Quote:
Originally Posted by woob
Sorry to hear about your pup, Shane. Almost sounds like she had a stroke or something. How is she doing today?
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Unfortunately things took a very quick turn for the worse and we had to have her put down. Not long after we took her to the vet she began to lose all control of her back legs and tail. Everything was cancelled on Wednesday because of a major snowstorm (my area had 76 cm) so we called the vet on Thursday morning. He made a house visit to check on her and did a deep tissue pain sensation test. She could not feel anything and given the seriousness of spinal injuries he suggested that we get her to the Atlantic Vet College (AVC) in PEI immediately. So we loaded her in the car and made the 4 hr drive.
Given how quickly she went from having some sensation to absolutely nothing the AVC did not believe it was a compressed vertebrae. Based on previous cases they’ve seen like this they were inclined to believe that it was either a tumor in her spine which was now pushing on her spinal cord or a disease in her spine. If it was cancer they could do surgery to remove it but since they can’t take as much of the surrounding area they’d like it would likely return in 2-3 months. During this time she would be in the same condition and unable to move her back legs. If it was a spinal disease they could do surgery but said that we’d have to wait 8 weeks to determine if she’d regained any deep pain sensation (less than 30% chance), let alone ever walk again. We made the decision to have her euthanized rather than subjecting her to any further testing since no matter the diagnosis the chance of her making a recovery were slim to none.
We have been absolutely devastated. She was so athletic and fit. She had a heart of gold. She used to follow me around everywhere and I feel incredibly alone without her. Our other Husky realizes that she’s not around and several times now has gone to the place where she used to sleep and just stand there and stare at the empty space for a few seconds before moving on. It breaks my heart.