mild weather here, 2006 came to a close. But it wasn't without incident. Those of you who read my blog know that no good holiday goes un-punished.

It all started on Christmas day. The morning arrived without children at our home - so that is to say that it arrived without any expectation or excitement. That is until a few moments after we had let our dogs out. Penny went out to check on them when I heard a yelp. I looked out the window to see her running frantically towards the house and our middle Husky (Sam) crawling on the ground using only his two front legs.

As the basement door opened I heard her scream that she needed me outside now! I was already running down the stairs. As you might recall Sam is a rescue. Improperly bred he has no sockets in either of his back hips. One hip was surgically replaced when he was just under a year. Had he dislocated his legs? Or worse, broke his back?

I lifted him as carefully as possible and we rushed him the 40 miles to the local emergency vet. Despite the obvious great amount of pain he was in, he never became tempermental. The only sounds he made were the occasional whimper and bark he always lets out when on the way to the vet. They informed us they would have to keep him overnight. They showed us some x-rays and said that he had a compression in his spine. They wouldn't know the extent of the problem until they got him to a neurosurgeon for a consult and that couldn't happen until at least the 26th.

The next morning we went and picked him up and took him another 40 miles to the neurosurgeon. Same story.

On the 27th they informed us that they were going to operate.

The operation went well - he had a ruptured disk. The surgery ran just over $5k - thank God they take Amex and thank God Amex will let us pay this bill over time!

Now, he is in eight weeks of recovery. Four times a day he can come out of his crate for 10 minutes. No stairs, no other dogs and no play time. He is very very unhappy - but he is recovering.

Posted: Wed - January 3, 2007 at 06:27 AM   If this blog entry was of use to you, why not show your appreciation by donating to support the site? Just click on the MAKE A DONATION button on the right hand side of the page! It's all handled by PAYPAL.
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